WANT TO CONVERT MORE LEADS, AND CLOSE MORE SALES?

IT IS MOSTLY A MATTER OF TIMING

Research shows that the early bird gets the worm.
Here are seven suggestions to increase your conversion rate

VISITOR –> LEAD –>  PROSPECT –> CUSTOMER

1 – Respond promptly to any inquiries on your website and emails.  Typically within five minutes.

There is nothing more impressive than getting a prompt response to an inquiry.  It shows responsiveness and it builds trust right from the get go. Here is an example; Most large Real Estate companies, like CENTURY 21®, have a system in place that when an on-line inquiry is received on a specific property, or in general, that inquiry is directed to the agent on duty.  That agent on duty has 5 minutes to respond to that inquiry.  If a response does not occur within 5 minutes,  the request is forwarded to the alternate agent on duty and so on until the request is responded to. CENTURY 21 considers this extremely important and so should your business.  Assign someone to monitor inquiries or check them on your phone.  By the way, if you have a social media presence such as Facebook™, monitor those for inquiries as well.  Keep the channel open during business hours.

2 – Setup an autoresponder on all your website forms and emails with merge fields.

An autoresponder is a mechanism that immediately responds to a prospect acknowledging the delivery of the request.  This autoresponder response message typically has merge fields that automatically inserts the prospect’s name and other pertinent information on the response.  Taking the CENTURY 21 example above, this auto response message may look something like this:

“Dear John Doe, 

Thank you for contacting CENTURY 21 ABC Company.

Your request on listing MLS# 334567 has been received and an agent will respond promptly.

Sincerely,CENTURY 21 ABC Company
800-555-5555
www.C21ABCCompany.com“

This also applies to social media channel requests.  Facebook has the capability to auto respond to messages as well.

3 – If the lead is from a business, do research on that business prior to replying.

Equally impressive as response time to a prospect is awareness on your behalf of the nature of the prospect’s business.  Having an idea of the prospects profile before you establish initial contact goes a long way in establishing rapport.  At least you should know the location of the business and the nature of their business.  Do conduct Google® searches on the business.   Having knowledge of the prospect will give you the confidence to better establish a connection.  In large companies, there are two departments that interact with a prospect.  The marketing department that receives the request and performs the prospect’s profile, and the sales department who receives the request along with the profile from the marketing department for appropriate action.

4 – If you are to submit an estimate, let them know when they can expect to receive it.

Again, it is a matter of timing.  Giving the prospect an expectation of when they are to receive the information they have requested is essential.  This puts you in control of the negotiation.  You are in the driver’s seat.

5 – Do send a follow up message with the expected time to receive the estimate.

In addition to step 4, do send a confirmation via email (or messaging) confirming the nature of the request, the conversation and the expected delivery time of the information requested. Again, this establishes further expectations and trust.  You are in control of the timeline.

6 – Send the estimate on time and let them know when to expect a follow up.

Send the information the prospect has requested on or before the expected time and this will create further rapport and confidence.  Ask them to contact you with any questions or comments and let them know that you will follow up with them at some later time giving them enough time to absorb the information you have sent.  Do so in a timely basis.

7 – Do add the prospect to a prospect database and stay in touch with them weekly.

Add the prospect to a prospect SPAM compliant email database and send them special offers, surveys, notices and newsletters.  You should have at least two email databases.  A prospect database and a customer database, each to receive appropriate messages.  A prospect may not convert immediately but staying in front of them will increase your chances of converting them at a later time.  Furthermore, by staying in touch with your customers, you will likely be able to upsell them something later.

IN CLOSING

I often become very frustrated when I do not receive information that I have requested on a timely basis and more than likely will not do business with them.  I will however, do business with someone that does respond promptly even if they are more expensive than others, WHY?  The reason why is called PERCEPTION OF VALUE.  After all, it is not just the price but the level of service that I  perceive I will receive during the delivery of the product or service and the level of support afterwards,  period.  You will not believe how many providers do not place emphasis on this stage of the sales cycle.  Consider this. I often encounter a form that says “Please submit the form below, we will respond within one to two business days”… Really?  No, I will not submit the form, I will contact someone else.

Another communications vehicle that we use all the time in on-line chat.  I find it gratifying that I can get the information that I want now! and I do 90% of the time.  My time is money… along with prompt access to information, time is my greatest asset.  The on-line chat solution will be discussed in a forthcoming separate article.

Cape Fear Technologies is not just a website development firm.  We are a Complete Internet Marketing firm.  We bring complete marketing solutions to make you succeed.  We have done it from single proprietorships using out of the box solutions already on your computer, such as Microsoft Outlook™  to enterprise wide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce®.  Does not matter the size of your business, we can provide a solution for your on-line marketing needs.

If you would like a free consultation for your on-line marketing needs please call us at  910-477-6099 or submit the following form.  You will receive a prompt response 🙂