Generating and Converting Qualified Leads Through Your Website

Closing leads through your website requires a 3-step conversion process. Make sure you don't trip along the way.

March 19, 2007

Every salesman wants new leads. Good leads! The Glengarry leads! (minor digression here - If you're in sales and you haven't seen Glengarry Glen Ross then you need to rent it today). Good leads make salespeople happy. At least for a little while. They're happy until they figure out the leads aren't that good, or until they figure out they're not such a good salesperson - good leads or not.

There are a number of ways you can cultivate leads on the Internet. You could use your own website, an email list, a 3rd party website that you advertise on or any number of other methods that are available for getting your message out. Since most companies have a website, let's examine how they might get the most out of it.

Think of closing Internet leads as a 3-step process. First, you have to convert browsers to visitors. Unless you've got a really popular company, or you've conducted a major offline campaign to promote your website, not many people are going sit down and type your URL into their address bar. No, they'll have to find your site while they're browsing, either through search engines or some form of online advertising.

We won't go into the various ways to attract visitors, but you should always try to attract the the "right type" of browser - one who truly has an interest in your product or service. Anything else is unqualified traffic and serves no purpose in this admittedly myopic view of your online campaign. If you're relying on search engines for traffic, be sure your site is properly optimized to attract quality traffic. If you're advertising online, try to target an audience that is as specific as possible. Web traffic costs money (even if it's free organic traffic from search engines - you had to build the site and optimize it, right?). Why waste that money on visitors who have no interest in whatever it is you're pitching?

Speaking of pitching, the next step is converting visitors to leads. This is where you hit them with your "sales" pitch. If you're wanting to sell widgets, you'd better have a sales pitch for widgets on the first page the qualified visitor lands on. We see example after example of companies that fail miserably at this. Their site is loaded with all kinds of information, but selling widgets is buried among pages and pages about Investor Relations, Press Releases, Corporate Officers, Company History and whatnot. If you want to attract and convert leads, don't send the visitors to your corporate "ego site". Create a new site specifically for selling widgets, or at least build a separate page or sub-domain that has no other distractions for the interested buyer.

Finally the third step is converting leads into sales, or closes. On e-commerce sites you simply need to make sure your sales process is clear, friendly and easy. Don't make it difficult for someone to buy from you. 

If you're simply acquiring leads to pass on to your sales force or lead processors, it's critical that they understand the unique mentality of the Internet shopper. By its very nature, the Internet caters to those individuals seeking immediate gratification. They want things NOW and the Internet is right there just waiting to serve.

Knowing this, how long should you wait before contacting someone who's submitted a lead through your website? Based on our studies, we recommend contacting a potential lead within 30 minutes or less. If you're waiting longer than that, you're not alone, but you are hindering your chance of success. The longer you wait, the more time that shopper has to keep shopping.

In summary, strive to attract qualified traffic, make sure your website is "selling" or at least "qualifying" potential leads, and follow-up immediately with those leads that do come through your system.

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Bob Viering, Director of Marketing
Vertical Alliance Group, Inc. Dallas, Texas
www.verticalag.com
www.basicunitofwealth.com
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