How to Convert Leads into Customers

We understand that at times it can be frustrating trying to convert leads into customers. There is a proven way that you can convert more leads into customers, and we want to help you and your business grow by converting more of them into profitable sales.

The best ways to convert leads to sales

• Keep contact information organised
• Follow up when you say you will
• Ask if the customer has any unanswered questions
• Keep a note of the customers interests and job requirements
• Use contact apps & notes
• Take smaller jobs
• Your appearance need to be presentable

What is a Sales Lead?

A sales lead can be anything from your friend down the pub mentioning that they know someone that is looking for some work done, someone on a Facebook group or forum asking for a particular trade or a previous customer that has mentioned further work they might want doing in the future.

These leads are all warm leads and will only be a matter of replying to the person, getting a phone number from your friend or making a note of when the customer is looking to get the work done.

Once you have a name and a way of contacting the customer, the rest of the work comes down to you and here is how you can do that to increase your win rate and convert more of these leads into profitable and happy customers.  

Keeping in Touch

Set aside time in the day or at the weekend to keep track of your leads. If someone has sent you a private message on Facebook or if a friend has sent you a text message with a phone number, take a moment to copy them over to a spreadsheet or an app to keep track of these potential customers.

You can do this on a daily basis or take 2 minutes when you receive the contact information to add this customer to your database or dairy tracking app. Google contacts is a great option for this.

Copy over the contact information. Include the person’s name, phone number and add a label to mark them as a customer. Adding them as a customer contact is key to finding them later when you want to follow up and you’re looking in your contacts app.

Google contacts is ideal, as it stores the contact information online, but you can also add in notes about the customer. Use the notes section to add in information that will remind you of the customer. Something like ‘Looking for some help setting up a home office. - Received contact information from Andrew Smith.’

Use the notes section to add in further information after you have spoken to the customer, as this will help build a connection with them. It will show you have listened to them and customers will like that, as it helps build a connection.

Keeping Customers Warm

Use the notes in your contacts section to keep a note of what you spoke to the customer about. There is nothing more annoying for a customer than having to repeat themselves and can lead to them feeling frustrated.

• Provide the quote when you say you will
• Follow up the day after to confirm they have received it
• Ask if they have any questions
• Agree to call them at an agreed time to follow up

Use a Business Diary

Your business diary doesn’t want to know what you had for lunch or if you are off out for the night with your friends. You’re not a teenager.

Grab yourself a diary and write down in the day when you will follow up with the customer. You can also do this electronically with google calendar. With google calendar you can set up a separate diary for customer follow up calls and just view the one.

Remember – What gets scheduled gets done

Converting Warm Leads

Don’t leave customers waiting for you. If you have been given a lead from a friend or by using our service, contact the customer as soon as you can.

This is even with a lead that you have purchased or received as a recommendation, as they are actively looking and can sometimes go ahead with a quote from another tradesperson before they have spoken to you. Get in early and leave a good impression.

Follow Up When Agreed

It’s the same as when you contact a customer for the first time. You should never leave a customer waiting. Especially if you have agreed to call them on that day. It doesn’t take long to call, ask if they had any questions and when do they want you to start.

Always Be Closing (ABC of Sales)

Always be closing or the ABC of sales is known to convert more leads into sales. The reason for this is that you are always looking for a way for the customer to accept and agree to your quote and to also agree when to start the work.

Two simple questions to ask when following up:

• Do you have any questions? (answer them)
• When would you like me to start?

These questions work, as you can reassure the customer with any questions they have. By asking when you want to start, they can give you an idea of any reason they might not want to take you up on your quote. Be that price, availability or something else.

If the customer chose someone else, you can ask them politely what made them choose that person. See this as a way of finding out what you can do to improve your conversion rates going forward.

Your Appearance

Be presentable when seeing customers for the first time. They will understand that you might be visiting them after working on a job all day, but this doesn’t mean you can’t be presentable.

Carry a spare top in the van and throw that on if you have been grafting hard all day. Also, a little deodorant will go a long way to being presentable and make your visit to the customer a more pleasurable one. Research also shows that scent is also tied to memory, so will help the customer remember you if you were smelling good. Give it a go, what have you got to lose?

Keep Your Van Clean

Turning up in a van that hasn’t been cleaned in weeks will give the impression that you lack attention to detail and that is not something that will help you win business. Working on building sites can be messy work for you and your van, but there is a difference between a few days on a building site and months of not cleaning your van.

Overall, be presentable, polite and follow up when you say you will and you will win more business.

Smaller Jobs

It might sound unusual, but smaller jobs that you might be asked to do can lead to larger jobs in the future and also lead to recommendations to friends. Especially if you got that person out of a tight spot that other trades were not interested in quoting for.