Lead conversion involves data, a clear understanding of your audience, and the ability to take the right action at the right time. Converting cold leads (prospects that have shown little to no interest in your brand) to hot ones (ready to buy) is an essential part of the process. This is easier said than done but converting them is not impossible. In this article, we are looking at how to handle cold to hot lead conversion and have gathered up 7 of the best ways to do it.
Lead conversion can be handled in different ways (depending on your needs), but essentially it is a process that sees you:
According to Verse, 41% of companies find it challenging to quickly follow up on their leads, and 44% of sales reps are also too busy to follow up.
Lead conversion has to be smart, structured, and appropriate to make the most of your resources – no matter how hot your leads are, if you are not following them up on time, they are going to go cold.
If you simplify your leads, there are essentially three categories which they will fall into:
Hot leads – these are the ones that are most likely to convert and lead to immediate purchases or sales.
Warm leads – These individuals are not sure about what you are offering. They may have expressed an interest and could be receptive to outreach, but mishandling these leads will turn them cold.
Cold leads – These are people who either know about what you are offering, and either have no interest in purchasing, or they are unfamiliar with the products/services you provide and have had no interaction with your brand.
In order to determine what ‘temperature’ your leads are, you need to utilise metrics and analysis.
Your lead conversion strategy should be carefully considered and developed. Seven of the best ways to optimise your strategy are to:
Your reputation and position in the marketplace is important. You need to have a level of authority and position yourself as the best solution for your niche.
Semrush found that 90% of people are more likely to trust a recommended brand, even if the recommendation came from a stranger.
To build authority, you need to be:
Marketing, sales, and advertising should all be focused toward your customer but do you know for certain who you are reaching, and are you making the most of all your opportunities?
Researching your audience allows you to:
Once you know what your audience wants, you can tailor your contact with them to address this and increase your chances of heating up the lead.
Once you have sorted your leads into target groups, you can create campaigns and sales strategies which are appropriate for their specific needs. This allows you to make use of a variety of options, such as geolocation, targeted advertising, and personalised marketing.
When assigning groups to your team, you can ensure those with the right skills for the particular demographic or metric are chosen, further improving your ability to turn your leads into sales.
Your customers are people – and although you want to optimise your campaigns and activities for indexing and search engines, you need to keep in mind that it is still people that are going to engage with your content.
Harvard Business Review found that customers who have an emotional connection to an organisation are 52% more valuable than those who are simply ‘highly satisfied’.
When people are emotionally connected, they are more likely to want to engage, and will be more open to lead conversion.
Whether you are offering a product or service, or information that leads consumers into your sales funnel – it needs to be consistently high-quality, and valuable to the customer.
Fluff and filler may seen to be useful for padding out webpages, but if customers have to wade through a lot of unnecessary details to find what they need, they are far more likely to simply click away and look elsewhere – which then makes your lead go cold.
Your strategy must be consistent – if you are promising regular contact or content, you must see it through. Customers do not want their time wasted – but if you build a reputation for being reliable and engaged, not only will this help your existing leads, but it can position you for increased customer recommendations and increased hot-leads as a result.
Make it easy for your customers to get what they need, whether that is signing up for an email, sending a customer service enquiry, or checking up on a query. There are often legal obligations towards privacy and the ability to opt out of communications – so you must ensure these are met.
By simplifying your contact with customers, they can do their research, and if they are interested in your business, they can naturally progress through the sales funnel.
Lead conversion relies on accurate data, reliable structures, and a consistent approach – all of which can be easily developed with the right technology. AI for business automation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and related tools are ideal for removing the repetitive daily tasks your team are weighted down with and ensuring that communications and actions are always on time.
Analytical tools and apps to categorise your data will also allow you to effectively determine what is working, how many leads are converting, and which demographics should be targeted to increase your sales.
TEB Apps brings the products and applications you need to make your lead management and conversion process fully automated, highly reliable, and extremely efficient.
When you work with TEB for your leads, you can be sure of:
Request a call today, and find out how TEB apps can turn your leads hot, and grow your business without wasting your budget.
