Before blindly throwing more money into marketing to increase leads, ask yourself if your business is even capturing every lead that’s coming through the door. If you offer a service or experience rather than a product, then your business is in the world of lead generation. Businesses that deal with leads and enquiries rather than product sales have a harder time in many aspects. There’s a good chance you are dealing with fellow businesses rather than one-off customers. And the likelihood is that deals take longer to complete. In the lead gen world, decisions have to go through different levels, and the service in question is often expensive and complex.
As a result, it’s vital that you capture every lead that comes your way. Below are three hacks that you can use to send your conversion rate soaring.
Outsource Call Handling to a Professional Answering Service
Every missed call is a lost lead, and a lost lead is potentially a lost client/customer. The first step in solving your lead issue is to make sure every phone call is answered. But that’s easier said than done. You’re probably busy working on other aspects of the business, and even if you hire a receptionist, you still have the issue of holidays, sick days and out-of-hours calls.
This is where a virtual receptionist service is worth its weight in gold. Leading companies like Posh and Pocket Receptionist provide your business with a team of trained receptionists, meaning someone will be available to speak to your leads regardless of what time they call. And we’re not talking about an automated robot that leaves leads frustrated; we’re talking about trained humans who can schedule appointments, record details and even provide quotes.
Respond to New Leads Within 5 Minutes
When a potential new customer calls your business, there’s a good chance that they’re also enquiring with your competitors. While you might think that most business is won on cost, you might be surprised at how often the first responder closes the deal in the lead gen space.
Set yourself the target of responding to new leads within 5 minutes. This gives you a strong chance of being the first company to get back to the lead and also eliminates the chance of them phoning around more of your competitors. After all, the more competitors they contact, the more competition you have to close the deal!
Automate Follow-Up Instead of Chasing Manually
Responding straight away isn’t always possible. We’ve already mentioned sick days, holidays and out-of-hours calls. But fortunately, you can bring in the help of technology to make sure that emails or SMS enquiries are responded to automatically. There are various CRMs available today, all of which will be able to get back to customers on your behalf to keep the conversation going before you take over.
You can even programme your CMS to get back to leads you’ve not heard from in a while or open conversations with previous customers after a certain amount of time. Getting in contact with special offers is a great way to reignite the conversation in a way that seems natural and not salesy.
Final Thoughts
Being a lead-based business can often feel like an uphill slog, but if you’re able to outsource your call handling with a virtual receptionist service, consistently respond to new leads quickly, and automate your follow-ups, you’ll save time and improve the quality of the customer experience.
