by Karen on January 30, 2007
To improve your lead conversion rate, avoid these common mistakes
1. Not having a standardized procedure for processing leads.
Without a standardized procedure, valuable leads can fall through the cracks. Having each lead on a track with a set protocol for developing the lead eliminates the loss of leads and profit. Standardized procedures also allows you to measure results to determine what works and what does not and to respond to more prospects in ways that have proven to work.
2. Reinventing the wheel
Once a procedure is in place that is successful for turning a lead into a sale, capture that process. With everyone in your office or on your staff following the same successful process, your sales will increase.
3. Failure to follow-up or deliver as promised
Customer service has never been as important as it is today. Leaving a potential customer wondering where their catalog is or why you didn’t call as promised turns a potential sale into a no-sale. Having your leads on an automated system prompts you to call, email or deliver to your client as promised. Strive not just to meet your customers’ expectation, but to exceed it.
4. Too many slips of paper
Sticky notes were a great invention of the twentieth century but have no place in today’s sales office. Convert from hand written notes to electronic note taking and automated task assignments or reminders rather then relying on the neon sticky.
5. Failure to inform clients of all available products you provide
Once you have established a customer relationship, don’t neglect to maximize your sales by failing to inform your clients of all your products. Automatic emails or reminders of the array of products or services you provide ensure your customers turn to you and not a competitor for all their related business needs.
6. Failure to contact your lead immediately
Once a lead is known, contact them immediately. Requests at a website for more information, brochures, or catalogs should be automatically responded to with an email thanking the customer for visiting your site and letting them know their information is on the way. Let them know you value them and are ready to help them with their needs.
For more information on how to utilize today’s technology to automate your lead management and sales process right now, go to LeadsOnRails.com.
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by Scott on January 25, 2007
LeadsOnRails can now integrate with a customer’s website and can automatically send emails.
Integrate LeadsOnRails with your website to automatically capture information from prospective customers.
Information filled out on your website will be automatically recorded in the system and the lead is automatically put on a track specified by a promotion code. (The promotion code is a field that the prospective customer fills in, say in response to an advertisement; or it can be a fixed hidden field).
Then, using a built in auto-responder, send an email response instantly to capture their attention.
An overview of how it works
You direct prospects to your website via online ads, print ads, post cards, etc. When they arrive there, they enter their contact information in order to recieve more information such as a white-paper or product brochure.
When your future customer submits this request for more information, several things happen:
- A record for this prospect is created in your LeadsOnRails.com system.
- Your tracks are checked against the promotion code entered. If the promotion code matches a track’s promotion code then:
- The lead is automatically put on that track.
- If the first step of the assigned track is set to ‘user’=’email’ and a message template is defined then:
- The message is automatically sent
- and the lead is automatically moved to the next step.
Tracks
Tracks work almost the same as before. You first create a new track and then add steps to it. You make a step an auto-responder step by assigning it to the “email user” and choosing which “message template” to send. “email” is a system created user that is used only to respond to email delivery steps.
Templates
Before creating an auto-responder step, you first need to create the message that will be sent. You do that under the new “Templates” menu item.
Try it out
See the LeadsOnRails site for more details.
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by Scott on January 11, 2007
Get out and walk around
Get out and walk around to: solve problems.
Today I was stuck. I had a programming/design problem that seemed to only get more complex as I sat at my desk staring at the screen. Then, during a quick 5 minute walk with the dog, the solution just popped into my thoughts.
When you are stuck or just seem to be slowing down – that’s the time to get up. Take a break. Get out of your mind’s way and let it keep working on the problem while you enjoy the sun and fresh air for a few moments!
Get out and walk around to: discover your product or service through your customers’ eyes.
It’s one thing to get feedback and look at log files, and a completely different experience to see your product or service in use . Things you cannot see unless you are out visiting users at their sites include:
- What is the mood of your customers’ offices and is your product or service improving it? This is important because you want to be cultivating raving fans. Organizations with toxic moods will never be your biggest fans – some people are just not fans of anything. Once you visit these toxic customers, you will not want to go back often (if ever), because…
- It is the customers with engaging, positive environments that are prime candidates for cultivating fans of your product or service. You’ll best know who’s toxic and whos not when you get out and walk around. Get out and help them see how you are a big part of their success.
- Are they multitasking while using your product and is there anything you can do to help (make it faster/less wait, make it more engaging, etc?)?
- Are they doing stuff manually that you thought your product or service covered (e.g. do you see people printing too much stuff?).
You can tell if your efforts met specs when the check clears. But you can only really tell what impact you are having by getting out and talking with customers.
Get out and walk around to: discover opportunities.
Even in this internet-connected world, there is a lot of opportunity in people you shake hands with.
This fall I attended a local chamber event and browsed the booths of a variety of vendors ranging from promotional product companies, lead providers, insurance providers, and other companies catering to small business. I handed out business cards and went home with a stack of cards. A surprising thing happened.
One of the vendors there called me. You say “that’s not surprising” – you’re right. What is surprising is that he called to see if I could provide services for him! He and I are just starting on a couple efforts together, but I think it will turn out to be a good working relationship and it came from getting out of behind the desk. Get out there where you can look people in the eyes, shake their hands, and let them know that you are a real person.
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by Scott on January 09, 2007
LeadsOnRails.com automates lead management and lets you implement lead followup best practices to convert more leads and free your up more of your time.
This system was born from discussions with small business owners who often spend a fortune on lead acquisition only lose the lead information or fail to effectively followup on it due to poor communication among team members, poor advanced planning, or failure to create a lead management plan.
In LeadsOnRails each prospect is put on a track, which assigns steps to users and everyone can see leads progress through the pipeline. No one is left assuming someone else has taken action. As one of users put it – LeadsOnRails.com can serve as an organization’s best-practices manual.
LeadsOnRails is the first in a series of products aimed at making the dedicated expertise found in large, successful companies accessible to small and mid-size companies that do not have the need for a dedicated IT or marketing staff and do not have local IT staff to support desktops, databases, and networks.
Next up:
- New features including integrated email management and web site interfaces
- Improved help and get started pages (with video tutorials)
- Industry specific templates for leads and workflow
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