I want more leads!

When it comes to lead generation the mantra seems to be more, more, more! But is that always the answer?

Most businesses now have a good understanding of their sales funnel and the various stages it contains and will hopefully have systems in place that can track the progress and conversion rate at each stage in the pipeline. (If you do not, take a look at SharpSpring).

There seems to be an obsession with grabbing as many leads as possible to go into the funnel, but what if the conversion rate of leads to orders is not performing at optimum levels? There is a very real risk that simply adding more leads will make the problem worse, not better, as it will put more stress on the sales team without addressing the core reasons why more of the leads do not result in orders.

Assuming there is already a pipeline of leads, surely the first port of call is to optimise the conversion rate at each stage in the funnel, as this will result in more revenue from your existing opportunities and will mean an improved prospect experience that is likely to generate repeat business, advocates and referrals.

Rather than focusing on the top, start at the bottom of the funnel and identify improvements that will lead to getting more deals over the line. This is the quickest way to improve your bottom line, as these prospects are much closer to making a decision and most of the hard work has already been done. It’s a no-brainer.

Then work up the funnel, optimising the conversion rate at each stage. Having improved the overall performance of the pipeline, now is the time to focus on adding as many leads as can be managed into the funnel, with the confidence that a significant proportion of those leads will result in new business.

The same principle applies to PPC advertising which is aimed at driving traffic to a businesses website. There is little point and a poor ROI if those leads are being driven to a website that is not optimised to nurture and then convert those visitors into prospective customers.