Nurturing leads is one of the most overlooked steps in sales, but some salespeople miss valuable opportunities for customer conversion. Here are five tips to turn leads into sales prospects.
Leads are great, but conversions – getting customers to buy – is how a company makes money. On average, it takes 18 calls for businesses to generate just one warm lead. If you then fail to follow up appropriately, all the lead acquisition efforts in the world won’t make a difference.
Many salespeople make the mistake of thinking warm leads don’t need the same level of attention or nurturing that others do. They thus skip certain funnel steps and miss valuable customer conversion opportunities. The truth is the opposite: Warm leads still need nurturing to become paying customers.
Understanding the term ‘warm lead’
A “warm lead” is a prospect who already has an interest in your product or service and is engaging with your business in some way. This can look like many things, but here are some examples:
- Checking out your website
- Filling out a customer inquiry form online
- Following you on social media
- Reading customer testimonials or online reviews
- Reading your blog
- Signing up for your newsletter
Warm leads are interacting with your company, but they need to know more before they’ll convert to paying customers. Specifically, they likely need to know which problems you can solve for them. The best way to learn about warm leads’ needs and communicate how you can help is to nurture them.
The difference between warm and hot leads
Warm leads are further along in the sales cycle than cold ones, but hot leads are even closer to completing it. Hot leads are also sometimes referred to as “qualified leads,” and they already know what they’re looking for.
Many businesses use the “BANT” method to differentiate between warm and hot leads. The acronym stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline:
- Budget – How much is the potential customer willing to spend? Do they have flexibility when it comes to pricing?
- Authority – Who is the primary decision-maker? Can they agree to the transaction?
- Need – What is their need? What problems can your business solve for them?
- Timeline – How quickly is the potential customer looking to buy?
Once your salespeople differentiate between a warm lead and a qualified lead, they’ll can then identify which leads need more nurturing to turn from warm to hot prospects. Keep reading for tips on how to turn warm leads into sales.
Have and use your CRM system
Your website is generally the first interaction that most customers will have with you. Capturing data via your website using customer relationship management (CRM) software is vital. Many businesses have a CRM, but don’t fully utilize it to its full potential. This is a mistake.
Being able to analyze which pages leads visit and the content they download can provide valuable insight for your sales team about your potential customers’ needs. This is essential because it allows your team to develop sales strategies that speak to those interests and wants. Your CRM can also track communication and help you figure out which steps are effective.
Use referrals or affiliates
Word of mouth has always been powerful. You could even say it was the original form of social influencing! We trust what our friends are buying and ask them for recommendations when we’re in the market for new products or services. The customers you already have are likely to know others in their peer groups with the same problems or issues and also seeking solutions.
Consider creating a referral or affiliate program through which you can offer existing customers an incentive for sending you leads. The incentive can be a discounted product or service, or it may be financial compensation once the referral completes the sales cycle.
Provide a freebie
Your warm leads are already interested in your business, so why not engage them further by providing a sample? Doing so gives them added value for free and lets them see the quality of your product or service. It can also help them buy into your brand and continue building a relationship with it.
Create a follow-up schedule
A cohesive approach to communications will keep leads in the sales funnel and help them complete the sales cycle. A good sales operations system will include a consistent follow-up schedule with scripts that address the common objections that your sales team may encounter.
Personalized emails are ideal because large percentages of automated sales emails are left unopened.
Other creative options include creating and sharing free content that addresses part of a problem. This will provide value while drawing attention to how helpful your product or service would be.
Use marketing collaterals
It’s important to help leads understand everything your business can do for them, but it’s unlikely they’ll remember all the details. You want to make the process of completing the sales cycle as convenient as possible. Having marketing collaterals and digital assets that your sales team can send to leads for reference can be a huge help, as prospects can then use these materials to gain clarity on any questions they have about your product or service.
Get help training your team to turn warm leads into sales
A highly trained, conversion-oriented sales team is the backbone of any company selling products or services. At MetaGrowth Ventures, we deliver massive growth with minimal investment, so you can ditch the daily grind of “founder selling.” Our experts help you hire and train to get a top-tier sales team in place, leaving you free to worry about bigger-picture business items.
If you want to build your very own world-class sales team without investing a ton of time — not to mention headaches or hassles — contact us today. The MetaGrowth team can’t wait to get started helping you build a dream team to boost your sales!
Written by
Joe Arioto