Sales meetings across the country open with the same line. Leads seem down this month. And often, it's not 100% the case.
When you go back and look at the data, the leads are there. They came in via the website or a phone call, someone in the sales team connected with someone at an event or a lead did come through but it wasn't marked properly in the system for reporting. What's stopped is the next step - turning those leads into qualified opportunities. This then becomes a conversion problem which is a different kettle of fish to increasing leads.
Volume has turned down this year for lots of Australian businesses, particulary in trades and home services where the wallets of consumers are tigher then ever. The ecomincic climate has taken its toll on local businesses and buyers are slower.
However, volume on its own doesn't tell you the story.
I've had conversations with business owners who were convinced that things were falling apart nbecause ran enquiry numbers had dropped. When we took a look at the conversion data, those fewer leads were converting at a high rate to a sale compared to the 12 months prior. The lead pipeline was healthier, not sicker. They had stopped attracting people who were never going to buy in the first place and just took up time of the business owner or sales person chasing them.
Leads are an indicator. Revenue is the outcome. If you are still winning the work that makes you profitable then lead volume alone is not the issue. Keeping a healthy pipeline of leads is what matters.
It's not often leads from all channels drop at the same rate. Knowing what channel is being the worst affected helps us make better decisions on next steps. If you are unsure of which channels are impacted worst, then we know we need to work on data analysis.
This question can catch non-sales people out. Owners here the word lead and picture the perfect client. Someone in market, ready to buy, with the budget they need, filling out a form or calling you direct. That's one type of lead. The other type is a business or person you have identified as a good fit and approached yourself. It might take longer to convert as they might not be in the right part of their buying cycle, but it is allowing you to build a strong relationship for when the time is right.
When I hear someone uncertain about the answer to these three questions, then the biggest issue is that we need to fix your measurement problem to allow better decisions down the track. Otherwise we are just sticking a finger in the air to guess where the issue is.
The default or knee-jerk reaction to 'low leads' is turning up bottom funnel spend like Google Ad words or Meta Retargeting. The logic holds up as you are appealing to people in market. However, if the issue is a macro issue, all your competitors are doing the same.
What I rarely see alongside this is an analysis of what's happening internally once a lead hits. What's the lead conversion for one product versus another. How long is it taking someone to respond to the lead when it arrives. What happened to all the leads that were disqualified in the last 90 days, is someone re-engaging them? The business ends up paying a premium for new attention while leaving potential less expensive options on the table.
Sometimes the problem isn't a communication one. Sometimes it's just that your product or service is more expensive than a competitor, or the quality doesn't stack up to others available. And to be honest, no amount of lead generation will fix that problem.
That's an uncomfortable conversation to be a part of. You could bring in every single lead in your market, but, if those don't convert to happy customers, they won't tell anyone, they will leave and we end up at square one.
The best lead generation any business can have are happy customers, and happy staff. Businesses that don't have these will always struggle getting new leads in the door because we are missing the delight and repeat part of the flywheel.
Business owners often come to a strategy session ready for me to tell them to increase their ad spend. However, it's not often the answer.
Marketing covers more than advertising and social media. Often, the highest value thing I can point at is seemingly boring. Like setting up proper data capture and tracking so that in 12 months you can make better decisions with evidence.
If your leads have gone quiet and you want another set of eyes to look at where things are impacted, the marketing clarity session is a great fit.