Best Ways to Convert Leads into Customers – The key to success in any business is an understanding of psychology of customers.

Here’s how to convert your visitors into customers:

All human beings essentially have the same mental triggers that drive actions. In order to influence and understand your customers, you need to know what those triggers are and how to utilize them in your marketing message.

Why?

Because our minds decide what to buy. So if you know how minds function, you have the power to influence the decisions they make. Which is why, although this is a long article, you won’t want to miss the marketing lessons that follow.

As a sales rep, your time is your most critical asset, and how you choose to spend it is an incredibly important decision. Your buyers are busy people too, so it’s in both your best interests to make the buying process as efficient as possible.

the window of opportunity to get in touch with leads is at its widest between 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The best time to hit buyers with informative content is between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Making substantive changes to how you sell can help, too. Using visual elements in your presentations will dramatically speed up prospects’ comprehension of your material, since visuals get processed 60,000 times faster than text. Focusing on how your product can solve your prospect’s problems can drive lead to customer conversion rates as high as 70%.

The majority of your leads won’t automatically convert into sales by simply being sent through your conversion funnel. It will often require additional help to produce the conversion. Here are eight tips to help your business convert more leads into sales.

• Develop a great FAQ page on your website
• Offer an incentive

Actionable points

The A to Z technique:

Your customers want to get from point A (where they are now) to point Z (where they want to be).

In your marketing message, your goal is to teach your leads how to move as close as possible to Z before you ask for their money. The closer you get them to Z, the more likely they are to buy from you in order to go the final few steps needed to arrive at their desired end result.

By doing this, in their minds, they start to associate your business with the pleasure they get from the results produced as they arrive at all the milestones between A and Z.

Explain Why

I will sacrifice one hour of my time to give you a free plan to double your income or give you 100 dollars.

What went through you mind as you read that?

You want to know why I would do that, right?

Of course you do. Because our brains are always searching for answers.

Tell a Story

Human beings have been telling stories for thousands of years. It is how messages have been passed on from generation to generation.

when there is a gap between what we know and what we want to know, we will take action to fill that gap. It is referred to as the Information Gap Theory.

Build Anticipation

Ever notice how hundreds of people line up for any new Apple product before it is even released?

Why is that?

Because Apple builds anticipation for any new product release.

Sporting events are no different. Weeks before the Super Bowl, hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country plan and prepare for the eagerly awaited event. They tingle with excitement and joy at the thought of opening a beer and watching their favorite teams duke it out for the greatest honor in football

Spend more time in sales – The first strategy is to ensure that the business owner or entrepreneur is spending as much time selling or managing the sales process as possible.

This is particularly important at the early stages of business. No one can match you in terms of knowledge and passion for your business – and this is what sells.

Write down a goal of how much time you should be spending in sales and compare it to how much time you are actually spending selling.

If there is a big discrepancy implement strategies to free up your time and ensure you are focused on sales such as outsourcing everything but your core.

Be a niche player – Don’t try to be everything to everyone – select a niche market that plays to your strengths and build your products, processes and reputation around being the undisputed leader for this target market.

Yet because this strategy takes time many entrepreneurs lose patience and have a tendency to launch brand new initiatives in new markets – a habit I call the entrepreneur’s curse.
This distraction means you spread yourself too thin and don’t achieve anything except a myriad of unfinished ideas.

Business success is about being an expert in one core field for one core target market before expanding products, locations and prospect types. This will help ensure you generate more leads, close more sales and can charge higher prices.

Launch a lead generation campaign – proactive marketing is one of the best ways to grow your business fast.

Don’t wait for customers to contact you, go out and find them using one of numerous direct marketing campaigns open to you. These might include direct mail, e-marketing, telesales, seminars or person to person sales.

Beware though that it is not all about closing the sale on the first contact – it often takes up to seven contacts before a customer is ready to buy so mix your communication up and ensure you are only selling to the right customers at the right time.

For the rest you need to work out how to build their needs and have your company at the top of their list when they are ready to buy.

Revamp your unique selling proposition (USP’s) – Competition is increasing at an alarming yet exciting rate. If you don’t constantly revise the benefits for why your customers should choose your company you are in danger of being left behind.

Think of the two or three things that you are great at and elevate these in your selling proposition and marketing material – they will revolve around some of these six attributes, namely your product or service is Faster, Cheaper, Superior, Easier, Scarcer or Greater (defined as bigger or more compact).

By having clearly articulated USP’s you will sell to more customers more often.

Build your reputation – Whilst reputation and public relations (PR) rarely result in immediate leads they are essential for any business wanting to build long-term value and goodwill in their brand.

A leading reputation is also essential if you want to convert more of your leads to sales. You can pro-actively work on your reputation by becoming a thought leader in your field, for example, write a book, get an article published or speak at a conference.

You could ask your existing customers for written or video testimonials. Or you could have other peers, staff and clients endorse your services on Linkedin or other social media.

Get connected – If business is about who you know, not what you know then you need to ensure you are connected. Social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter offer a myriad of opportunities to build your network.

However a word of warning: make sure you build connection with value not sales in mind. Ask the question “How can I add value or help my connections?” rather than “How I can sell them something?”.

You will be surprised by how quickly that help and effort will turn into referrals back to you. If electronic networking is not your thing then make sure you are building your connections through networking at conferences and other events.

Build an alliance – Whether or not you have the right database of prospective clients to grow your business, someone else does.

You need to identify these companies and work out how you can help them achieve their goals so that you can achieve yours.

The internet has seen a proliferation of alliances so you will unlikely be breaking new ground. Ensure the company shares your values and is as equally committed to building a sustainable business as you or else you might be tainted with an image not of your choosing.

You could seek alliance relationships with customers, suppliers, industry bodies, companies that sell non-competing products to your target market, or companies that have similar products in different geographic locations.

Increase your price – Increasing your price by ensuring you give more value to your customers can often be the quickest way to generate more revenue.

Remember that every 10 per cent increase in price contributes more than the same 10 per cent increase in sales without all of the effort.

For instance if your profit margin is say 20 per cent then every 10 per cent increase in your price is equal to a 5 times that increase in new sales.

You might be surprised that your customers are either not as sensitive to price as you think or would appreciate the added value you could give them for only a small increase in price.

Be competitive – As a counter to increasing your price, ensure that you keep on top of the escalating increases in your cost base.

Ensure that you renegotiate with your suppliers regularly and remove unproductive people, products or processes.

The lower your cost base will either mean you make more profit that can be re-invested into growth strategies or be used to offer something more competitive to your target market.
Start a competition with your team to see how much you can shave off your expenses.

Align Outcomes  – Your team, whether employees or not, give you the greatest leverage to grow your business.

Share your goals and aspirations for your business and incentivise them on the outcomes. Incentives might include cash bonuses, responsibilities, promotions, equity, profit sharing or non-cash rewards.

Use Social Proof

This is a very common one, but nonetheless a necessary one to mention.

Create References

We don’t have an internal value meter that tells us how much things are worth. Rather, we focus on the relative advantage of one thing over another, and estimate value accordingly.”

Human beings are social creatures. We look to others to determine what actions we should take.

Build a Community

Aristotle once said “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.”

Build Controversy

In his research, Jonah Berger, the aforementioned bestselling author ofContagious, found that too much controversy turns people away, but small amounts draw people in.

He discovered that “controversy increases likelihood of discussion at low levels, but beyond a moderate level of controversy, additional controversy actually decreases likelihood of discussion.”

Offer an incentive

Name one person that doesn’t like free stuff. Offering a free gift or providing a special time sensitive discount is a great way to push leads to convert. The discount doesn’t have to be something outrageous and the free gift doesn’t have to have a high monetary value. The average consumer simply can’t pass up a free offer or a limited-time discount.

Ask for the sale

How is asking for the sale ground breaking marketing advice? It’s not — it’s actually common sense, but something that many businesses just don’t do. Ask your leads if they are ready to purchase and watch how many reply “yes.” They became a lead because they were interested in what your business offers. Food for thought: if your business doesn’t ask for the sale your competitor will.

Dangle the potential ROI carrot

If your product or service has the potential to increase your lead’s return on investment, then make sure you remind them. This is asking them, “So, when are you ready to increase your revenue?” Reminding them that you are offering a solution that will help them make more money will often push them to convert.
Develop a great FAQ page on your website

Many leads won’t convert because they have questions that they need answered before they pull the trigger. Answer common questions that your leads might have and make it prominent on your website. Talk to your sales team and customer service reps to put together a list of common frequently asked questions. Take a look at this excellent FAQ page for Hulu to see what a great FAQ looks like.

Set a time limit

Establish a “no communication” deadline to remove unresponsive leads from your marketing funnel. Example: “We have not heard from you in 30 days. Even though this will be our final communication, please feel free to reach out to us in the future if you have any questions.” This will often cause a reaction — and if it doesn’t then it prevents your sales team from wasting valuable time and energy on a dead lead.

Simple follow-up

A quick follow-up email or phone call asking your leads if they have any additional questions will often get them back into purchase mode. This is an effective way of quickly converting leads into sales before a lot of time passes. My company immediately contacts all of the leads that are generated through our website and then we also follow-up with them a few days later, offering to answer any questions that they might have. The simple follow-up will close a large percentage of leads for virtually every industry.

 Make sure your email marketing stands out

There is a good chance that your leads are being marketed to by competitors as well, so you need to make sure that your emails stand out from the overly promotional emails that are likely to be flooding their inboxes. Include things like fun facts about your company or your local area — and make sure that your emails don’t read like overly aggressive and pushy sales letters. Clever emails really grab the attention of your leads and make your company stand out.

Ask your leads questions

If you ask your leads a question they will often reply. Something such as, “It has been over a week since we have heard from you. Have you had a chance to go over the materials and make a decision?” is a great way to apply the pressure while also opening up the dialogue to discover additional questions or concerns the lead might have.

 Target and Segment

Many small businesses adopt a one-size fits all approach to their marketing. They send the same messages and calls to action to everyone, hoping that something will stick.

Good marketing doesn’t work that way. Your customers all have unique needs, budgets, and so on. Your campaigns and messaging should reflect this.

Look at ways to segment your target audience by previous buying patterns, demographics, and other characteristics that are unique to your market. Adjust your messaging for each segment. The easiest way to do this is to segment your email lists. Then you can tweak your message (subject line, as well as email content) and call to action (your offer) for each list. Your email open rates will improve dramatically!

Focus on Your Best Prospects First

The simplest route to a quick sale is to focus on your best prospects first. This is usually achieved based on previous buying history. Though it can also be influenced by external factors such as current events or even the weather. Once you’ve identified your ideal prospects by profile, rank them by their perceived value/probability for conversion. Go after the top of the list first.

 Refine Your Pitch

In addition to adjusting your campaign messaging by segment, you should also look at what you’re actually saying. You need to talk about your business in a way that’s going to make customers want to do business with you. This is where your value proposition comes in.

Work on communicating concisely to your customers. Tell them what you do, what problem you solve, how your business is different, and how your customer’s life/organization will be different after doing business with you.

Use Landing Pages

Don’t send out emails or ads that just link back to your home page. Create a dedicated landing page on your website for each campaign. If you send prospects to your home page, it’s up to them to navigate around looking for an offer. That’s a sure fire way of losing that new prospect from the get go.

Include content on your landing page that’s relevant to the message or offer you sent. If you send out an offer to a specific industry, make sure your landing page includes messaging specifically for them.

Warm Your Leads with the Sales Funnel

Converting leads can take time if your products have a complex sales cycle or are high-cost. The sales funnel (awareness – interest – sale) has a lot of places leads can drop off. It’s important that your marketing campaigns plan to nurture those leads through each stage. Consider this example:

A customer is interested in purchasing IT security software. The seller could nurture that customer through the sales funnel by educating and engaging them through the following steps:

• Offer content and information that educates the prospect about IT security via a blog, white paper, video, etc.
• Encourage them to sign up for your email list (with the promise of good info)
• Buyers do their research online, so have a PR strategy that gets you media coverage and third-party reviews
• Put together an email campaign that sends interesting content to new email sign-ups
• Send them special offers to sign-up for a free trial or consultation
• Follow up with a sales call, and possibly a sale

This will help ensure you generate more leads, close more sales and can … Don’t wait for customers to contact you, go out and find them using one of … You will be surprised by how quickly that help and effort will turn into.. .