Maybe you get hundreds of leads per month, or just a few, the one thing that is seemingly inescapable though is most leads are bad. You know the ones, you call or email and they want to know how you got their information, or worse yet, you get hung up on. The reason why this is happening isn't always so simple to diagnose, but getting to the root of it will mean more closed deals. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Where Your Leads Come From
If you're focusing lead efforts on social media, then you likely have seen more bad leads than most businesses. There's typically a reason for this...you made it too easy. Yes, you read that right. Social Media users are notorious for viewing promoted posts, or ads and clicking Call to Action buttons without a second thought or any intent of being considered a "lead". Most social media platforms consider a click to be a conversion or lead regardless of any action the person may or may not make afterward. However, they're all too happy to charge you for them though.
What can you do?
Qualify, qualify, qualify. This means adding more to your ads or posts than simple buttons to be clicked. Selling HVAC services? Build some questions into your lead forms asking about budget, timing, or common issues. Trying to get a potential solar customer to book an appointment? Ask for more than a name and email and find out how long they've been looking and when they want to purchase. These steps will do two things:
1) You'll get less "fluff" (people who only clicked submit because you had a pretty post or nice call to action)
2) The leads you do get will have a much higher rate of closing because asking for more information equals more serious leads
Did you pay for them?
Lead mills exist and paying for leads from 3rd-party companies can seem like a good idea when it's getting to be the end of the month and nothing has closed. The problem though is that the leads you're getting are likely being sold to multiple companies and called on multiple times even daily. Put yourself in their shoes, would you want to buy anything or meet with anyone if 8 people were calling you about the same thing? This practice is especially common for Solar companies and other Home Service industries.
You need quality leads that are exclusive, and most of all ready to buy, even if it's not right away. How can you get them then? Check out these resources, or if you have questions, we'd love to help.
