10 TIPS ON HOW TO CONVERT PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS.

Not all of your prospects are going to pass through your automated sales funnel and automatically convert into customers as you intend. Sometimes it requires a little outside assistance to get them to bite.

Here are some simple but great and impactful 10 tips to convert leads into customers.

COMMUNICATE VALUE FIRST:
Focus on bringing value into the life of your customers. People dislike those who only care about getting a sale out of them. Aim to improve your customer’s life and focus on addressing your customers needs.
People don’t care about your solution, it’s all about their relief. Act as a mentor with great expertise in your field of operation. If you are the point of contact for potential customers, they will also trust your judgment and solutions to their problems.

IDENTIFY THEIR PROBLEM:
You need to identify the problem that the lead is experiencing. Have a different approach every time you ask a question, as it gets a conversation started. This is a good way to open up a dialogue and to uncover questions or concerns the prospect might have.

HAVE A SOLID MARKETING STRATEGY:
In today’s competitive marketing space, the days of casting a wide net and hoping for the best with your marketing efforts are over. To convert more prospects into customers, you need a thoughtful strategy that delineates how you plan to attract your customers, what it will take to keep them engaged, and what kind of results you are hoping to achieve along the way. When crafting your strategy, take into account your customer personas and how each of them will benefit from doing business with you. Identify different outreach methods and messaging that highlight the products and features your prospects will likely find most appealing. Using this information, develop a go-to-market plan that outlines how you plan to engage these prospects at every stage of the buyer journey.

HAVE THE RIGHT CONTENT STRATEGY IN PLACE TO ATTRACT PROSPECTS:
Identifying and developing quality content takes time and effort. Unfortunately, many marketers fail to realize that they need to develop specific pieces before they actually need to use them for a campaign or other marketing effort, such as customer prospecting. In this scenario, many marketers often have to change course or wait until a specific piece is created and approved before presenting it to their target audience. In both situations, marketers are vulnerable to losing their leads to a competitor that is ready to deliver the right content to their prospect at the right time.

ASK FOR THE SALE:
Simply asking for a sale is nothing new or innovative, but it’s a crucial part of the conversion process. It seems like common sense, yet a surprising amount of people don’t do it. Ask your prospects if they are ready to get started and watch how many say “yes.” They wouldn’t have gotten this far if they didn’t have initial interest in becoming a customer. If you don’t ask for the sale, your competition will.

DON’T MAKE THEM WAIT:
Leads are a fresh commodity and aren’t meant to wait until the next day. Make your first contact as soon as possible, because levels of interest drops dramatically after just one hour. Don’t give your lead the opportunity to lose interest in your product or to move on to a competitor. It’s crucial to set up internal routines for following up leads.

GAIN THEIR TRUST:
People buy the person first, and then the product. Therefore, always be genuine and friendly. Speaking the truth makes it easier to gain people’s trust, so have a real and honest dialog with them. Every meeting should be a conversation, not a sales pitch. Spend at least half of every meeting listening to your customer. Make the conversation about real business issues, so that the customer views you as an expert.

REMEMBER THEM:
Smart entrepreneurs know that it’s necessary to spend time with your customers. This might seem folly, that’s not really the case. Several studies have shown that leads are more likely to convert into customers when they don’t feel rushed. It’s your task to make every lead feel individually remembered and respected.

SET A DEAD-LINE:
Establish a “no communication” deadline to remove prospects from your funnel. Example: “We have not heard from you in 30 days. While this will be our final communication, feel free to contact us in the future if you are in the position to move forward.”

This will often get their attention — and if it doesn’t then it will prevent you from wasting any more time and energy on a dead prospect.

FOLLOW-UP:
Keep your leads in purchase-mode by following up via email or phone calls.
This is a great way to quickly convert them into a customer before too much time passes. All of the leads you generate should be contacted immediately and followed up with a couple of days later. You want to make sure they are as successful as possible with the product and all their questions are answered.

In the end, cold prospects are just as their name suggests: cold. Unlike the referral or lead that may come in ready to buy, the proactive outreach meeting usually starts at square one. It is your responsibility to heat it up through proper targeting, planning, and process management.

Do this and you too can turn more cold prospects into new clients.