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If you are running a business that needs new leads to grow by generating new customers on a regular basis then you have probably explored buying those leads from services like Bark, leadfeeder, or even Mybuilder if you’re in the home improvements sector.
Our experience tells us that this can be expensive, competitive, and even damaging for your business. One Renewable energy company we look after told us that they were paying between £50 and £150 for qualified leads for their business.
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 who sold you the lead, has also sold that lead to 3 or 4 other providers. Through no fault of your own the lead is pissed off with calls, and you have little chance of turning that lead 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 salesman, and this means your closing ratio could be higher if they knew more about you 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 these are rare right?
No matter how the phone call ends up, you’ve parted with the money for that lead, and your one shot as 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 the 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 credit card out ready to buy? If you’d like to prioritise these conversations, so you don’t spend all day speaking with tyre kickers, and not getting around to speak with the hot buyers until they’ve bought your service somewhere else.
Generating your own 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 lead likes the look and feel of your business, and likes what you have had to say in the ad to get their attention. They are already warming to your business.
Then through a strategic series of retargeting ads, email and SMS nurturing sequences you can educate those leads about who you are, why you are experts at what you do, 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 get on the phone, so you closing ratio will improve no end.
Even if they say no on the phone, all is not lost. Those customers are fully aware of your services and may come back to you, instead of you being the 5th person they taken a call from today. 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 next month, or next year – rather than generate profits for companies that are selling you dud leads.
The final 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 are asleep, or working on other projects.
If you’d like to find out how we automate this process then get in touch today.
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