Start Converting More Sales Through Web-Based Lead Generation
In today’s world, consumers are doing the majority of their research online. This includes searching, prospecting, and selecting the company they will decide to work with. Many consumers find the time to inquire about non-emergency services on the weekends or at the end of a long workday. This is a great reason to have web-based lead generation. Your business will be able to capture these inquiries, when a standard phone call may not be the best solution for busy consumers.
Having a plan in place to capture these potential customers will save you time, money, and loss of productivity. To begin, I ask you to consider how you are communicating with your web-based lead inquiries. Are you responding to them via phone or email correspondence? How many attempts are you making to communicate with the customer? Are your customer service representatives giving the same sense of urgency and attention to your web-based leads as they are your conventional leads? If you’re unsure, then you need to do a little research of your own.
The first company to respond to a web-based lead will often win the opportunity. Your potential customer may have other companies vying to win the race to earn their business, so a timely response is imperative. This should be no different than answering the phone in a prompt manner. How long are you waiting to respond to these inquiries? How long would you let a phone ring before answering it? The email resting in your inbox should be treated with the same priority.
To effectively handle these requests, you may wish to assign a web-based lead champion on your team or assign times throughout the work day when any given person would be responsible for internet leads. This ensures customer inquiries are handled in a timely manner. It also gives the manager of the call center measurable data and metrics for accountability, coupled with indicators for a possible improvement to your process.
The ideal company will also adjust to the customer’s preferred contact method. Having a prepared template ready to customize and send electronically will help your business capture the customer quicker. This should be a basic template or script that is easily personalized. A best practice would be to also consider reaching out by both phone and text message. Approaching this customer through their preferred contact method will help build a communicative relationship. Often these customers are using the internet for efficiency, so ensure your team is ready to handle their requests in a timely manner, offering options that make it easy for the customer to say YES! I suggest reaching out with a phone call within minutes of receiving the inquiry, and then leaving a message if no one answers. Then send an email after hanging up, attempt to call again in 15 minutes, and then again at the end of the day. I would then send another email and make an additional call the following day. This is just one example of a great follow-up plan.
Final thought: Tracking is key! Track your success. What times are you able to reach customers in your market? Which email template is netting you the biggest response? What members of your team are booking at the highest rate? What kind of pushback are they getting if they aren’t able to convert? Once you figure all of that out, you can begin to provide training to make future pushback less of an issue for your frontline team. Track to prove and disprove points, and to improve efficiency with winning web-based lead generation.
Publication date: 10/15/2018
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