How to convert more leads into sales

One of the biggest sales and marketing problems businesses can face is getting people who seem interested in buying something to actually take the plunge and hand over their money so you convert more leads into sales.

Obviously having the right price point is increasingly important in almost all markets, but there are other factors too.

Having prospects who don’t convert can be the most frustrating thing in the world.

Because let’s be honest, it’s actually pretty easy to attract attention to your business and meet prospective customers these days.

The internet has made it simple to give your business a marketing presence that is always up-to-date (your website) and drive people to it (online advertising or search engine optimisation).

The key then to a successful business is not just one which attracts prospects, but one which has fail-safe systems to convert them into revenue.

This has become tougher from 2010. One of the reasons the UK has entered a downturn is because the media talked for so long about the bad times that were on the way, that businesses and consumers held off making purchasing decisions.

In a way it became a vicious circle – the inaction of people worried about the downturn helped to feed it.

The good news is there are a number of things that you can do to improve prospect conversion rates for your business.

Track and measure

First you need to know how your business currently performs. Set up simple systems to monitor the number of leads your business gets and where they have come from, then compare these figures to your sales figures.

You are looking for the long-term conversion trends – for example you might find a third of leads from your website turn into business, whereas more than half of visitors to your premises make a purchase. Differences such as that can give you an insight into why different marketing methods produce different conversion rates.

Identify target audience and focus on it

You need to know who your most likely buyers are. Don’t just say “everyone” – even if anyone can buy what you sell, your business will perform better if you focus on a specific target audience.

Marketing to an irrelevant audience has the effect of weakening your conversion rate. That’s because these people are attracted to you but rarely buy. You have wasted time and resources on them. Find out who really buys, then tighten your marketing efforts to fully focus on them.

Don’t over promise

Review your marketing materials to see if they promise things your business cannot really deliver. Low conversion rates can be an indication that prospects are being attracted by marketing materials, but when they chat to your sales team just don’t believe the business can live up to its promises.

Make sure sales staff know how to present

Another possibility is that your sales team aren’t presenting the business properly. Do they really understand the benefits of the business and how to communicate them to buyers? Are they making it easy for potential customers to say yes?

Sometimes it can be beneficial to get an outsider to act as a mystery customer and try to buy from your business. Are there too many hoops to jump through or barriers to have to break down? Over time your sales process can become complicated without you realising it.

Ask for the business

Finally, ensure that you are actually asking the potential customer to buy from you. So many businesses forget to do this!

Ask questions about their needs, work out how you can fulfil these needs, then ask if they want to buy. If it’s a “no” right now, put in place a system to keep asking until they say yes. Don’t be ashamed to do this; often there is money on the table and all you have to do is ask for it.

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