Getting new customer leads is exciting, but that enthusiasm can quickly wither when you don’t know how to best convert leads into new clients.
When this becomes the trend for your small business, you immediately ask, “why?” before seeking out solutions to combat your lack of sales from leads, you should be aware of some important sales conversion facts:
Online leads do not automatically translate into sales.
Per Marketo, only 25% of leads ready to buy from you.
1/4 of leads are qualified, meaning approximately 75% aren’t your ideal customer.
Now, don’t let these numbers frighten you. In addition to this, you must understand the psychology behind the lack of leads turning into sales.
The Real Reason Why People Won’t Buy from You
There are four primary reasons why small businesses fail to convert leads online. These sales barriers are as follows:
Trust: People don’t trust themselves, so how do you expect them to trust you immediately upon connecting with your business for the first time? Traffic to your website may not always translate into sales if your leads are reluctant to buy from you. The absence of trust can stem from a lack of proof showing you do what you claim, lack of contact information, a poorly designed website, or non-targeted content.
Authority: If you don’t establish yourself as the authority in your field, through quality content, you will find it quite hard to gain customers, because they may see you as untrustworthy.
Money: If your price doesn’t match the perceived value of your products or services, you are likely to miss out on sales.
Time: If the customers feel that the time is not right, they are likely not to purchase.
Turning Leads into Sales: 4 Key Strategies
There are four solutions for converting online leads, which when used together, can increase your sales conversion rates:
Social Proof
Content Marketing
Sales Qualification Process
Email Marketing Solutions
#1. Develop Trust with Social Proof (Testimonials and Reviews)
Building a reliable brand will ultimately make it easier for you to market your product or services.
One of the best and easiest ways to build trust is through social proof, specifically reviews, and testimonials from your current or previous clients. Social proof will not only confirm that you’re talking the talk, but that you’re walking the walk.
When someone encounters your brand for the first time through your website, you need to:
1) show that you’re an authority, and
2) provide social proof.
Let your current customers sing your praises by encouraging them to write a review or testimonial through email, on Yelp, Facebook, or any other relevant review site. For those “special” reviews, showcase them on your website. Do not worry about getting one or two negative reviews.
This might work to your advantage, in that, they persuade leads to believe that your reviews are reputable. If people see that others are buying your products and enjoying them, they can be persuaded to follow suit.
Invest your time in writing well-researched and helpful blog content and eBooks. If your leads find that you are knowledgeable in your industry and in the various products that you’re selling, then they will believe in your ability to provide quality products.
You can hire marketing agencies to write blog posts for you. Or, you can learn simple shortcuts and time saving templates to train you and/or your marketing assistant to turn your knowledge into written blog articles for your business website.
#3. Utilize a Sales Qualification Process
One of the most crucial strategies for converting leads into sales is to have a qualification process. Lead qualification is the evaluation of the ability of a lead to purchase from you.
The qualification process involves gathering the necessary information about your leads to move them through the sales process. There are three types of leads: Information Qualified Leads (IQL), Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). How each is determined varies from business to business. Once your qualification metrics are defined, only then will you be able to take appropriate action that will convert your leads into sales.
Using a sales qualification process prevents you from coming on too strong and putting off potential clients. It also helps your sales team save valuable time and instead focus it on customers who are ready to buy.
For those leads who have not been identified as “ready to buy” or an SQL, you can nurture them through your sales funnel using email marketing solutions.
#4. Leverage Email Nurturing Solutions
Email nurturing is one of the greatest tools that you can use to convert leads into sales.
It’s all about leveraging marketing automation to follow up and remain in contact with any leads that come through your sales funnel. If you follow up with leads within 5 minutes, you are 9 times more likely to get a sale.
Strategically sending your clients or customer regular emails will drill information about your business and your services or products into their minds. The more they hear from you, the more they are likely to buy. You want to send targeted emails, to targeted email lists, based on where they are in your sales funnel and how they interact with your emails.
These emails can be anything from newsletters to content offers. The purpose of this strategy is to guarantee the right lead is receiving the right email at the right time.
The Bottom Line
Today, even though most marketing efforts are online, customers still need to feel that personal touch. By incorporating these few lead conversion ideas into your business strategy will help to ensure that you not only have thousands of people stopping by your website, but you will have them laying down their money!
QUESTION: What is your favorite strategy that’s been working for you in your business when it comes to converting leads into sales? Share your comments and questions below.
Author Bio: ShaDrena Simon is a digital strategist and inbound marketer for Yokel Local Internet Marketing Inc. You can reach her at: shadrena@yokellocalmarketing.com
As a business owner it’s so important to always be seeking business growth advice from people who have already “been there- done that”.
I recently spent a week with the world’s top franchise owners at the International Franchising Association conference held in Las Vegas and wanted to share 2 value bombs with you for your business.
The agenda was jam packed with a massive amount of content and sage business growth advice featuring a panel of CEO’s from some of the world’s biggest franchise brands.
A common question the audience asked these superstar CEO’s in many of the sessions was if they could summarize one or two keys to success to help them grow their own businesses, what would it be?
The audience grew hush as they listened intently to hear the business growth advice from experts like …
Steve Hockett, the President of Great Clips (4,090 locations)
Gordon Logan, the CEO of Sports Clips (1,600 locations) and
Steve White, President of Puroclean (235 locations)
What’s interesting is how many CEO’s responded with the same answers. What’s surprising is how simple their advice was.
And yet, overflowing with pure wisdom. Here are two pieces of business growth advice that many of the top CEO’s shared in the Q&A sessions:
#1. Create SYSTEMS in your business.
I loved their answer because I too love systems! The word SYSTEMSstand for:
Save
Your
Self
Time
Energy
Money and
Sanity!
A system is great because you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every month to create the next windfall of sales and profits. You simply rinse and repeat the same process within your system.
In order for a system to be a SYSTEM it has to first work … (no brainer there, right?)
Second, your system has to be easily repeatable and scalable. In my past businesses this was the magic test that allowed me to remove myself from the businesses I owned then, so I could cut back to working only 10-15 hours a week which allowed me to spend more time with my kids when they were little. All while my business doubled in sales four years in a row.
I mention that not to be self promotional, but to impress upon you that the concept of working less while earning more is achievable. That’s what creating SYSTEMS can do for your business and for your life.
Ok, so when these top CEO’s were asked to summarize one or two tips here was the second business growth advice that was repeated over and over again:
#2. Hire a business consultant / business coach.
Wow! This was the second most repeated business growth advice I heard throughout the conference. (But, of course, my reticular activating system is pretty engaged for that too 🙂
These CEO’s went on to share openly about the importance of hiring a business consultant / business coachand the powerful impact that can make on growing your business faster, easier and stronger.
They couldn’t have said it any clearer when they shared, “If you want to succeed faster, hire a business consultant / business coach.”
As the business owner, you’re just too close to your business to be able to see the forest through the trees. You need an outside perspective to give you the guidance, strategy, course correction and coaching.
As an entrepreneur you also don’t have a boss you have to answer to — which is a double edged sword. It’s great and liberating to be your own boss, but it can also be dangerous because it’s easy to let yourself get distracted, dis-focused and take detours that happen with the “shiny object syndrome”.
So, if you’re ready to follow the business growth advice from CEO’s of some of the world’s biggest franchise brands I invite you to a complimentary business coaching discovery call with me.
On the call you get to share your goals — where you’d like your business to be in 1 year and in 3 years.
We can take a look at what systems you have developed so far (if any).
We’ll identify the biggest challenges that are getting in the way of achieving your goal and what the process would look like that will help you hit your sales and business growth goals.
You can also take advantage of the call to ask me any question you want that’s been nagging at you.
By the end of our call we will both know whether you and I are the right fit.
I only work with people I know I can help, so when you click the link above it will ask you to fill out a few questions about you and your business. Once you answer a few question you click the orange button that takes you straight to my calendar.
Pretty easy, right?
Ok, so if you have any questions or comments I invite you to share them in the comment box below:
QUESTION: What advice do you need right now to accelerate your business growth? (include what kind of business you have) Please share your comments and questions below.
If you’re planning to launch to new product, a brand new program or a new service offering in your business you need to have a written launch plan to follow.
But, how do you know you have the right actions plans or the best strategies in your launch plan?
Reality is … [bctt tweet=”#bizgrowth tip: you won’t know what you don’t know until you ask someone else who does know. ” username=”yooncannon”]
So, wouldn’t you like to know whether you’re on the right path in developing your launch plan?
That’s what we are going to dive into in today’s Q&A episode.
Last week I shared 4 tips in Part 1 to the question submitted by one of my listeners Stacy, who asked … “how do you know whether you have the right action plans to achieve your goals?“
I invited Stacy to share her launch action plan with me, so I could provide a laser coaching episode that would address discoveries I made on her specific launch plan.
And, as I suspected, what I found from reviewing Stacy’s launch plan is the same feedback would benefit many of you who are in the similar stage in your business launching a new program or service.
So, click the play button below and listen to
Part 2 – How to Create the Right Action Plans to Achieve Your Goals
Then, join the conversation.
QUESTION: What is the biggest lesson you learned when you launched a new program or service? Share your comments and questions below.
How do you know whether or not you created the right action plans that will help you achieve your business goals most effectively? That’s this week’s question submitted by Stacy from Atlanta, GA.
Reality is, if you’re pursuing a new goal that you’ve never achieved before, you just won’t know what you don’t know.
You could certainly move forward on pure intuition while trying to piece together bits of tips from various free content you’ve found. However, I don’t recommend doing that.
Trial and error always ends up being way more time consuming. And for most people, it usually leads to making costly mistakes. It’s an age old truth.
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
The risk of prolonged lack of progress and costly mistakes, for many people leads them to give up which means the death of their dreams.
I don’t want to see “death of a dream” happen to you. So, let’s dive right into this week’s episode to help you:
Create Right Action Plans to Achieve Your Business Goals
January is the best month of the year because it signifies a fresh start, a clean slate — an opportunity to to hit the reset button and have a do-over.
It’s a good time to give yourself permission to daydream and imagine the what if?
January is full of hope and optimism as you set new, exciting goals of what could be.
But, I don’t want to see you slip back into old patterns and find by the end of the month you’re stuck in the same rut, struggling with the same challenges you faced last year.
If you want to get unstuck and make 2017 a breakthrough year, here’s four things you should do to prepare.
1. Define what would make 2017 an epic year for you.
What do you want to achieve this year?
Why does it matter?
What would achieving that goal allow you to do that you can’t do now?
What would achieving that goal allow you to have that you don’t have now?
2. Redefine the meaning of success for you.
As you daydream about what an epic year would look like avoid falling into the comparison trap. We are all at different stages in our business and in different seasons of life.
Author Tim Hiller, says in his book, Strive: Life is Short, Pursue What Matters: “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle, or your middle to someone else’s end.”
[bctt tweet=”Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle or end. @timhiller3 Tim Hiller, Strive: Life is Short, Pursue What Matters” username=”yooncannon”]
Is your of success for your business in alignment with your family goals? Your life goals? Your spiritual goals? Your health and fitness goals?
Bigger isn’t always better. Maybe you want to scale your business this year or maybe it’s time to simplify.
More money doesn’t mean more happy.
Rick Warren, the author of best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life often shares that the secret to happiness is in serving.
I believe serving first is also the foundation of running a purpose driven business.
The only way you can achieve your goals is by helping your customers achieve theirs.
3. Get clear about the impact you want to make.
So, who do you serve and what is the difference you want to make in their lives?
When you don’t have a clear impact statement, going through the motions of running your business week after week can quickly feel like a daily grind.
[bctt tweet=”If you want 2017 to be an epic year, you’ve got to want to make an epic impact.” username=”yooncannon”]
Impact is not measured by what you do, but the difference you’re making.
It doesn’t matter what service you provide, whether it’s auditing, bookkeeping, landscaping, dog walking, consulting, staffing, therapy, etc.
Everyday businesses can be used as a vehicle for making a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
What is the impact, (legacy, difference) you want to make through your business?
To help you write yours, here’s an example of my impact statement. This is why I do what I do:
By helping entrepreneurs grow your business the impact I want to make is:
To give you greater time and financial freedom, so you don’t have to miss out on precious time with your kids.
To help you get your message out, so you can help more people with your gifts.
4. Simplify and shorten your goals.
The surest path to defeat is overwhelm. Set yourself up for success by giving yourself less to focus on.
SIMPLIFY: What are 3 success habits (activities) you can commit to doing every day for the next 21 days?
SHORTEN: What is one outcome result can you pursue as your 30-Day Push Goal?
Finally, don’t just keep your goals to yourself. Share your goals with others. Post your 30-Day Push Goal in the comment box below.
Then print out this blog and write down your answers to the rest of the questions above.
I invite you to decide to make 2017 your epic year!
What is your brand? … Do you know how you’d answer that question?
Having a strong brand is an important part of your marketing plan, but as small business owners you can’t approach branding the same way as the “big” businesses can.
But, that doesn’t mean small businesses should skip branding.
Eight top branding experts share their small business branding tips to help you stand out from your competition.
Dan Antonelli gives emphasis on positive brand impression in his article Why Small Businesses Need Strong Logos
First, make sure that your logo is clear and easy to interpret, because you don’t have the years of brand recognition behind you that ensure that people will associate your name with your product or service.
Second, unlike large companies, you don’t have the large advertising budget required to brand icons too generic to help consumers understand the nature of your business.
In short, then, your logo needs to convey what you do and who you are, and leave a positive brand impression. That’s why small business logo design is a different animal from corporate logo design. Corporations can throw enough money into marketing to ensure that people associate any symbol or graphic with their name.
Small businesses don’t have that luxury: Each impression is so important. You need to very quickly connect with your audience members and give them something to latch on to — at the same time that you give them something disruptive in your competitive space.
Business Branding Tips – #2. Assess how you’re positioning your primary product or service within the marketplace.
[bctt tweet=”Small #Business #Branding #Tips @CANCapital says assess your product position in the marketplace. #biz” username=”yooncannon”]
Daniel DeMeo shares from his article Four Tips for Enhancing Your Small Business Brand
This applies whether you’ve been in business a year or for over two decades. While conducting an exhaustive customer perception study of your firm may not be something you want to invest in at this time, there are less formal ways you can evaluate how the market perceives your brand and your offerings.
Develop a formal panel of your most loyal customers to understand why they choose your brand and what it is they believe your products and services represent in the marketplace. Is it your quality service? Commitment to the local community? Your low prices? Getting to the heart of why customers stick with your firm will help you understand better what you are doing correctly and what messages you may want to adapt, based on how your business has evolved over time.
Ross Kimbarovsky’s article on 10 Tips To Help You Build A Successful Small Business Brand says
What you say is important, but don’t overlook how you say it. Your company’s “voice” is the language and personality you and your employees will use to deliver your branding message and reach your customers. Successful brands speak with a unique voice. Think about the brands you admire – what makes them unique? How do they communicate with you and other customers? What do you like about their voice?
Business Branding Tips – #4. Don’t try to mimic the look of chains or big brands.
[bctt tweet=”Small #Business #Branding Tips @MysteryTwit says don’t try to mimic the look of chains or big brands” username=”yooncannon”]
According to Ten Ways to Build a Brand for Your Small Business by Dan Einzig
Try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic, that aligns with how feel about themselves.
Business Branding Tips – #5. Make Your Employees Brand Ambassadors
[bctt tweet=”Small Business Branding Tips @LouImbriano says make your employees #brand ambassadors #smallbusiness” username=”yooncannon”]
Try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic, that aligns with how feel about themselves, says Lou Imbriano in his article According to Branding 101: Tips for Building a Killer Identity.
Business Branding Tips – #6. Be an Advocate for Your Business – Not Just a Salesman
[bctt tweet=”Small Business #Branding Tips @caronbeesley says be an advocate for your business. #businessgrowth” username=”yooncannon”]
Caron Beesley, author of 10 Tips to Help You Build and Grow a Stand-Out Small Business Brand says
You don’t have to be the greatest salesman to succeed in business. Selling takes many forms – and being a brand advocate gels them all together. For example, many small business owners strive to be the number one salesman, the number one cheerleader, and the number one fan of their own business (you’ve got to be excited about it if you want others to be excited too). If you are passionate about your business, be an advocate for it. Use many of the tips in this blog to make sure people understand what you do, the story behind your products, what your products have done for people, your methods and mission, and all that good stuff. Invite people in!
Business Branding Tips – #7. Keep it Professional
[bctt tweet=”Small Business Branding Tips @AllStarDesignUK says keep it professional. #entrepreneurship #biztips” username=”yooncannon”]
Dean McNamara of All Star Design and author of Top 5 Branding Tips for a Small Business, says the use of professional images matters a lot in creating your personal brand.
Use professional images – you will be amazed at how much better professionally produced images make your marketing and brand look. This doesn’t necessarily mean spending money on a photo shoot (although that helps if you have the budget!) but there are plenty of great free photos online which take a little bit of searching and you also have istock; don’t be afraid to use what’s available just make sure it fits your brand (and check its copyright terms).
Edwin Dearborn, author of 9 Small Business Branding Tips, advises to use Co-Branding.
Many people will come to know your brand if you are associated with a trusted brand that they are already fond of and doing business with. Your small business brand can accomplish your marketing and sales objectives much more effectively when you tap into the complementary strengths of another brand and their loyal customer base. Mortgage brokers co-branding with real estate agents is a natural fit. Wedding planners co-branding with a florist is another. Co-branding opportunities are only limited by your imagination and hustle. Co-branding is also known as:
Co-marketing
Cross-marketing
Affinity marketing
Alliance marketing
Cooperative marketing
Combined brand marketing
Business partnerships
The bottomline is, branding is part of a marketing plan. You can either allow your business to stand out or be easily forgotten. Like any other plan, if it is well implemented, it will result in something positive, if not, it will not work effectively.
QUESTION: As a small business owner, what is your biggest challenge when it comes to building a strong brand for your business? Share your comments and questions below.
First, make sure that your logo is clear and easy to interpret, because you don’t have the years of brand recognition behind you that ensure that people will associate your name with your product or service.
This applies whether you’ve been in business a year or for over two decades. While conducting an exhaustive customer perception study of your firm may not be something you want to invest in at this time, there are less formal ways you can evaluate how the market perceives your brand and your offerings.
What you say is important, but don’t overlook how you say it. Your company’s “voice” is the language and personality you and your employees will use to deliver your branding message and reach your customers. Successful brands speak with a unique voice. Think about the brands you admire – what makes them unique? How do they communicate with you and other customers? What do you like about their voice?
Try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic, that aligns with how feel about themselves.
Try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to attract customers who are looking for something more original and authentic, that aligns with how feel about themselves, says 
You don’t have to be the greatest salesman to succeed in business. Selling takes many forms – and being a brand advocate gels them all together. For example, many small business owners strive to be the number one salesman, the number one cheerleader, and the number one fan of their own business (you’ve got to be excited about it if you want others to be excited too). If you are passionate about your business, be an advocate for it. Use many of the tips in this blog to make sure people understand what you do, the story behind your products, what your products have done for people, your methods and mission, and all that good stuff. Invite people in!
Use professional images – you will be amazed at how much better professionally produced images make your marketing and brand look. This doesn’t necessarily mean spending money on a photo shoot (although that helps if you have the budget!) but there are plenty of great free photos online which take a little bit of searching and you also have istock; don’t be afraid to use what’s available just make sure it fits your brand (and check its copyright terms).
Many people will come to know your brand if you are associated with a trusted brand that they are already fond of and doing business with. Your small business brand can accomplish your marketing and sales objectives much more effectively when you tap into the complementary strengths of another brand and their loyal customer base. Mortgage brokers co-branding with real estate agents is a natural fit. Wedding planners co-branding with a florist is another. Co-branding opportunities are only limited by your imagination and hustle. Co-branding is also known as:
