Convert Leads into Sales: 3 Actionable Tips

Getting a new business lead is as important as nurturing the lead and converting it into a sale. Most businesses struggle in converting a prospect into a consumer. This may be due to the several reasons such as: differences in the marketing and sales team, delay in contacting the lead, the sales team may not have the proper information about the prospect, and many more.

Integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software in your marketing and sales activities will help you to streamline business processes. Cash flow is important for businesses to survive. If the cash flow is not at a rapid pace, then businesses can easily end up at the edge of failure. Cash flow comes when the consumer purchases your products and services, becoming a customer only if they like the product. Prospects arrive at the final stage of the sales process after crossing different stages in the buying cycle: at first, initiating the journey as a lead, turning into an opportunity and eventually converting as a sale.

The buying cycle involves different consumer stages. The cumulative efforts of both the sales and marketing team will result in converting a prospect into a customer.

Let’s discuss the three most important actionable tips to convert a lead into a profitable sale.

1. Follow Up With Leads Immediately

Leads are simply contacts. These are the people who have shown some form of interest in your business. According to the Harvard Business Review Lead Response Survey report,

“The average first response rate of B2B companies for their leads was 42 hrs” and

after getting a new lead, only 37% of companies are responding to their lead in less than an hour.”

The results were shocking. A genuine consumer appreciates if the business contacts them immediately after submission of the web form. Otherwise, your competitor will catch hold of your potential customer. Timely and quick responses to leads are important as it helps in determining the chances of turning a lead into a potential buyer. A well-coordinated process such as utilizing CRM software is important to manage leads that come from the website forms, through social media, etc.

2. Divide the Leads

Categorizing leads as marketing qualified and sales qualified will help in boosting business ROI metrics. The best example for a marketing qualified leads is a person who has shown interest in downloading information about the solution such as white papers or Q&A booklets. For these people, provide them with the valuable information they requested and wait until they take the next step.

The sales qualified lead prospects are interested in your products and services and are willing to have a meeting with you to further discuss the product features and possible price negotiation. These leads are important because they are more likely to purchase your product. As the sales process has different stages in the buying cycle, segmenting the leads into different categories will provide you with a vivid picture of where your lead stands.

3. Lead Conversion Process Data

Data is vital to allow you to understand how well the lead conversion process is going. If you are entering the lead data on a regular basis in your CRM system, it’s easy to create a dashboard using analytics software which can generate charts and reports automatically on a monthly or weekly basis.

When data is presented clearly on dashboards, it’s easy to review any analysis such as –

• How many leads are being turned into an opportunity and eventually converting into sales
• What is the lead churn rate, and the reason for not converting to a sale
• Which parts of your sales funnel are staggering in leads and what is the reason for that
• Figure out the pain points in the sales conversion process and focus on those areas to reduce the sales churn rate

Structure your sales team into two categories: The first team should work on retaining the existing customers and the second team should focus on winning new business. In addition, try calling your prospects once again if they haven’t answered the call in the first attempt. This will surely boost your sales closing ratio.

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