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Lead Optimize is based on helping small and medium businesses improve sales lead generation from their websites but I also like to help clients get as much value as possible from their sites throughout the sales process. A major way to increase the conversion rate of leads from your website is to design the site to be used as a tool and teach your sales people how to use it effectively to sell.
I once saw a salesman get his company’s website wrong when telling a customer to visit them online. I bet if the website URL was on his paycheck he would have known it. That’s an extreme example - and, sadly, a true one - but it gives you an idea of how little some sales people know about the sites (and other marketing methods) that are generating sales leads for them.
Websites Connect People
Customers who call from websites often still have the website open as they are speaking to your sales person. What an opportunity! This is akin to sitting across the table from a lead as you show them your brochure. A sales person who knows the website well can say, “click on the icon on the left so we can look at the features of…” or “come with me to the projects page so I can show you an example of what I am talking about.” Your sales people can practically take a customer by the hand and walk them through the website - if they know what’s there.
SketchCast - Train Salespeople to Use Your Website (did this in one take)
I just read an article by Rajesh Shakya called Ten Tips to Increase Your Conversion Rate. It is a good article I recommend reading - that’s why it’s here. I especially like that Rajesh clarifies his use of “Conversion Rate” as the term has a way of being twisted in some articles. He also refers to improving conversion rates of all marketing efforts.
When we talk about the conversion rate from your web site or blog or any other kind of online presence, it refers to the number of web visitors who completes a sales transaction or performs the desired marketing activity you offered online to visitors….Conversion can be integrated with your traditional marketing as well, converting traffic from all sources that I listed above. It should be part of your overall marketing strategy.
I would like to remove number six (”Subscribe to popular online market places”) and make this a great list of nine improvements to increase conversion rate. While staying abreast of industry news is important, its connection to improving conversion rates is weak and distant. Either way, number six aside, Rajesh’s list and article is a good one for small businesses looking to improve conversion rates of sales leads on or off line.
Welcome to the August 15, 2007 edition of lead optimize! If you submitted but your post is not included, please submit again next month.
Tips for being included in the Lead Optimize Blog Carnival
Outbound Links: I am usually hesitant to accept articles that do not have any outbound links - it often indicates the writer is a newbie to blogging. This is not to say I will not accept blogs without links…just that I prefer links in blogs. They show confidence.
Repetitive/Overdone Topics: If the article is about a topic I have seen 1 million times, I will assume my readers have seen it at least 1,000 times and do not want to see it again.
Completely Off-Topic AND No Special Content: Will not be included and should not even be on your blog.
Stacey Derbinshire presents Kids and Entrepreneurship posted at Starting a Small Home Business, saying, “You do not need to be 18 years old to start your own business or start your on-the-job entrepreneurial training. This is something that kids need to understand and it is a good idea to tell them.”
Oliver Muoto presents Widgets, Blogs and Online Sellers posted at vFlyer Blog, saying, “Using blogs and widgets to meet your business objectives. This post talks about how different categories of widgets can be used to achieve business goals.”
Charles H. Green presents Trusted Professions posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Salesmen and politicans vie for bottom place in surveys on trustworthy professions all over the world.”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of lead optimize! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Many of you probably already use Google Alerts. If you do not use it yet, you should try it. I use it daily for myself and clients for the following three business purposes:
Competitive Research
Find New Content
Find News and Blogs With My/My Clients’ Names
Aside from saving a ton of time on these pursuits, I know I am being introduced to new sites, competitors, and information I would not have found otherwise. It is a great way to automate some tasks. I think Timothy Ferriss would be proud.
Tracy, at The Student Tablet PC, has the enterprising suggestion for students to use Google Alerts to find information about potential employers so that can be up-to-date in interviews.
If you have any questions about it, here’s the Google Alerts FAQ and the Google Blog. Try it for a while. Sign up for your own website or blog’s name, for a few keywords you want to get news about, and for “Lead Optimize”. If you don’t like it, unsubscribe.
Logo Design Works posted a great article on Monday touting the importance of using effective calls to action throughout your online marketing campaign. The article emphasizes the importance of clearly laying out the goals of your campaign before you begin.
One of the best ways to do this is what I like to call the Godfather Strategy. Be like the great godfather Don Vito Corleone and make an offer to your online customers that they cannot refuse. Needless to say, you must know your customers by heart before you can make an irresistible offer.
Incentives work. I have been trying monthly sales contest ideas lately and they are working - even if only to light some fires and charge the team a little. Try some version of them with your sales team if you don’t already. Notice some of these are designed for group rewards for total sales while others are designed for rewarding individual achievement. Also, the contests are designed for various goals that should be kept in mind throughout the year anyway so another function of these contests is to remind salespeople what is important.
The prize does not need to be giant; just something interesting and worthwhile. You might even offer a list of rewards (or a grab bag) they can choose from. I also listed some sales contest reward ideas at the bottom.
In case you were wondering, “why twelve?” it’s because (A) I resent even-numbered lists where the last two were obviously forced and (B) for my case I am using monthly contests and years happen to be broken down into 12 fairly equal parts.
12 Sales Contests Ideas - Reward Given to…
#1: All if total sales are above $X at a minimum of X% margin. #2: Salesperson with greatest month to month sales increase. #3: Salesperson with highest sales volume from NEW customers. #4: Salesperson who revives the most PAST customers. I love this one. #5: All if each salesperson on the team meets or exceeds sales goals. #6: Salesperson with highest single sale or shipment (choose and be clear). #7: Salesperson who sells the highest PRE-PAID order. #8: Salesperson with largest sale in a region. #9: Salesperson with the highest total Gross Margin (regardless of dollar value). #10: Salesperson with highest margin on NEW customer. #11: Salesperson with the highest average margin on an EXISTING customers. #12: Salesperson with the highest sales in a certain product line/category.
These might not all apply to your business for a variety of reasons from the type of products or services you sell to how your sales force is structured but hopefully they will spur some ideas for you. I love the ideas in what makes a good sales contest from Simplenomics.
Sales Contest Rewards Ideas
Sales Reward #1: Day(s) off.
Sales Reward #2: Gift certificate for two at a NICE restaurant.
Sales Reward #3: 1 month of 1 free lunch per week.
Sales Reward #4: 1/2 day Fridays for a month.
Sales Reward #5: Movie/park/event tickets
Sales Reward #6: Cash!
Sales Reward #7: Choice of additional training (boondoggle) of their choice.
Give your salespeople some choice in the matter. Let them choose the reward and let them give ideas for the prizes. Listen to them and try to pick up on those little things they say they want and choose gift certificates from places that sell those things. Some say cash is the most effective reward - here is an interesting article from Online Conversion & Beyond about Sales Incentives and ROI.
To paraphrase the cartoon on the left, The greatest technology in the world won’t guarantee you better lead conversion. You need to leverage the latest technologies alongside tried and true lead generation techniques to truly maximize conversion.
Honestly, the picture is what caught my attention but the article (actually on Netscape) is a very good case study of a company that has a true strength in gathering and converting online leads for complex products (homes).
A Search Marketing Standard article by Kevin Gold about conversion rate marketing made some points I try to drive home through Lead Optimize.
Our clients were asking for more “traffic” and assuming that meant more actions (e.g. sales, leads, opt-ins.) As for-profit businesses, what they ultimately wanted was to make more money (ideally profits.) Yet after experiencing this thinking pattern, it became clear that more traffic did not equate to more actions even though it is the assumption most clients (and businesses in general) hold.
The article discusses four considerations that are important to understand whether you are a small business owner with a new website or a seasoned site-design professional who is open to taking a second look at your own work. They are:
Improving Conversion WITHOUT Increasing Sales Volume
Conversion Rate Optimization isn’t Always about Website Design
The Quality of the Visitors Directly Influences Conversion Rate Optimization
There are Many Ways to Slice and Dice a Conversion Rate
I was glad to find the article and I think you will be glad you read it.
This is a sales lead generation tip specific to convergence integrators and some other network specialists/distributors but it is the kind of creative idea I think might spur some ideas for your business.
Tom Walker of Tom Walker’s Biz Dev Blog suggests a great idea for how a hungry salesperson can generate sales leads for Bluesocket wireless services from their cars. Bluesocket has fairly straightforward selling points and this idea is a great way to exploit it’s strength and offer prospects a great value.
For customers who have a wireless network today but aren’t able to effectively manage it, secure it, or provide guest access - Bluesocket allows them to do all of the above and more — without replacing their Access Points.
Tom works for Catalyst, which distributes Bluesocket, so he has some incentive to come up with good ideas like this one. He is even giving away a free golf short or “similar swag item” for the first Bluesocket/Catalyst partner who tries his idea.
If you have a hungry sales rep that is looking for opportunities, have them jump in their car with their laptop and try a few parking lots for unsecured wireless networks. …type out a list (or at the very least a count) of all the open networks and share that list (discreetly) with all of the tenants of that office park. Better yet, work with the property manager to organize a security briefing. Let them know you have the ability to secure their network without replacing their AP’s (this is unique since most solutions require replacing them).
I wonder if Tom is giving golf shirts to people who give his blog and his products unsolicited reviews. Tom?
Be clear about the purpose of your website when beginning a design or redesign project. Experienced professional design companies often require that you answer a list of questions to help them understand your goals and build them into the design but you should support the purpose of your investment with personal follow up along the way.
I would like to thank Rich Ziade of sketch.basement.org for teaching me how to sketchcast.
Look for more Lead Optimize articles using sketchcasts.
August 26th, 2007 by 
Chris
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