Many companies build comprehensive online marketing strategies to drive traffic to their websites. What happens once the traffic arrives at their doorsteps?
How you interact with that web visitor influences whether the visitor becomes a client, a referral source, a follower, or useless. How you respond will help you close more sales with less Follow-Up Fatigue (FUF).
Why Did Someone Inquire?
Here are 3 questions to consider:
- What information do your web visitors ask about?
- What is the purpose of your Contact Us form?
- What landing pages have you created to receive inbound inquiries?
Many companies use autoresponders to acknowledge the inquiry and say thank you. Acknowledgment is expected but has a limited impact. It’s what happens next.
What is Your Offer?
What do you offer a web visitor in exchange for their contact data? Web visitors are wary and curious and seek value for their info. Your offer may be an eBook or discount, as long as it is perceived as valuable.
Here are 2 examples of offers:
- Marie’s Flowers promotes its “Flower of the Month Club” in email campaigns, using a landing page with a 10% off when you sign up. Marie’s Flowers has averaged 10 new Club members monthly since starting its campaigns.
- Bob’s Insurance Agency buys leads and sends each lead a series of personalized emails with a link for a free consultation. Bob’s landing page has great content, and his closing rate is exceptional.
In Marie’s case, flowers bring joy. In Bob’s case, insurance brings peace of mind. In both cases, their buyers saw value.
How Do I Manage my Inbound Requests?
“I’ve got a lot of inbound inquiries and I can’t handle them,” said one business owner.
How you respond depends upon the inquiry, what you sell, and your sales cycle. Since you must engage with an inquirer multiple times to build a relationship and make a sale, making your CRM the center of your response efforts becomes critical.
Imagine that an inbound web inquiry is made asking for a quote. Your CRM, tied directly to your web form, jumps into action as follows:
- Sales rep #1 is notified and gets 30 minutes to respond. At 30 minutes, the inquiry is passed to sales rep #2 if sales rep #1 does not respond.
- Email #1 is sent to the requester thanking them and telling them to expect a quote within 2 hours.
- Sales rep #1 or 2 responds with a call, confirms the specs, and delivers the quote.
- Email #2 confirms the quote and is triggered by Sales rep entry of the date in the contact record.
- Emails #3-5 focus on the product’s benefits with calls to action.
- Sales rep receives reminders to call prospects after emails #3-5.
You, the owner, or sales manager, can see each prospect’s progression through your sales process by viewing the sales funnel with dollar values by stage.
It Only Counts When You Close
It is great to get web visitors to submit a web inquiry. Closing sales is the goal so responding to inbound inquiries with empathy and urgency builds buyer confidence.
As a business owner or VP of Sales, managing inbound leads with your CRM brings you closer to prospects and frees you to focus on your best prospects and clients.
If you do not have a CRM, or your CRM is not working for you, let’s meet.
