4 Tips to Cultivate Leads and Get Results

Here at Helix House, we leverage every avenue we have available to get as many eyes, potential closes, and interested parties to interact with our client's businesses. Whether it's serving paid ads to the correct audiences, getting form submissions on websites, or any of the other lead-generating funnels we have, the sales process doesn't end there. We can only take leads so far. Once they have gone on to your business you need to be ready and willing to nurture and cultivate the leads who are on the fence and convert them into sales. This time on the Helix House blog, we're going to drop some knowledge into that conversion headspace with 4 tips for better lead management. First, let's get our heads right. Growing a business with marketing is a two-front approach. The first, is putting your marketing dollars hard at work generating more leads to your business. The second is your business working to create a great sales team to nurture those leads and convert them to sales. Recognize the power you and your team have when it comes to getting the sale. When both sides are firing on all cylinders, the holes in the sales funnel are filled, making for more conversions, more revenue, and a growing business.

Define the Lead

When we take on new clients, one of the things we work together to determine is what a lead is, and what a lead isn't. A lead isn't a closed appointment or sale. A lead is an individual who has expressed some degree of interest in your products or services. Define what a lead is and make sure everyone involved knows this. If a lead is any form of submission received via the website, make sure every member of your sales team treats them as such. So long as every lead is recognized and treated correctly, your conversions are going to rise. Once the leads have hit your sales team the marketing process is finished and the sales process is just beginning! Unfortunately for many businesses out there, this is where a huge number of leads are lost!

Nurture the Lead

Most businesses lose around 50% of their leads. Some numbers point as high as 90%! This isn't malicious or anyone's fault, the main problem is that they just don't have the process or system in place to nurture leads from an opportunity to a close. They make a follow-up call, maybe leave a note to themselves about when to call again, and just leave it at that. The next step is to hope the leads call back all on their own. That's why Mike works with clients to help create a solid system to nurture leads and convert them from the point of opportunity to close. Rarely does every lead want to buy on their first interaction with a business, that's just a fact.Let's paint a picture. Let's say Helix House is generating leads for a business - 100 per month for easy math. Of those 100 leads, 5 are ready to buy now, nice!  Now, what happens to the other 95 who aren't quite ready? Surely you don't end the call and forget about them hoping they come back later? No! You get some information, set a follow-up call, or put them in a register of follow ups. This way you can secure another 5 sales your next call through, then another 5. Maybe you only close 25 of the total 100, but that's already 5x(!) the volume of sales you'd have had if you just helped the clear sales.

Source the Source

Identify the source for every lead you receive. Was it paid search ads? A referral? Keeping track of what is pointing leads your direction the most frequently is a surefire way to better hone your efforts. This can also help you group like audiences together. To web leads respond better to emails than calls? Should you follow up an inbound call immediately (yes!) and then two days later? When you know the source, you can know more about the potential lead.

Serve the Lead Like They're Already a Customer

Every lead is a prospective customer so why not begin that relationship now? Engaging with the leads, answering any questions, offering extra help, going the extra mile like you would with any regular customer will build a relationship that is primed to stick around. Treat them like they're already your best customer and soon enough they will be - who else would they want to do business with!This is far from an end-all, be-all list - but should be enough to get you started. Don't leave your leads up to luck, take control of the sales process and control the outcome! When these change are implemented when the lead volume is (comparatively) lower it becomes much easier to scale your results without any unnecessary challenges.