Utilize a CRM and Report Results to us.

All leads need to be received by a CRM, or a program that helps you to manage your prospects (by taking notes, scheduling appointments, and tracking performance). Additionally, our lead advisors can receive your reports and help to increase performance, by implementing procedure, suggestions, and tactics. We encourage all clients to send us your CRM or lead management reports, so that we can help you gain more clients!

Utilize Call Recording / tracking.

When you are making calls to leads, or receiving call-backs, it is essential to measure statistics such as call length, call quality, the callback rate, closing percentage, etc.

Utilize a Call Center or “Opener” to Schedule Appointments.

We recommend having a system that supports the various stages of a sales cycle. Because these business owners are busy doing their jobs, making first contact is often times the most difficult step. By focusing on the opening stage of the sales cycle, you can dramatically increase your contact rate, which leads to a better closing rate. This is especially true with the hotlist, because these prospects may not have a clear recollection of their previous quote request. The introduction to the call needs to be consultative /helpful, informative, low-pressure, and non-abrasive. Rather than feeling like they are obligated to speak with you, it should be more along the lines of you asking the prospect if they are open to discussing your service.

Phone calls (timing and number of attempts)

With standard leads, we recommend being fairly aggressive on the phone, to maximize the connection rate. The sense of urgency and timeliness and not as applicable to the hot list program, due to the fact that these prospects are not waiting on consultants to get back to them. For this reason, using the hotlist as a “filler” in between fresh leads, or to give as a training list for newer sales people, are both ideal scenarios.

You wouldn’t want to send the hotlist to your top closers, b/c there will be a lot of time “wasted” simply reaching the prospect, to get them on the phone. It’s much more effective to have a call center or opener team to re-introduce the idea to the prospect, and then set an appointment for a sales person. If you still don’t reach them over the phone, we recommend leaving a short voice and also follow up with an email:

“Hello , I wanted to speak regarding your [service requested] and how we may be able to assist with your business growth and needs. In the past you may have communicated with some consultants, and may or may not have made a decision to utilize one of the groups with whom you corresponded. Are are you available today or tomorrow, to discuss briefly?”

Voice Mails

With the hot list, we recommend leaving voice mails only after first trying to reach the person 3-4 times. Because there is less of a sense of urgency to let the prospect know about your services, we find that it’s most effective if you make the introduction over the phone. Only if the prospect isn’t reached after several attempts, should the voice mail be left.  See our 5 Tips to Leaving Voicemails

Email Marketing

We strongly recommend supplementing your appointment setting or “opener” phone calls, with an email marketing campaign. Our hotlist clients tend to see the best results when operating the hotlist as a passive growth plan. This means when you receive the list of updated hotlist contacts from Web Leads, you should load them into your email marketing service, and send them a basic short message. The message should contain a very brief introduction of your company and why you are contacting them. It should end with a question, such as “when is a good time to reach you?” or “Are you open to receiving some more details?” By making your email communication conversational, it builds rapport with the prospect, and doesn’t make them feel like they are being sold (we want to avoid this as much as possible).

Conversion

Please keep close tabs with us as far as how you’re doing with the leads. It is essential that we see exports from your CRM, so that we can maintain visibility into your conversion %. Doing so helps us to act as great consultants and help you to reach the numbers you want to hit in terms of sales revenue and growth.

Script:

When you or your sales agents contact the leads, you can say “Hi, I’m reaching out from [your company name] b/c it looks you may have had some contact in the past with an online marketing or web site consultant. I’m following up to see if by chance I could resend you our info, and show you how we can help you grow your business online?”.

We take a very non-abrasive approach of sales, b/c it’s what most folks truly appreciate. We want to make a genuine connection with the prospect, especially if they do not remember their previous interaction with Web Leads or the online marketing consultants that contacted them. Simply ask them questions about their business and get a feel for what they’re looking to accomplish. Ask them if they know much about SEO, PPC or web design, give them a brief synopsis of why you’re “different than other companies” and how specifically you would approach their account. Let them know you’ll be sending everything you discussed in an email, for them to review.

Follow up emails

From this point the prospect needs to be added to a weekly / bi-weekly email “drip”, which goes back to the point about “follow up” email messages. In addition, you should call the prospect every 3 days after sending the actual quote / proposal. Here’s a video, please check this out!  http://webleadsinc.com/videos.html