How to convert leads into clients and sales?

Are you giving up too easily? These sales statistics will blow your mind and help you convert leads into sales.

• Did you know that “80% of sales require five follow-ups?”

…But, 50% of people give up after the first try.

• When you give up, you don’t just lose that potential sale. You also lose the money, time, and effort you put forward to create awareness and get a prospect to contact you.

• According to a study by Econsultancy, for every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting prospects into customers.

• Consider for a moment, 65% of companies say generating traffic and leads is their “top challenge,” yet they spend very little resources turning the traffic and leads that they do get into customers.

• Could you imagine the success, results & revenue you could have if you follow-up more and spent more time and resources nurturing the leads you do get?

How to convert leads into clients and sales?

Follow up right away

When a lead comes in, follow up right away, the longer you take to respond the less likely you are to get the sale. According to research by insidesales.com, “35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.”

How long it takes companies to respond to a lead?

A Harvard Business Review study also found that it took companies 42 hours on average before they first respond to a web-generated lead. That’s crazy.

What is the ideal timeframe for responding to a lead?

According to Inside Sales, “the odds of making a successful contact with a lead are 100 times greater when a contact attempt occurs within 5 minutes, compared to 30 minutes after the lead was submitted. Similarly, the odds of the lead entering the sales process, or becoming qualified, are 21 times greater when contacted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes after the lead was submitted.” Be quick to respond.

Be helpful and make it easy

Talk to your prospects and find out what’s getting in the way of them moving forward.  For example, I had a prospect who wanted a new website but did not have access to his domain because his previous web designer had disappeared. He thought it might be very challenging and time-consuming trying to get access to the domain. A deterrent to moving forward with the new website design.

Take the time to be helpful

Being helpful goes a long way and shows your commitment.  I took the time to conduct the proper research, found the domain registration company and got on a conference call with my client and the company to get it sorted out.  It took me less than an hour and I had a signed contract and deposit within 30 minutes of getting off the call with my client and the domain company. How can you be helpful and make it easy for prospects to do business with you?

Let them know the next steps

Do you have a prospect that you are waiting to hear from? Why not send a simple email asking them if they had any more questions? In the same email give them an alternative option. Lay out potential next steps, this helps to make it easy for them. They might be overwhelmed and want to buy but just need help to make the sale simple.

You have to ask for the sale

If they don’t have any additional questions, then provide them with the steps to move forward with you. This is a great way of restarting the conversation that has gone silent, getting a definitive NO or getting a signed contract. Don’t hesitate to do a trial close. Ask “when can we ship?” or “when would you like to have the project completed?” or “when could I expect to have a purchase order?” These simple steps will position your prospect to take action.

Don’t be deterred by a lack of response

I know what it’s like to follow up with a lead and get silence on the other end. It can be discouraging.  However, don’t be deterred, I have followed up in the past with prospects, and went days, weeks even months without a response only to hear back from them with a signed contract. Remember people are busy, but most importantly people buy when they are ready to buy.

What are some steps you take to convert leads into clients and sales? Tell us in the comment section below.

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