Startups: how to convert more leads into sales?

Sales. The high of the mountain for a business. You have finally built your product and you’ve managed to attract audience to your website. You think to yourself: “Things are going just as planned.” However, the larger part of your leads won’t automatically convert into sales by simply being sent through the conversion funnel.

Quite often many of startuppers (especially, with a technical background) have a sort of allergy reaction to the process of selling. Do you remember the infamous “I will build and they will come” myth? It’s understood considering the amount of time and efforts they invest in their product, but in reality, it doesn’t work at all. At the same time, you desperately need to generate cash to grow your venture. But without mastering the science of closing deals, you have no business. Below are the tips which will help you to increase the number of sales for your startup.

Display your problem-solving capability instantly

What’s your superpower as an entrepreneur? It’s your product that provides a solution to a particular problem. Your potential customer’s problem. They know what they are looking for, but can they figure out that they have come to the right place? Sure, the product is the king, but the very first thing they see is your landing page.

Your company’s motto and supporting content should clearly depict the problem your product is meant to solve. The design should be clean and easy to read. The graphical design, especially the main picture, should clearly say about the product — please, do not use any unrelated stuff (even if it looks original). You may also include testimonials on your landing pages — it works great as the proof of your product’s worth. For instance, Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology, says “If you can get people who are similar to the person you’re trying to persuade to speak on your behalf, it’s a lot easier for you than if you have to try to hammer your message one more time into a reticent mind.”

A/B tests are a great way to optimize what works best for your specific audience. In a message to your leads, your ultimate goal is to show them how your product can solve their needs and bring the result they want. The closer your marketing message gets them to their goal, the more likely they will buy from you.

Respond in a timely manner

Don’t make your potential customers wait. It’s so easy, still, sometimes you just get mad when a business makes you wait for hours to respond. Despite the competition, despite their startup status, despite… common sense. Let’s hear Shep Hyken, a customer service expert and author of “The Amazement Revolution”: “Maybe all I have is a simple question. I’m not even upset or angry. But, due to the frustration of having to wait hours — or even a day or more — for a response, my simple question becomes a customer service debacle”.

Some time ago I tried to obtain some additional info on a marketing solution I had been testing for several days and found it worth upgrading to a paid version. I was surprised that I didn’t get any answer until the next day. Yeah, the very day I purchased another solution from their competitors. The guys were terribly sorry (and I realized their apologies were sincere), but nothing would have changed my mind — no-one wants to wait in vain.

How fast should you be responding to your business e-mails anyway? Nowadays, due to the factors mentioned above, the response time is accelerating. So the right answer would be: within several hours at maximum. As stated in a study by Eptica (2015):

• 77% of consumers won’t wait more than 6 hours for an email response.
• 85% of consumers using Facebook expect an answer within 6 hours.
• 64% of consumers using Twitter expect a response within an hour.

It’s true that sometimes you really don’t have time as you’re busy as hell (if you’re not, you are most probably doing something wrong with your startup). It’s also true that some email are more important than the others. But no matter what is happening to your time schedule, your prospects will assume that you are just ignoring them.

Follow-up

Always follow-up. They may have forgotten about your proposal or they may need additional information — the reasons for their silence may vary, still a laconic follow-up email might get them back on purchase track.

What are the tactics here? Send a tracked email and wait to see if it’s been opened. But do not wait in vain: if you haven’t received a response within a day or two, react and send a follow-up email. According to Yesware’s data, even if you didn’t get a reply to your first email, you still have a 21% possibility of receiving a reply to the second one. They still remain silent? Don’t take it close to your heart and be persistent.

(picture source — http://www.yesware.com)

By sending more emails, you create more contact opportunities for both you and your prospect. Of course, do not ever be spammy or repetitive. Try to add some value to each of your follow-ups: provide some valuable insights on your product/service, offer discounts or limited-time deals. Ask them questions. Be helpful even if it’s may be overwhelming to find the right balance between bringing value and… being annoying). Anyway, in general, 3–4 emails are enough to qualify that particular lead.

Though modern people are connected to the Internet on a 24/7 basis, one should stick to most appropriate times for sending follow-up emails. Most of us are more active on email during the day than at night. Besides, emails sent on weekends have a shorter reply rate than the ones sent on working days. If you want a longer and perhaps more thoughtful reply, email someone in the morning. This way, a simple follow-up strategy will close a bigger percentage of leads for nearly every industry.

Summing Up

Do not believe them when that say that “it really doesn’t matter how amazing your product is”. On the contrary, it matters a lot. However, good products and startups die way too often. So let’s paraphrase: it really matters how amazing your product is, but the way you market it matters too. You don’t have a business if you don’t have customers. Thus, the only way to convert more leads into sales is to use the right strategies, tactics, and methods.

P.S. Are you looking for a technological partner for your startup? If you like this story, you find more articles on startups here.