Marbella SEO

Sales leads are not typically covered in sales training books or courses as thoroughly as other parts of the sales process such as closing the sale.  The sales process begins with generating leads, so it is important to understand as much as you can about them in order for your business to be as profitable as possible. 

Are you able to name the number of leads you got over the last month? Most people can answer that question with a handful of leads that have high potential or resulted in a sale, but a large number of potential leads fall out of the process, sacrificing possible sales. 

So, what’s the big deal anyway?  The more you know about your leads the more successful your business will be, because generating leads is the first step to making sales.  And, wouldn’t it be worth it to use some of the things you learn about your leads to cut marketing costs or the time you spend getting leads? 

Your first action plan is to create a way to track key information about the ways that you generate your leads.  Here are a few areas to start analyzing: 

1. What is the main venue through which you get your leads? Before a lead becomes a lead, they are only prospects – someone who visits your website or that you meet at a networking group.  Identify your main sources for gathering prospects, such as the Internet, trade shows, networking events, or direct advertising.

2. What “specific sources” do your leads come from? Organic search, PPC, a specific networking event, another website, response to a blog post on someone else’s blog, or a specific advertising campaign are all examples of specific lead sources.

3. Last, what quality would you rank the leads you get from the sources you defined in the earlier steps?  An effective way to come up with this is to assign a percent value to every lead a source provides.  So, if a lead actually results in a sale, it receives a higher percentage value than one that expressed interest but didn’t get past the proposal stage.

Once you know where your best leads originate, you will find you are able to spend your marketing dollars and your time much more efficiently. 

Get more small business success strategies and claim your free white paper: “7 Ways Your Stone-Age Accounting System is Stealing Money From You Every Day … And, How to Get it Back This Year”  to learn about an online accounting program that makes it simple to track your leads and conversion rates.