Sales Funnel Golf — Game Of Cold Traffic
If you are in the business of providing leads for people, it won’t be long until you hear these words uttered from the mouth of your “Darling Client” or “Super Sales Person.” These are also the words that will send a chill up your spine.
If you are new to this business, it will result in your panicking.
However, if you are seasoned, you will know there to two responses to this statement.
Give up and look for some other magical lead source.
Assess how they can better educate and segment your leads from the cold traffic source and increase conversions.
What’s sad is that the hardest part of the battle has been won. That’s the generating the leads.
Let’s face it; most people struggle to produce leads for multiple reasons. They struggle to generate leads from sources that allow them to scale their business. I mean this does not require you to attend those “networking” events and hustle like Tarzan swinging from branch to branch desperately trying to cling onto anyone that is fogging a mirror.
What’s funny is that you have a campaign that is generating leads which are part of the battle.
Now the next stage of this battle is optimizing the leads and marketing to them in a way that greases the slide to make the sale easier. Think of this as “Sales Funnel Golf.”
However, that’s not what happens when most people experience the reverb of these words.
The words your client, or sales team will say will go something like this:
“The leads suck!”
“The leads are bad.”
The reality is that there are several problems here and let’s address each one.
- Expectations
- Cold Traffic Vs Word of Mouth Referrals
- Communicating with the leads
- Your Sales Funnel is like playing golf
Expectations
You need to set clear expectations and understand that these leads have responded to the bait you went fishing with to generate leads.
They have said I have a problem and I am looking for a solution. But I want you to engage me to buy.
They are not usually not at the point where they are yelling from the rooftops begging you to take their money.
If you have been living on “word of mouth marketing” you may be used to a higher closing ratio when you are given a referral lead.
You treat your cold traffic leads as the same as a referral lead. Expecting that 90% of these leads are going to just ask you wants next and how to I give you my black AMEX card or blank cheque. This does not happen.
When your sales people or client starts receiving leads left and right and they leads are varying stages other than the order taking stage, they get frustrated.
This is usually when they forget the benefits of having a sales pipeline full of leads at different stages of closing. This requires time and continued conversation with these leads and identifying the problems and needs of your leads to better present your solution.
Let me get something clear for you.
Cold leads from sources like Google, Facebook or other paid traffic sources do not convert like word of mouth referrals. Just ain’t possible. Mainly because a trusted 3rd party is recommended you to this “referral” . As a result they are trusting the referring party and testing you. They will blame the referring party if things go bad.
You also have to deal with the strength of the relationship between the referring parties and how did their last referral work out. If it was great you are going to close this person fast. If it was a bad experience you are going to find a lot of resistance with this “referral” lead.
These games do no happen with cold traffic leads.
That’s where you leverage your sales funnel
Sales Funnel Golf
Sales funnels are like golf in the following way.
The drive off the tee towards the green is the lead generation process. You smacked a powerful long drive down the fairway. Placing the ball just a short chip from the green which is right in front of you.
That’s what it’s like when generating a lead.
Then you use marketing initiatives to better educate and qualify this lead like videos, webinars, tele-summits, email marketing and even live events. This is the short game aka the on the green putting in golf.
Think of the first report, webinar or email you send the cold lead as the “Chip” from the fairway to the green.
You are trying to tap that little white ball “Your lead” as close to the hole “the order form aka the sale” as possible.
Sales funnel optimization is all about improving your short game. So you can create those sales faster and easier than ever before.
It’s like knowing that 90% of the time when you chip that ball onto the green it will be within 2 inches of the pin (hole). This allows you to softly tap the ball and it falls into the hole with ease.
Now how does this apply to you with these “crap cold traffic leads?”
This is where you need to assess your sales funnel and determine how are you marketing to your leads to support your sale efforts. The better your marketing the faster your leads will convert into buyers.
The challenge is creating good marketing requires a great deal of effort. More than you will first expect.
And certainly, more than your client or sales team has ever done before.
That’s why it not uncommon for them to give up right now.
This is the stage where the expectation should change and become about understanding exactly who your leads are and their biggest problems or frustrations. This will allow you to then create better marketing materials to help you convert sales.
This will require work.
You need to set this expectation clearly that there are 2 stages.
- Lead Generation
- Lead Conversion.
That’s why at QuizLabs with the 101 Leads a Day system I teach people there are 3 stages.
- Connect
- Convert
- Converse
The funny thing is that the better you can converse with your leads and existing clients the more conversions you will experience. Making connecting with your leads easier and faster. If you want to know more about the 101 Leads a Day system visit www.101LeadsaDay.com
So set the clear expectation with your cold traffic leads.
Get clear that converting the leads is stage 2 of the battle. But it’s certainly better than being stuck at stage 1 and not being able to generate enough reliable leads to scale your business.
