Post From The SalesAttitude.com Blog:  Written by William Woodard · Filed Under Online Sales 

Internet leads are so interesting, and I question the value of them from time to time.  As an industry we always talk about how great these leads are, and we spend billions trying to get more of them.  Don't get me wrong; I know that 8 out of 10 buyers start their search on the Internet, but are these leads all they are cracked up to be?

Here's what I see the most common Internet leads are like:

• Name and address only
• Name and e-mail only
• Requesting a brochure only
• Leads with the comments - No Phone Calls
• Name and e-mail only requesting discounts, incentives, community facts and details, or even wanting to negotiate
• Most never communicate back with you again

Because of these types of leads most sales people get to them when they have a free moment if at all.  And I don't blame you; as a sales person you want to spend your time focused on your most productive activities and for the most part Internet leads are not that productive.  Some of you may be saying to yourself that I am out of my mind and I respect that, but I believe that this is the truth for most of us trying to convert Internet leads.

Now that I have bashed Internet leads and totally went against the popular thought process, I do have a thought on how to improve the quality of Internet leads and get more sales from them as a result. 

1.  Realize that not all Internet leads are equal and treat them that way. I would suggest qualifying your Internet leads by offering different types of contact forms and calls to action.  Each form should have different required fields and amount of fields to complete.  Here are some examples: 

• Contact Us Form:  This should be a simple form with only name and e-mail address required.
• News Letter Form:  This should only have a name and e-mail address field.
• Schedule an Appointment Form:  This form would require name, address, phone, e-mail and comments
• Learn More Form:  This would require name, e-mail, and phone
• Have Someone Call You Back Form:  WOW!  How crazy is this?  Require name, phone, and optional e-mail

You can see that when a prospect completes one of these forms from your web site that their interest level is qualified.  This will certainly help set the expectations of your prospect, but will also help you understand how qualified the lead is.

2.  Have a tailored follow up program for each type of Internet lead.  You will get better results if you spend the majority of your time on the higher quality leads and just nurture the less quality leads until they are ready.  I believe setting up your follow up program for your leads based on when they plan to visit your community.  A leads = 30 days, B leads = 60 days, C leads = 90 days, D leads = 90 days to 180 days, Inactive = over 180 days and General Interest = News Letter.

3.  Find a way to engage your visitors and qualify them on your web site with live text or video chat.  There are some great software programs out there that allow a prospect to chat with you real time and the costs are very reasonable.  I like http://www.liveperson.com/ because the software is very simple and easy to use.  This real time connection can really help you and the prospect decide if you are what they are looking for.

4.  Hire a dedicated sales person to manage your web site and leads.  You will notice I said sales person...  Don't just hire a computer geek that knows a lot about computers to manage your Online Sales Department.  Your web site is a sales center and you need someone who can convert visitors to leads and leads to sales!

All in all you must think of your web site as a sales center not just a lead generator.  The technology has grown and simply getting a general lead from a contact us form is not the most effective use of your web site and marketing dollars.  I do believe that Internet leads are worth the effort at the end of the day, but only if you have a plan on how you will run your web site, qualify your leads, and follow up with them.

What are your thoughts?  How do you manage your leads?  What is working and what is not?

Good Selling,

William Woodard - http://www.salesattitude.com/

Post From The SalesAttitude.com Blog:  Written by William Woodard · Filed Under Online Sales