Does your sales team complain about the lead quality from your website's contact form? Are they wasting time calling and emailing contacts that are not qualified?
As a business leader, you know that lead quality is key to the success of your lead generation strategy. High quality leads are more likely to convert into paying customers, resulting in increased sales and revenue for your business.
But what do you do when your sales team is complaining about the quality of leads generated from your website's contact form? It's time to take action and improve the situation. Here's a framework we've used to push away unqualified prospects and further educate those that might be a good fit.
1. Understand WHY the leads aren't of high quality.
First things first, you need to get to the root of the problem. Schedule a meeting with your sales team to understand why they believe the leads they're receiving aren't of high quality.
This could be due to a variety of factors, including:
- Leads that don't fit your target market
- Leads that are not yet ready to buy
- They are looking for services you don't offer
- Your services don't fit their budget
- They aren't a good fit for your services
Once you understand the issues that the sales representatives see on a regular basis, you can take steps to address them.
2. Create a buyer's guide for your products/services.
Because prospective customers want to educate themselves, consider creating a document that clearly and transparently outlines what it's like to work with your organization.
This document should be 2,000-5,000 words in length (as a general rule) and should cover topics such as your capabilities, costs, what's a good fit for your organization, what's not a fit, and perhaps some case studies or testimonials.
Most importantly, it should address the specific topics that came up in your meeting with sales. For example, if people tend to call and ask for services or products you don't sell, be up front about this in the document.
The idea with this document is that when prospects read it, they can self-identify as a good client and reinforce their understanding of your services and costs.
3. Turn the buyer's guide into a downloadable PDF.
Next, turn the document into a nicely-designed PDF that can be easily downloaded and read by prospects.
While offering this for download on your website certainly a possibility, we solve the lead quality issue with the contact form by using marketing automation (see below).
4. Automate a response to your prospect containing a link to the buyer's guide.
By using a tool like HubSpot, you can set up a workflow that automatically sends an email to prospects who fill out your contact form, thanking them for their interest and asking them to download and read the document you've created.
This is known as "assignment selling" and is a powerful way to pre-qualify leads and ensure that only the most qualified prospects move forward in the sales process.
By using this approach, you'll be able to improve lead quality and gain prospect commitment by answering questions and addressing sales objections before the call.
The same automation that sends the prospect an email can also alert your sales representatives when the document is read, or remind them to reach out.
Here's an example of a HubSpot workflow that automates an email response when a contact fills out the contact form, and then alerts a sales representative to follow up.
The key to this workflow is the delay. By giving the prospect time to read the guide, they may also decide they may not be a fit and remove themselves from the sales process, saving your sales representatives time.
Summary
As a marketing executive, it's your job to ensure that your website lead generation strategy is producing high quality leads that will convert into paying customers.
By taking the steps outlined above, you can improve lead quality and gain prospect commitment. Empower your sales team to spend their time and expertise helping the best quality leads possible.
