What System Do You Use To Convert Leads Into Customers?

First off, we have to say, we’ve been blown away at the number of requests to talk with us about your marketing. One of the reasons why there is such a gap between posts is the number of people who’ve taken us up on our offer of a free 30 minute consult.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Today’s post…

No System To Convert Leads Into Customers = No Revenue

This should come as no surprise to you. Having a fool proof system to convert your leads into customers is critical to your long term success.

In talking with business owners for the past couple of weeks, it seems that everyone is seeing a slip in their business. Let’s face it, all of us had it pretty easy in business for some time. Only to see the rug ripped out from under us in the past 18 months.

Most businesses have no simple and fool proof way to follow up with a lead. What they have is a mumble jumble mess of half systems that might work if someone is paying attention.

Let me give you an example.

Recently we had a client in our office that does 7 figures a year in coaching. They sell a very high end coaching program to a very selective niche. What is amazing, is they have no system to follow up with a lead once it’s in the system. The sales have just sort of happened.

Granted they are  bit more sophisticated than most businesses.You have to be in order to get up to 7  figures a year. We made a few suggestions to improve their system.

I’ll share those in just a moment, but first let me tell why this system is built the way it’s built.

In today’s economy, your customers are looking for something very easy for you to create. They want a relationship with a provider they can trust. Which leads me to some very key insights we’ve discovered when it comes to converting more leads into more sales.

1. Don’t sell right off the bat. That’s like asking someone to marry you over the first cup of coffee. Sure it happens, but it happens less than you think.

2. Communicate in a mediums other than email. It is unstable and isn’t always delivered and read by the prospect.  Some of your prospects don’t like reading email and wish you’d do something else…

3. Picking up the phone is a lost art. We have personally and for a number of our clients made huge positive financial impacts by hiring virtual customer service reps to call and follow up with a prospect and see how we may serve them and their needs. (More on this later)

4. Don’t think your prospect is just like you. Too many times we have a customer in our office and they’ll say: “I love email, it’s my favorite way to communicate. I don’t like it when someone calls me.” Yes, that may be true, but for everyone of you, there is someone like me who prefers to get on the phone and get it handled.

When you bypass using the phone, you bypass over 33% of your prospects base prefer way of communication.

The bottom line is this, if you are not happy with the number of conversions of leads to customers, take a look at your systems. Maybe you need to add a phone calling program, monthly newsletter or you’re asking for the sale too soon. Fine tune your systems and you’ll see a dramatic increase in sales.

Okay, next we’ll hit our next topic which is all about your Pay Per Click online campaigns.

Best,

Bob and Matt

Are You Less Than Happy With Your Website Results?

Let me ask you a simple question…

Are you happy with the results of your web site, online marketing and/or pay per click campaign?

In my conversations with customers and prospects every week, most people are less than happy with the leads and the sales they get from their site.

As I take the time to review each site, I notice there are three key components missing or seriously deficient in their site or online strategy.

First, the site is not designed to maximize the number of conversions from visitors to leads. It would be like having an ad run for your store, but then you forgot to open the door for business.

Second, they don’t have a process and system to convert the lead into buyer.

Third, the pay per click campaigns don’t synch up with the offer on the site.

Finally, they skimp on their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and use outdated tools to try and rig the system, only to find those tools don’t provide long term success.

I am going to take a few moments through the upcoming weeks to breakdown each of these issues. Mind you this information is determined from our work with clients in 30 plus industries.

If you have a starting company this will help you build your plan. If you are a successful company looking to grow more, then you’ll find these useful and helpful.

One final comment. There is nothing that is going to be sold at all. This is not some kind of warm up to a big launch. Sure, some of you (a very small number… less than 1%) might be a good fit for our company and our service, but that’s not the intent.

Our intent is simple. Get the truth out into the market place.

You will find, however, an opportunity at the bottom of each email to have 45 minutes with me on the phone to review your site and strategies.

Again, no obligation and there is no hidden charge. All I ask is…

** Your company is doing minimum of $750,000 a year. (Or has done consistently)

** You are not selling MLM, affiliate programs or anything like that.

** You be open and honest with me on the phone and in the pre call questionaires. It helps me help you.

Okay, be on the lookout for an email in the next day where I’ll start discussing the four points in more detail.

Best,

Matt Gillogly

Chief Marketing Officer – RJR Computing

When Your 7 Figure Business Becomes A 5 Figure Business

Throughout 2009 I witnessed a business phenomenon. It wasn’t hyper growth, it wasn’t technological breakthroughs in Twitter and Facebook. Nor did it have anything to do with new slick offers that work online and offline.

No, the phenomenon had to do with once largely successful companies going from 7 figures a year to doing 1/10^th of that one year later.

It would be easy to point a finger and say it was the economy, the Wall Street issues or that the consumer ran out of credit.

The simple fact is this, business changes and when it changes it changes quickly. If you don’t change quickly then you will become road kill.

I can speak to this in my own business.

Last year at this time our typical customer was a start up that had generated maybe $100,000 in sales, offered up coaching or membership site. Or they had a new idea they wanted to test out.  These customers paid us anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 a month for lead generation.

Today, our typical customer is someone who is already doing 7 figures (or was doing 7 figures consistently) who has a proven program, offering or service.  They have some online presence but have not really perfected a system of getting leads online and converting them into long term customers.

This customer takes a long term view and understands that investing in the growth a business takes time and money. And they are willing to invest in both.

They are willing to test many different new ways to get in customers and realize that when something doesn’t work, it’s not a failure/end of the world, it’s just part of the process.  They don’t just need leads, they need perfected conversion systems that convert the leads into buyers. Plus someone to set up and manage the statistics of how a program works, whether it’s successful and what is the return on investment.

The great thing is this customer is willing pay $8,000 to $15,000 a month for our services and willing to sign a long term contract (one year or more) to accomplish this goal.

As you can see our typical client changed and they changed quickly. If you would have told me a year ago that our business/customer focus would change so much, I’d laugh at you.

The reality is, in our current economy, it is easier to sell a high end product/service vs. selling one that inexpensive. We can service our clients better, get more involved in their business and give them results based on statistics vs. theory.

It was a huge mind shift for our team. There have been and continue to be long lonely nights of wondering if we made the right move, but we are seeing proof.

We have to learn to deal with more ‘Nos’ vs. the ‘Yes’. Our sales processes have had to change. (More on that later) Most importantly our service offering has had to become quick, streamlined and more service oriented.

It takes us longer to convert a lead into a customer but it is much more gratifying in the end.

You might be asking yourself how this applies to your business. Well if you business is down, you might be in a niche or industry that is dead, dying or rotting.  It is in those places that we find the hidden rich veins of new businesses.

Ask yourself what has changed, where is the business going and most importantly what does the customer need now more than ever.

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