Why marketing can't fix a clunky sales process...

There’s nothing worse than a bucket load of leads in your inbox and no sales to show for it. If you’ve ever experienced this kind of challenge in business, you’ll know that marketing and sales need to work closely together to deliver better business outcomes.?

As a marketing agency that partners exclusively with clients in high-ticket niches, we get it… simply generating leads and appointments isn’t the ‘golden ticket’ to help you consistently add $50-70k in monthly revenues.

Yet, on average, our best clients are hitting that goal within 90 days of working with us. How?

Instead of simply generating leads and appointments, we make it a priority to get under the hood of your business and optimise your sales process so that not only would you be able to convert your leads into meaningful deals, but also so that you and your team don’t have to feel like ‘sleazy salespeople’. At the end of the day, none of us LIKE to sell, right?

So it’s important to transition your sales process from one that’s uncomfortable for you and your prospects (and to be honest, a process isn’t actually working for you), into one that’s a natural conversation. And because it feels natural, it helps you convert more enquiries into deals at around 30-50% higher than you would have been doing otherwise.?

Our best clients focus intently on a disciplined set of processes that make sales conversations feel natural, helping both their teams and their potential clients to feel comfortable throughout the process. The reward? Consistently higher real returns from lead generation campaigns over time.

Additionally, our best clients have a strong feedback loop created between marketing and sales, meaning that we are able to optimise front end advertising based on real-time high quality feedback from sales teams.

It takes a real team effort between marketing and sales.

So, what can service-based businesses do to drive higher real returns from their advertising investment?

From a lead generation standpoint, here are 5 things that services industry businesses can leverage to drive higher conversions from inbound enquiries...

#1 - Respond to your enquiries quickly (for some niches we work with, we recommend within 5 minutes). Make it an expectation for your sales team and appointment setters. If you want leads to answer their phones when you call, then make sure to call them within minutes of their enquiry.

#2 - Persistence is key. If someone has taken the time to submit an enquiry via your advertising campaigns, then they're genuinely interested in wanting to be contacted. But people are busy. So don't just call them once and leave it. Call back at different times in the day over a few different days. They'll be grateful you tried.

#3 - Use scripts and follow a process to QUALIFY your leads before offering to book them in for an appointment or sales presentation. If you aren't qualifying your enquiries before booking them in for appointments, then it's likely your no-show rates downstream will be sky-high. Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Don’t assume your enquiries are fully aware of your service or your offer. Ask open ended questions that help you to develop an understanding of their problem, needs, timing and most importantly, figure out if and how you can actually help them!

#4 - Create scripts for common objections that your team receives when speaking to leads on the phone. Typically, "how much does [xyz] service cost?" is one of the most common questions early in the enquiry process. This is often just a fear-based objection. Does your team have a script for handling these objections? Or do they just do they just 'wing it' and hope for the best? Well handled objections will help your leads to feel more comfortable and reduce their sales defences. An empathetic approach will even help to build trust.

What if you could go deeper and find out what else is important to your prospect, putting “cost” aside for a minute. You might find out that they really value great service, or high quality or a personalised approach.

#5 - Use automated nurturing sequences to stay in touch with your inbound leads and offer ongoing value through this process. People may be at different stages of their buying journey, so a well-established nurturing process will help you to stay front of mind when prospects are ready to engage.

If you found these tips helpful, then go ahead and implement them into your business straight away! If you’d like some additional free resources, then reach out. We will be happy to share scripts, guides or even recorded 1:1 training videos with our clients to help you with specific areas in your business that you’re currently wanting to improve.