Tons of companies focus on and spend heavily on lead generation. 74% of those companies spend more than $50 per lead generated and 5% spend more than $1000. According to Salesforce, it takes 6 to 8 plus touches in order to generate a viable sales lead, 84 days to convert that lead into an opportunity, and 18 days to convert that opportunity into a deal. This process is exactly why it is so disheartening when a lead sleeps out of your hands.
With the resources, energy, and time you have invested in lead fostering and relationship building, you should definitely never give up on the lost leads. The key to successful selling is optimism, so kick it up a notch when going after lost leads. It is easy to get discouraged but with these five highly effective techniques and tips, you can win back the lost leads and get them back into your sales funnel.
- Analyze and Resolve the Reasons of Losing Leads
Root-cause analysis and asking yourself the right questions are the first steps to determine why you lost the leads. Here are a few questions to ask yourself below:
- Why type of lead did you lose? Was the lead hot or cold?
If it was a hot lead, there are still chances of striking before it cools off. A simple follow-up call to the lost lead could reveal what made them lose interest in the first place. Once you find out why they became uninterested, you can take further corrective action or at least gain the knowledge for future leads. When it comes to the cold leads, you shouldn’t stop pursuing them either. You first need to establish if the deal is cancelled entirely with zero potential for further discussion.
- Did the merchant push their decision to a further date? Did you failed to follow-up?
It happens – we all forget to follow-up sometimes. There is nothing wrong at all with giving a quick apology to the customer. Leave the ego or hesitation aside and make that follow-up call ASAP.
- Did the merchant get a better deal from your competitor? Or, did you offer the wrong product-solution with respect to the merchant and their business needs?
In the former, you can offer a better deal than the competitor and increase the chance of conversion. However, speaking on the latter, if the lead has gone astray because your solution did not have the right features for their business or because the customer could not afford it, then those are genuine reasons. If you have other products or cheaper solutions, definitely offer. If there is absolutely nothing you can do after that point, at least take their reasoning as useful feedback so as to improve upon your product features or pricing.
- Is your response time slow?
Response time with leads can make it or break it on sales. A research study showed that the odds of the lead entering the sales process are 21 times greater when contacted within five minutes versus 30 minutes after the lead was submitted. With the world being a much busier place today, customers expect a quick turnaround time, and every minute delayed is a lost opportunity to convert that lead. A simple and concise follow-up message such as “Thank you for contacting us, we will get back to you within 24-48 hours” can give a great first impression about your responsiveness.
- Did the merchant fail to understand your product?
This could happen when either the merchant did not get all of the information on the point-of-sale product from your website, brochures, and emails or there was something missing in the product demo during your sales pitch. To prevent this from happening again, ensure that all your product information sources are comprehensive and up-to-date. Make sure you have your sales pitch down and that it is informative enough to the customer.
- Give Your Leads a Limited-time Offer or a Promotional Offer
Limited-time offers are psychological triggers that create a sense of urgency among your prospective clients. A simple discount code with a validity period, or a message such as “only 24 hours left to get this product at a discount rate” force the leads to make a quick decision, typically in your favor, because they don’t want to miss the deal.
- Amp Up Your Marketing Efforts
Today, customers are present on multiple touch points – emails, social media, mobile, laptop, desktop, and many more. It would be a smart marketing strategy to focus on as many channels and devices as you can. In order to makes sure that your message reaches every lead at all stages of the buying cycle, you have to create a multi-channel and multi-device strategy. Make sure your marketing strategy is able to generate highly targeted leads through email marketing campaigns, Facebook advertising, link building, social selling, tradeshows, etc.
A great way to ramp up your marketing efforts is through a drip campaign. A drip campaign is a focused lead nurturing program aimed at both new leads as well as making old leads re-enter the sales pipeline. It is usually executed through email marketing where pre-written and auto-generated messages are “dripped” (sent) repeatedly to your leads over a period of time. Drip campaigns create high visibility and familiarity with you and what you offer through exposure, which nurtures their trust.
- Change Contact Timing and Mode
No matter who you are, everyone hates when they get a call or email at an inconvenient time by someone who is just trying to sell you something. This may be something your customers are experiencing with your sales strategy – if you’re calling or emailing on a Friday, in the evening, or around holidays, you may be contacting them around the wrong time. Try switching up connecting with your lost leads at different times.
It may also come down to how they prefer being contacted. You may have some leads that prefer phone calls, some that prefer LinkedIn or Facebook messaging, some that prefer texting, and some that prefer only emailing. It is important to find out this information when you’re first getting in touch with leads. Write the details down and try your best to create a unique contacting strategy for each one. Beyond that, try switching between various modes of contacts such as emails, phone calls, text messages, voice mails or social media platforms (without irritating them.) Between changing the times of contact and the mode of contact, there may be a few leads that coming bounding back into the sales funnel.
- Invest In Digital Signature Technology
Getting signatures to finalize a contract can be one of the most difficult challenges for a reseller. Even if the merchant has approved the contract, there can be a long wait time between when they say “yes” and when they actually sign the paperwork. Especially because signing physical paperwork requires mailing, scanning, or faxing the completed documentation back to the reseller. This is where digital signage comes in.
Digital signature technology allows the merchant to sign the documents online. This can help:
- Reduce turnaround times
- Ensure that no signature is left out
- Increase overall sales productivity
- Better communication between the reseller and merchant
A lot of times the lead is not lost but rather needs to be re-engaged back into the sales cycle. All you have to do is make it a conscious effort to bring them back. Following these 5 tips and techniques above will help bring enthusiasm and interest in your leads and could lead to your next new customers.