How many of you feel that your marketing efforts are doing a great job of generating leads? You probably are doing a great job as evidenced by the number of leads you are generating. But, what do you do with those leads after you’ve dumped them into your CRM database? Most marketing folks say, “Well, that’s the sales reps job to handle.” But, we all know that sales reps tend to call on only the most recent leads or former customers to whom they’ve sold products to previously. How do you increase your conversion rates for these “cold” leads?
- Qualify the leads. Determine what a qualified leads looks like to your company. And, don’t just use the term “hot” because it is a “new” lead. Check to see how many of those aged leads remain viable and for what length of time. You may be surprised to find out that there is a high percentage of prospects that you can convert to customers.
- Follow up with these aged respondents. Send follow-up information, offers, or educational information. In other words, stop ignoring these people. You may be leaving money on the table.
- Don’t get wrapped up in the chase. Even if you have done some follow up of these unconverted leads, don’t get so wrapped up in chasing new clients when you’ve failed to court these aged leads to the fullest extent. You could send them an e-mail, a promotion, or an invitation to a trade show, if they fit that category. And speaking of categories, don’t just dump all of your leads into one huge database. Do some market segmentation or clearly define other categories so that you can target your communications more effectively.
So, don’t throw away those “cold” leads. Convert them to customers.
