The Missing Half of Your Business Marketing is Causing Lost Revenue

business marketingYou can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. ~Old English Proverb

Business marketing not working for your company or organization? You might be missing a critical piece called Lead Conversion.

Most of the time, the goal of marketing is to get more customers or clients in the door and paying for your products or services.

You hire a marketing agency. The marketing team creates a strategy and starts using tools such as Facebook advertising, content marketing, and SEO to get more eyes on your business. The marketing team has fantastic reports about how your website is receiving more traffic and your social media accounts are getting a lot of engagement. The team hands you a list of people who have clicked on emails about your company.

But when you look at your bottom line, you’re not seeing more money coming in. What’s going on? Answer: sales.

What Your Marketing Is Missing

Marketing departments go out and find qualified leads. But then it’s up to the sales team or someone inside your company to follow up with those potential leads and close the deal.

According to a Harvard study, 71% of the leads your company generates on the Internet are wasted. In other words, no one is taking the time to cultivate those leads and turn them into customers. Other studies show that when teams do follow up on leads, they often make mistakes that lead to the loss of a potential sale.

Do you have a system in place to handle those leads? If you don’t have a sales team, maybe it’s someone in charge of customer service. In a small business, it might just be one person in charge of calling or emailing those who engage with your emails (as soon as possible, because timing makes a huge difference.) Your marketing team can help you set up automated follow-up emails, but in the end, your customer service and management of those potential clients will seal or lose the deal.

7 Changes that Will Improve Your Lead Conversion

For the best success, have your marketing and sales teams work together to create a system for passing along leads for your business. Here are some key aspects to consider:

  • The Sales Funnel: This is the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products. Determine what yours looks like. Does it work? Where is it weak? Strong?
  • Sales Team: Who receives leads? Who contacts leads?
  • Follow Up: Timing is crucial. What’s the turnaround time for follow-up? How often is a follow-up attempted? What guidelines are in place to dictate how many times you try to reach someone without success before giving up?
  • Qualified leads: What makes a lead “qualified” in your business? Assess and segment into interest level.
  • Follow Through: What happens when new customer comes through the door? Once the sales team has secured the customer, someone should still be in charge of maintaining that connection.
  • Assessment/Adjustment: As you secure new customers, assess their happiness and how the process worked for them. Adjust accordingly to improve.
  • Measuring Conversion Rates: Who is keeping track of how many people convert out of the leads generated? Marketing may have the lead data, but without information from the sales team about which ones convert, you are missing a vital feedback loop that can help both teams improve their processes.

When was the last time you examined your marketing and sales process and how it works? Contact us if you want to set up a better flow for your lead generation.

Comments are closed.