Stop! buying leads (to grow your business)
If you need to generate new customers on a regular basis, then you have probably explored buying in leads from services like Bark or Leadfeeder. If this is you, then you will also have experience making calls to find out that at least one of the following is true:
1) You are the 4th company to call that person that day. Turns out the lead provider, has also sold it to 3 or 4 others. Through no fault of your own the person at the end of the number is already cheesed off with cold calls, and you have little chance of turning that call into a paying customer, even if they did fit your ideal customer profile.
2) They didn’t pick up the phone, so you didn’t get chance to speak to them and tell them how great you are. The lead is lost.
3) They did pick up the phone, but they don’t recognise your company name, because they responded to an advert from a different company. This means you are speaking to a totally cold lead, and they know nothing about you, your company, or why you are experts at what you do.
4) Whilst you are great at what you do, you may not be a natural born salesperson, and this means your closing ratio could be higher if they knew more about your background from the get-go.
5) You got hold of the potential customer, they like what you had to say, and agreed to the next step in your sales process. Great news! But now you start again with the next number on the list…
No matter how the phone call ends up, you’ve parted with the money for the lead, and your shot at turning them into a client has passed.
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you were to have multiple chances to educate that potential customer about you and your business, the expertise, the personal service, the pitfalls of using competitors.
How about talking to customers in different ways depending on where those customers are in their buying journey? Are they looking for info at this stage, or have they got their pen out ready to commit?
Generating own-name leads -vs- Buying leads has many advantages… here are a few:
Creating your own leads means you are guaranteed to be the only business to get that lead, it means the potential customer likes the look and feel of your specific business, and likes what you have had to say enough to get their attention.
Our Estate Planning leads convert to customer appointments at ratio +60%
Through a strategic series of retargeting ads, email and SMS nurturing sequences – all in your own business name – you can educate your leads about who you are, why you are expert at what you do (that already interested them), and what makes you stand out from your competition. Serious lead nurturing allows you to start the subtle selling process much earlier on, before anyone gets on the phone: they’ve seen your testimonials, they’ve seen the offer, they seen examples of your work, they are almost ready to buy when they connect to the call, so your closing ratio will improve no end.
Even if they don’t commit first off, all is not lost. Those customers are fully aware of your services and come back to you when they are ready (because no one actually enjoys handing over their personal data to lead aggregators and watching their phone light up with numbers they don’t recognise). Especially if you continue to send them relevant and useful information.
In effect every action you take every pound you spend, is working hard to build your pipeline for today, next week, and next year – rather than generate immediate profits for companies that are selling overworked leads. 
The cherry on top is to automate the whole process, imagine communicating with customers, building relationships with new contacts, nurturing next week’s sales… all while you’re working on other tasks… or even taking some time off.
Our set-up-for-you systems make sure you and your team are the keenest most proactive salespeople on earth – even when you’re on holiday.
If you’d like a no-obligation demo then get in touch today.
This article was submitted to be published by SHED Social as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
