Building a Relationship - How to convert your leads to paid customers
| Category: Selling Techniques | Date: 2003-04-01 |
An awful lot has been written about how to GET visitors to your site, how to GET leads, but very little has been written about how to turn those visitors and leads into actual sales. There is a good reason for that. When we talk about leads, we are talking about potential customers. And potential customers are INDIVIDUALS. Even the great Isaac Asimov himself in his Foundation trilogy admitted that the reaction of masses can be predicted to 99% accuracy, but individuals are totally unpredictable.
Every so often you see strategies on how to "work a lead"... these are usually reports on how a certain person with a certain personality was able to attain sales from a specific group. They mean nothing, because YOU are not that specific salesperson and your leads are not HIS leads.
So HOW DO you convert an individual from the status of "lead" to the status of "customer"? The first thing you need to do is STUDY your leads. What types of leads are they? Have they been with you for a long time or did they just climb on board to get a "freebie" you were giving out? What are their ages? What are their interests? And the
most basic of all - what are their NEEDS?
In order to gather these facts about your leads, you need to open up one or more channels of communication. You need to set up a system through which you can have acceptable contact with them on a regular basis. You have to build a relationship of TRUST.
Trust is not easily won. It takes a lot of effort to get the people you want to build a relationship with to open their side of the communication channel to begin with. Email has become almost ineffective if your target group is seasoned marketers, because
most seasoned marketers delete most of their email unread. Email, however, may work quite well with people just starting out and looking for an opportunity to join or tools to work with, or with shoppers looking for a specific product, Ezines and newsletters are a slightly better tool to build that relationship, especially if
your publication consistently offers good and valuable content, and if it's very, very targeted. For instance, an ezine targeted to a specific industry, such as music, would have a much more faithful following than an ezine targeted to internet marketing in general.
We,internet marketers, are probably the hardest lot to convert! We tend to delete ezines too!
The very BEST way to develop a relationship with your leads is on a face-to-face basis. Of course, is isn't always possible to GO VISIT someone who lives on the other side of the world, is it? Thankfully, the geniuses in Silicon Valley have even solved THAT problem for us. A lot of software exists nowadays that allows us to have a face-to-face conversation even if we live on opposite poles. Setting up a chat, a training room and/or a forum for your leads to gather is a MUST for lead development. Frequenting OTHER chats, forums etc. YOURSELF is ALSO a MUST if you wish to build credibility.
ALWAYS make a phone number available to your leads, so they can get in touch with you. Be gracious when they want to sell something to YOU. After all, if they are involved in Internet Marketing, they are just doing their job!
If you have managed to gather the information we talked about before - your customer's likes, dislikes, needs and PHONE NUMBER, you are almost there! But you haven't made the sale yet.
The next thing to do is ASK for the sale. That's right, don't be shy, go ahead and say to your prospect, "Hey, buy this, it's just what you need"! Of course, do make sure that what you are selling WILL fill the needs of the person you are offering it to.
Only a small percentage of your cold leads will become hot leads and only a small percentage of your hot leads will become your customers. It's a numbers game, and there is not much you can do about it. However, if you do follow the steps we discussed, it's more than likely that you will have REPEAT customers, and your circle of influence will slowly grow.
There ARE shortcuts... there are ALWAYS shortcuts. Allying yourself with someone who already has a large circle of influence for instance, might very well place you near the top in a much shorter period of time. Again, this is a matter of how good your "people
skills" are and whether you can grab the attention of this influential person who will endorse you or your product.
Joint ventures with others who have products that supplement your own is also another shortcut. For instance, if you are selling butter, a joint venture with someone who sells bread will more than double BOTH your customers' lists.
Overall, if you are involved in Internet Marketing you must learn to have patience. I have had people I had written off as unreachable come back to me 1 year later and become good customers. Why? Because that was when THEY were ready.
My conclusion? Yes, gather leads... as many as you can. And most important of all... keep in touch with them in any and all ways you can. Not by advertising for MORE stuff for them to buy, or by badgering them, but with genuine interest and caring.
Copyright: Amalia Sotiriadou 2002
About the author.
TGeBiz - "Your MAP to SUCCESS!"
Endless Resources, Group and Personal
Mentoring Programs. With us, the INDIVIDUAL
comes first!
talentgrid.com/business
relat_mark@kiosk.ws
http://www.talentgrid.com
Every so often you see strategies on how to "work a lead"... these are usually reports on how a certain person with a certain personality was able to attain sales from a specific group. They mean nothing, because YOU are not that specific salesperson and your leads are not HIS leads.
So HOW DO you convert an individual from the status of "lead" to the status of "customer"? The first thing you need to do is STUDY your leads. What types of leads are they? Have they been with you for a long time or did they just climb on board to get a "freebie" you were giving out? What are their ages? What are their interests? And the
most basic of all - what are their NEEDS?
In order to gather these facts about your leads, you need to open up one or more channels of communication. You need to set up a system through which you can have acceptable contact with them on a regular basis. You have to build a relationship of TRUST.
Trust is not easily won. It takes a lot of effort to get the people you want to build a relationship with to open their side of the communication channel to begin with. Email has become almost ineffective if your target group is seasoned marketers, because
most seasoned marketers delete most of their email unread. Email, however, may work quite well with people just starting out and looking for an opportunity to join or tools to work with, or with shoppers looking for a specific product, Ezines and newsletters are a slightly better tool to build that relationship, especially if
your publication consistently offers good and valuable content, and if it's very, very targeted. For instance, an ezine targeted to a specific industry, such as music, would have a much more faithful following than an ezine targeted to internet marketing in general.
We,internet marketers, are probably the hardest lot to convert! We tend to delete ezines too!
The very BEST way to develop a relationship with your leads is on a face-to-face basis. Of course, is isn't always possible to GO VISIT someone who lives on the other side of the world, is it? Thankfully, the geniuses in Silicon Valley have even solved THAT problem for us. A lot of software exists nowadays that allows us to have a face-to-face conversation even if we live on opposite poles. Setting up a chat, a training room and/or a forum for your leads to gather is a MUST for lead development. Frequenting OTHER chats, forums etc. YOURSELF is ALSO a MUST if you wish to build credibility.
ALWAYS make a phone number available to your leads, so they can get in touch with you. Be gracious when they want to sell something to YOU. After all, if they are involved in Internet Marketing, they are just doing their job!
If you have managed to gather the information we talked about before - your customer's likes, dislikes, needs and PHONE NUMBER, you are almost there! But you haven't made the sale yet.
The next thing to do is ASK for the sale. That's right, don't be shy, go ahead and say to your prospect, "Hey, buy this, it's just what you need"! Of course, do make sure that what you are selling WILL fill the needs of the person you are offering it to.
Only a small percentage of your cold leads will become hot leads and only a small percentage of your hot leads will become your customers. It's a numbers game, and there is not much you can do about it. However, if you do follow the steps we discussed, it's more than likely that you will have REPEAT customers, and your circle of influence will slowly grow.
There ARE shortcuts... there are ALWAYS shortcuts. Allying yourself with someone who already has a large circle of influence for instance, might very well place you near the top in a much shorter period of time. Again, this is a matter of how good your "people
skills" are and whether you can grab the attention of this influential person who will endorse you or your product.
Joint ventures with others who have products that supplement your own is also another shortcut. For instance, if you are selling butter, a joint venture with someone who sells bread will more than double BOTH your customers' lists.
Overall, if you are involved in Internet Marketing you must learn to have patience. I have had people I had written off as unreachable come back to me 1 year later and become good customers. Why? Because that was when THEY were ready.
My conclusion? Yes, gather leads... as many as you can. And most important of all... keep in touch with them in any and all ways you can. Not by advertising for MORE stuff for them to buy, or by badgering them, but with genuine interest and caring.
Copyright: Amalia Sotiriadou 2002
About the author.
TGeBiz - "Your MAP to SUCCESS!"
Endless Resources, Group and Personal
Mentoring Programs. With us, the INDIVIDUAL
comes first!
talentgrid.com/business
relat_mark@kiosk.ws
http://www.talentgrid.com
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