Think of it in terms of dating, lead generation is equivalent to meeting a person you like in a hangout, chatting with them for some time, demonstrate your humor, and asking for their number. This approach would most likely lead to a better outcome for the parties involved!

To better understand lead lifecycle, lead generation and ‘lead scoring’ are some important aspects you need to possibly do in order to increase your revenues, turnover, and profits for your business while at the same time increasing brand loyalty and trust that clients have for the business.

Many people do not take time to think of leads because their main focus is on sales. This is a big problem for any business. They think the main objective of their website is to convert most of the visitors into customers and maximize sales. Unfortunately, this never happens but instead drives away potential customers and reduces their profits.

So why does it happen like that? It is because most people may not like being sold to. One of the best ways you can think about it is in terms of dating….

Do Sales Leave People Cold?

When people visit your business website through either AdSense, SEO, or other preferable means, they are definitely going to become cold leads. This implies they fit into your demographic and would perhaps get interested in your niche but you need not think of them as having demonstrated loyalty towards your brand nor do you have the permission to contact them or even trying to sell your products to them.

Trying to sell your products to these visitors would feel like cold calling because they do not know you, they need not trust you since you are both strangers and you are busy trying to persuade them to buy from you. It is the same as approaching someone you have met in a nightclub and asking them to accompany you home. It does not have a preamble and they may not take it lightly since it comes across as rather rude. Chances are that you will get a positive response would be much lower.

How to Warm Them Up First

Think about your lead lifecycle first, it is one of the most important things you can do. Rather than selling to cold leads, try to impress them using your value proposition, through the quality of information you give them freely, and insist on how your brand is aligned with their values.  

Doing this creates warm leads- these are people who have provided you with their contact details and given you the go-ahead to contact them.

Top Ways to Convert Leads

One of the most fantastic and worthwhile pursuits for any business is building a huge list of qualified and warm leads. If you do it effectively, as a business you build a strong list of people who have already shown interest in your business and are presumably likely to buy your products.

However, this can only get you that far. You will need to think of ways of converting the identified leads and eventually turning them into customers. But how do you take these steps and what ways can work for you in converting the leads?  Below are some of the methods…

Sending Out Special Offers

To correctly handle your leads, you require lead management software that will assist in tracking the behavior of your leads automatically. The leads are those people who come to your business website and show some interest by signing up particularly for your mailing list.

Again, those people show engagement and because they are taking time to read your content means they have developed trust towards your brand. It also implies they are ready to buy and what is left is for you to ensure they plunge. What remains for you is to do something that will push them to become your customers.

Lead Scoring and CRM Software

Sales and lead generation are more of science. Once you have done your calculations down to finer details, it becomes a process you can repeat and fine-tune to achieve the best results ultimately.

It becomes more true if you have a website and you manage the leads through CRM (lead management software). It would allow you the platform to use ‘lead scoring’ and effectively identify potential customers and those worth the effort of communicating with.

Understanding Lead Scoring and CRM

What is the purpose of contact management/ lead management solutions? This ensures you can organize your leads and contacts in a large database as well as keep all the details conveniently. It can save your time, for instance, trawling through lists with names and trying to recall those who did this and that.

Besides, CRM software streamlines certain advanced processes including the more valuable ‘lead scoring’ that would essentially give every lead a score based on the likelihood of buying from your business and how they are engaged with the brand.

Signing up to your business’s mailing list suggests they expect more and are interested in what you have to offer. However, this is not an assurance that their interest is to buy from you or intent to purchase anything in the market. Their intention could be window shopping or even trying to learn. 

Next, you will send emails and try to communicate with them to establish a relationship. Those receiving your emails will of course react differently with some subscribers opening the messages and reading them, some will click the link and visit the site while others will just delete or ignore the content altogether. 

Customers who take their time to click on your emails, visit your site, and perhaps spent time in your business’s eCommerce store are those people who show a lot of interest in engaging with your brand. These people are interested, like your site and ethos, and are probably thinking of buying a particular product or service.  

CRM software would allow you to track them and enable you to use cookies to see those subscribers spending more time on the website and those who take time to read the entire information.

Hence, what you need to do is send out your marketing messages to readers who spent more of their time on your site or demonstrate their desire to engage. And once they have passed a particular threshold, they would automatically get sent an email that promotes your product and then buy!

Through CRM, it’s possible to email the leads showing much more engagement and those who have spent time looking at your site. For example, Rubedo.ai is a powerful model that allows you to score your leads according to different scores available for each. Consequently, you invite them to buy the product but entice them with a special offer. However, such a special offer must be limited in terms of time and quantity to create scarcity and urgency. This is to make the reader act quickly in taking advantage of the deal you have offered them.

Essentially, they like your brand and have an interest in your product-the idea now is to give them the final incentive in taking action immediately.

More Strategies

Other strategies can be used in converting leads. For example, removal of any risks associated with a purchase. It is important to note that naturally, people are risk-averse, hence, the need to remove perceived dangers through free samples or by offering money-back guarantees.

The other strategy of converting leads is trying to sell a product cheaply at first and following it up later with the big item tickets. This is an attempt to manage your customers and cultivating trust because they will only be risking small amounts of money as they gain more confidence with your products.   

Finally, remove any ‘buyers’ remorse’ by explaining how their purchase is an investment, especially if they act right now!.