How would you inspire leads to call you?
When I started my company, online leads existed but were rare. As time went on, more and more online leads started to pour in and I began to notice a difference between them and traditional leads.
At first, I thought the difference was the level of seriousness. I believed that if someone was really serious about buying , they would pick up the phone. If they sent me an e-mail or filled out an inquiry form on the company website, they were probably just tire kickers.
Wrong!
Then I started looking at my own habits online and saw what my colleagues and friends were doing online. I realized that my initial reaction was wrong. When we made online inquiries, it did not mean we werent serious. It did mean that we were looking for information and not yet ready to commit to a relationship with a person or company through whom we would do the transaction.
A second reason for our internet inquiries (whether this was conscious or subconscious) was to find someone we felt comfortable with. We were searching for a company or salesperson that we could come to when we decided to make the purchase.
Many people prefer to make initial inquiries online because it gives them a sense of anonymity. Phone or face to face conversations mean that the salesperson can ask questions and collect information to help convince the customer to buy. By making an online inquiry, many consumers feel they can avoid those questions and go about their shopping on their own terms.
Many of your online leads are using that same tactic, staying behind the protective wall of the web while they research the product and get a feel for who is out there who can help them.
How do you lead them through that wall and to a sale?
1. Be Prompt
If someone is in a real rush, they will pick up the phone or come see you. A person making an online inquiry is likely not in desperate need of immediate answers. However, this does not mean that you can put off getting back to them. In our world of convenience and instant gratification, people expect quick responses (even if they dont actually need quick responses). They will judge your service on how quickly you get back to them. If you respond relatively quickly, they will feel that you care about them and the potential business they could bring you. If you leave them waiting for too long, they will conclude that they are not important to you and that any service they get from you in the future will be slow and sloppy.
Accepted response time will vary from industry to industry but I find this to be a good rule of thumb. Divide your business day into two equal portions; say 8:00 am to noon and noon to 4:00 pm. Make your best effort to respond to online leads within the same portion of the day that they arrive in. To make this easier, you may want time block the end of each of those periods for that purpose.
2. Be Generous
The people behind these leads are shopping around. They will have sent inquiries to your competition too. They will have other sales people trying hard to lure them. Remember, most of these people will not only be looking for info on the product, but for a company and salesperson they feel comfortable dealing with.
Your competition will likely be jumping straight into sales mode with these leads; giving them some answers but trying to get them to commit to a meeting or sales presentation right away.
You know better than that though. You know that they need to feel some sort of comfort with you before they will commit. Answer their questions fully and pleasantly. Make them feel like you are a wealth of information and also the kind of person they could talk to without feeling pressured. Give them what they want and be patient, they will prefer to deal with you for further inquiries.
Of course, you dont just want to turn into a free source of information. At some point you need to qualify the lead. The art of this is ensuring that they escalate their contact with you on (what they feel) is their own terms.
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3. Be Intriguing
Going back and forth with info by email has to stop at some point. When your lead is comfortable with you, they should eventually be willing to escalate their contact to a more productive medium, like a phone call or a face to face meeting. No one likes to be told that they must call or meet for more info though. That puts a sour note on the relationship. Instead, the lead needs to feel it is in their best interest to escalate that contact.
Make them want to call you by demonstrating that you have the skill to tailor the solutions you provide to their problem.
If you have established a feeling of comfort by answering their questions with no sales pressure, you can now demonstrate the value of your skill.
Online leads are different in that they are people who are trusting in a wall of anonymity to protect them from having to make decisions until they are ready. If you are on the other side of that wall, respect it, give them the info they want and position yourself to be the one they talk to when they are ready let that wall down.
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