Attract: The Process of How To Attract Leads
Successful businesses know how to grab and keep their ideal prospects attention and turn them into happy customers. But how do you attract leads? Not just any prospect, but high-quality leads to your business? And more importantly, how do you turn them into paying customers?
The Lead Generation Story
Effective lead generation (or ‘LeadGen’ for short) is all about attracting the right prospective customers to your business who will have a genuine interest in whatever you have to offer. Whilst that may seem quite straight forward, and perhaps an obvious statement, there’s a whole lot more to lead generation than first meets the eye.
Many business owners enjoy a lot of traffic to their business – be it to their website, on social media, or people visiting their physical store – but converting them into paying customers takes time, energy, and patience.
Think about this for a second…
Have you ever gone into a shop or a store just to browse and get out of the rain? If so, you also probably had no intention of buying anything and left empty handed. If you were asked by a sales assistant if they could help you, you probably replied, “Just browsing thanks!” and that was the end of the conversation.
Now compare this to a visitor who needs a particular product or service and actively seeks out your store regardless of the weather. When they arrive, they have a pretty good idea of what they want. They are also willing to engage with the sales assistant to gather the information they need to make a decision.
As long as you can satisfy their needs and give them what they want, you’ll probably make a sale and they’ll leave a happy customer.
The ‘browsers’ are random prospects, and the purposeful shoppers are your quality leads. Like all small business, you have limited resources so – who would you want to spend your precious time with?
Quality Leads – Right?
Of course you would, because you’ll stand more chance of making a sale – and ultimately that’s why you’re in business!
Let’s take a look at how we can identify your quality leads and separate them from your random prospects – the whole process can be broken down into three simple steps…
Step 1. Know Your Customer
It starts with knowing, REALLY KNOWING, your customer.
- What do they want?
- Why do they want it?
- What problem are they trying to solve?
- How will your product or service solve their problem?
- How much are they prepared to pay?
- Why should they trust you to help them solve their problem rather than your competitors?
Time invested to really understand your customers wants and needs will pay dividends many times over. There are many good examples of successful companies who do this, and they often understand their customers better than their customers know themselves. Apple, Uber Amazon and Google are just a few examples that spring to mind.
Step 2. Generate Leads
You need to be able to distinguish the 'browsers' from those prospects who are 'seriously interested'. The easiest way to do this is to offer to start a relationship. You can do this by offering something of value to them in exchange for their email address and other contact details. You can then have a meaningful conversation with them as you discover more about them and identify where they are in their buying journey.
This step is the equivalent of asking a room full of mixed prospects - 'browsers' and 'seriously interested' - to divide themselves into two groups so you know who to invest time with.
The key thing here is to have something that will be of great value to those who are 'seriously interested'. This is often referred to as a 'Lead Magnet' and is designed to identify and attract your quality prospects who can readily identify their problems with the solution you have to offer.
Valuable information in a downloadable PDF, a webinar invitation, or even a free trial are all examples of 'Lead Magnets'. And here's a key point - they should be designed to make it easy for your quality leads to take the next step in their learning journey.
Step 3. Manage and Qualify Your Prospects
Congratulations! Your quality prospects have identified themselves and exchanged their contact details for something of great value to them. You now:
- Know who they are,
- Have stored their information in your Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
- Know they are willing to continue the conversation
However, not everyone who has expressed an interest will be ready to buy right now! In fact, research shows that only 3-5% of prospects fall into this group. The other 95-97% need time and you have to wait until they're ready to take the next step. In the meantime, you have to retain their interest and keep at the front of their mind until they're ready to whip out their wallets and place an order.
These leads need to be nurtured. You need to keep reminding them you exist as you build a strong relationship with them so that over time, they begin to trust you. Email is an excellent customer relationship building tool because it allows you to have a meaningful and personalised conversation with them. It also allows you to continually demonstrate how you can help them achieve their goals and objectives, and solve their problems.
So there you have it!
That's an overview of the three steps to generating quality leads that will help you drive your business forward. The key is to invest your time, energy and other resources with those prospects who identify themselves as being seriously interested in what you have to offer.
The good news is that all genuine prospects go through pretty much the same steps - which makes it a repeatable process and hence relatively easy to automate. When you have a system in place to handle this, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Business also becomes more fun, because you're talking to people who really want to talk to you.
So tell me...
Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
If generating a consistent supply of quality leads is holding your business back, then a short discovery call may give you the insights you've been looking for.
