You Need Control Of Your Leads

By Author: Mel Joelle
Total Articles: 4328
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Having a website that converts traffic into leads should be the #1 goal of lead generating websites. Getting the site focused and fine-tuned to maximize conversions is half the battle. The other half is turning the leads into sales, generating profits if your costs are in line.

I've had several years of experience generating leads through websites, and want to share a story of one such experience.

A while back I was brought aboard a lead generating company in the financial field. My sole job was to generate leads for the sales team. There were 3 young inexperienced sales persons for purpose of this example will call them Ted, Jed, and Fred. There was 1 highly experience sales person, Steve, who was also brought on to manage the 3 young guys.

I started by using my SEO and PPC techniques and methods to generate traffic. Soon we had a quick flow of about 30 to 50 leads just from search engine optimized organic traffic; the pay per click campaign worked perfectly. I was able to generate real time exclusive leads for under $10.

Whenever we needed an influx of leads, all I had to do was turn on the PPC ...
... campaign, and turn up that day's budget.

Things started rolling really excellently at first. Lead flow was coming about 60 to 70 a day after about 2 months of work on my end, and the owners and managers where ecstatic, except for me.

I saw it coming from a mile away and didn't have anything in place to control or manage the leads. The three inexperience salespersons were burning through leads left and right, looking for lay-up or slam-dunk deals. All the leads were on paper, and if you are getting 60 pieces of paper a day, you soon will have a mess on your hands.

Some leads they would get and only call once. Often they would let them die because the person didn't answer the phone that time. Any experienced sales person will tell you that calling once and giving up shows a lack of appreciation for the lead source.

Steve on the other hand called all his leads around the clock, at nights, weekends. He made sure that he called a lead at least 20 times before considering it dead.

Three months went by and the owners of the company finally got rid of the 3 inexperienced sales reps but unfortunately put the burden on the shoulders of Steve. Steve then had to manage the leads of 4 salespersons, and within 1 week got burned out. I later talked to Steve on the side and he told me what he needed was a system that will eliminate the paperwork, and allow him to work more efficiently. Within 2 weeks I built him a lead management program that allowed him not only to manage his leads, but allowed the company to hire more sale persons and have Steve manage the lead distribution. The company soon grew to having over 20 salespeople; all working within the lead management system I created. Later on I moved on to bigger and better things but kept the experience and knowledge I had to learn the hard way. With lead management system that tracks all leads throughout the sales process, you really don't have a way of insuring that all leads are called and getting the attention they deserve.
Click here to read the rest of Control your Leads. If you enjoyed this article, you also might like our other stories about Search Engine Optimization.