Nov 6, 2012
3 Key Elements
Generating leads online for your business can be a very difficult and expensive process, unless you know what your doing. The same applies to actually converting those leads into sales. There are a few key elements to making sure your lead-to-sale conversion rate is good and supporting your business model the way it should be. Here are 3 things to consider in making sure that you are converting your leads at a rate that will help your business reach its potential.
1. Clearly Defined Sales Process
Having a clearly defined process to convert leads into sales does many things for you and your sales people. It allows you to systematically improve your conversion rate by allowing you to quantify and measure opportunities paired with individual sales agents. It allows you to isolate issues or hang-ups in the process. It helps you identify common objections and adjust the sales approach to address those things before they become objections. In short, the better you define the process, the easier it will be to know what you can expect from it.
2. The Right People in the Right Place
If you’re a small or even medium sized business, chances are that your sales process is still evolving, and your sales people may even be wearing many hats. Having the right person handling incoming leads that is focused on the sales process often means the difference between average and exceptional company growth and performance. Consider the specific strengths and weaknesses of your sales team and ask yourself, “Is that person doing what he or she is best at?” The sales people who will convert your leads at the highest rate will be the people that you get a resounding “Yes” to that question.
3. Quality of Leads
A good sales department is a lot like an engine. You should be able to put gas into the tank and know within a relatively narrow margin of error what kind of miles per gallon you can expect, but putting the right kind of gas into the engine is essential. You can have the best internal sales engine in the world, but unless you are generating the right kind of lead as fuel for your sales force, the engine will never run as well as it could. Doing quality market research before you set up an online marketing campaign, determine not only what keywords and phrases hold the most traffic potential, but also which search results are actually more likely to convert.
Brilliant.