Have your marketing campaigns paid off? Are you now receiving new leads regularly? If so, that’s great. However, to ensure these leads turn into actual sales, you have to learn how to effectively and strategically follow up with your leads without scaring them off or letting them fall by the wayside. Following up with leads requires several different efforts. In fact, about 80% of sales leads will require approximately five follow-ups after the first point of contact; however, just eight percent of salespeople will actually follow up properly or the right number of times.
If you don’t have your follow-up game mastered, now may be the time to improve your skills. Some follow-up tips to use to help improve your ability to close sales can be found below.
Lead Segmentation
Every type of lead requires a unique amount of messaging. Depending on how the lead discovered you, it may not be hot or ready to close. This means it may require some warming. For example, if you have a lead that comes to you through an email opt-in campaign, rather than a lead that came from a “contact me” form on your webpage will be at completely different points in your sales funnel. As a result, they need to be approached properly.
Consider organizing your leads into a minimum of three groups – cold, warm, and hot. While this may seem basic, you need to make sure you aren’t treating them all the same.
Respond Promptly
You should arrange to send a welcome or thank you email or a phone call within 12 to 24 hours after a lead is received. You should also offer to answer questions they may have to show you care. This is also going to show them you are serious about providing the services they need.
Provide Useful Content to Nurture Leads
As with any type of communication you have with leads or your audience, regardless of what stage your lead is in, you need to find new ways to add value to the experience. This may include downloadable guides, success stories, helpful stats, infographics, or blog posts. Your leads will not become customers after a single interaction, so you should focus on warming your lead before trying to pitch the final sale. Instead of trying to get them to convert now, focus on smaller steps, like visiting your blog or downloading a guide.
Make Communication More Personal
Personalizing the correspondence you have with leads is essential. This means including a person’s name in emails and sending information based on the pages they visited on your site. You can also make personal responses to online inquiries rather than providing canned answers.
When it comes to nurturing your leads and ensuring they eventually make a purchase, the follow-up process is important. Don’t ignore this step in the process, as it may lead to issues and the customer never converting. By learning what to do and using the tips above, you will find it is easier than you ever imagined to close more sales.
