Tuesday Tuneup- #20
Turning leads into customers
Happy Tuesday everyone!
I want to thank one of my followers on LinkedIn that inspired this week's edition.
She wrote to me and asked “As a newcomer with less than a year of experience, I've encountered challenges in receiving responses from prospective leads....what would you do?"
This is an excellent question and something I have a lot of experience in. You see, I’ve had to cut my teeth in two completely unique industries and I had this same challenge starting off in both. When I started in the insurance business, my “LEADS” were old list of people that had already said they weren’t interested in what we sold. It was literally a cardboard box, full of little pieces of paper with names and numbers written down. On the side of the box it said “BOP Box” with B.O.P standing for “Blown Off the Phone”.
Needless to say it was a rocky start, but nonetheless I prevailed and I have no doubt you will as well. Just keep at it.
Looking back, Here’s 5 strategies I used to increase my chances of success.
1. Understand the difference between sales and marketing
In a nutshell, good marketing creates the INTEREST in whatever it is that you sell….. Sales is converting that INTEREST into money.
So, with that in mind you need to first create interest in your product and then you can create sales. That’s why they put the shiny cars at the front of the lot. So that when you drive by you think “Wow! That car looks amazing! I want to check it out!”. They know that 90% chance most customers aren’t going to buy the fully loaded car…. but if they put the base model out there, nobody would come in the door. Interest first, sales second.
2. You have to open customers up, before you can close them.
The #1 problem most sales people have is that they make the conversations with their customers about THEMSELVES rather than about their customers. Here’s a hard reality….. your customers don’t care about your company, your product, your time, your money, your wants or your needs. They care about themselves and their problems. That’s just the way things are.
So, what should you be talking about 99.999% of the time? Your CUSTOMERS company, product, time, money, wants or needs. You have to get them to open up and share with you their problems. Once you know their problems, then you can get to work seeing if you MIGHT be a good fit for solving them.
In other words, once you have interest in your product, you need to find out why the customer is interested.
3. Leverage Multiple Channels
Different prospects have different preferences for communication, so it’s essential to diversify your outreach channels. Send them an email, and then call them. If they don’t pick up, shoot them a text. Depending on the size of the customer, mail them a hand written card. Network with those in their circle of influence and work to be visible. In sales, if we are not visible, than we are invisible…… and customers can’t find you if they never see you. It’s better to have a customer say “Please take me off your list” than to have them say “I have no clue who you are”.
4. It’s a numbers game.
I was working with somebody the other day who was upset he wasn’t seeing results. I asked how many conversations he was having and he said seven……. Unless you’re selling space shuttles to NASA, you’re not going to be successful in sales talking to seven people.
You need to think in 100’s
I need to market to 100 people to get 1 interested person (Your response rate)
I need to talk to 100 interested people to sell 30 (Your close rate)
If I talk to 7 people…… I’m not even in the game.
5. Follow Up Consistently
When you hear “NO” you need to interpret that as “NOT RIGHT NOW”.
Again, I made my living doing this when I first started and honestly, the biggest, best customers that will make your month, year or career…. take effort. They’re big because they don’t jump at every sales call that comes in and talk to every advertisement that hits their desk. They know their the big ship in the harbor and if you want to work with them, you’re going to have to work hard for it.
For example, when I look at working with a new partner, the kind that we build a huge relationship with…. those conversations take months if not years. Trust is the biggest thing I look for and that doesn’t come easy or quickly. Keep engaged and providing value to your customer. Over the long haul, they will start to trust you and listen to your message.
Closing Thoughts
As you continue to refine your approach, keep track of what works and what doesn’t. Adapt your strategies based on your experiences and feedback from your prospects. Over time, you’ll develop a more effective outreach process that resonates with your target audience.
Finally, If you found this edition enlightening or helpful, Please share it with somebody who could use the advice (We all know somebody). The more ideals I get, the better the content for all of us. If it brought you none of that and was a complete waste of time…. then please let me know! I appreciate the help either way!
Thank you for reading, and best of luck in your sales journey!
-Steve