Having tons of leads in your pipeline does not mean that your business is successful. Only when these leads become customers can you truly say that your customer acquisition strategy is effective. If you want to see more of your leads converting, you need to reexamine your business perspective as well as your strategy and training. That is not easy, of course, because you have to overcome several pitfalls in order to do that.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why your leads are not converting to sales and how you can turn them around to your advantage.
Disconnect between your marketing and sales teams
One of the most common reasons why a lead does not convert is that the marketing team does not properly qualify the leads before handing them over to the sales team. If this happens, chances are your sales and marketing team have different definitions of what a sales-qualified lead is. There’s no defined standard on how they should score their leads.
In order to fix this, you need to create a lead scoring model where your sales team can recognize and articulately inform marketing which leads are ready for them. After that, you should create a system with checks and balances which helps both teams understand the qualities they use to identify qualified leads. If the leads do not convert, there is an error with your lead scoring model or you are not following the check and balance system for qualifying the leads. Then, you need to adjust these definitions or you need to train your sales team further on proper forecasting and overcoming objections.
Not enough value
The business landscape is becoming more and more competitive; thus, you need to consistently refine the value you offer so it remains relevant to the perspective of your customers and prospects.
Arketi Group vice president Micky Long said that one of the biggest mistakes businesses commit is spending a lot of time on the words they will use in their content marketing materials (i.e emails, web pages, blogs, etc.) but forgetting their value proposition.
If your target market does not see the value of your product or service immediately, they will not convert no matter how amazing your email sounds or your website looks.
There are several ways how you can add more value to your product or service:
Personalize
Customers tend to gravitate towards a product if they feel a certain connection with the business or the key people of that company. However, executives need to remember that being personal does not mean that you will talk to them like your family or friend. Rather, it is about positioning yourself as a thought leader in your niche or industry.
Simplify
It refers to how your customers and prospects interact with your company — from the moment they become aware of your brand to the time they buy your product or service.
People want something that will make their life easier. If your process is complicated at the beginning, they will shy away from it. On the other hand, you present more value when you simplify it even more.
Customer Service
Whether you like it or not, your product or service is not that unique. Your competitors might offer better features or lower prices. So how do you win prospects to buy your product instead of the competition?
The answer — an exceptional customer service experience! It becomes even more valuable if the product or service you are offering is on the technical side.
Not enough training
No matter how you sync your offers and messages across different channels and platforms but your sales staff does not have sufficient training about your product/service, they are nothing.
Imagine entering a physical store and inquiring about an item you saw on their website. When you asked a sales clerk, however, he has no idea what you’re talking about.
That’s frustrating, right?
So what will you do? You walk away with your excitement all but gone. Thus, if you want to have a better chance of converting prospects, all the members of your team should be properly trained and informed, so that they can always provide a seamless experience to customers and prospects.
The same product knowledge should also be found in your customer service reps and other team members who will interact with your customers. There is nothing worse for customers than to encounter someone who doesn’t know how to answer their questions regarding your product or service.
The Bottom Line
Even though most marketing and advertising efforts are happening online, you still need all sides of your business covered. Also add the suggestions we gave in this article and notice significant changes in your lead generation efforts.
