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From Visit to Lead to Sale: How to Respond to Inquiries from Prospects

How to Respond to Inquiries from Prospects

You’ve designed a beautiful website, filled it with engaging and interesting content and optimized it for search. The traffic is starting to come in and people are leaving inquiries using your lead capture forms.

For many companies, a successful online lead generation campaign can leave them with more questions than answers. The biggest (and most important) question that newly in-demand companies as when flooded with sales: “Now what?”

Knowing how to respond to an online sales inquiry can be difficult, especially if your business is used to the slower offline sales process. Luckily, it’s very possible with a few changes to your strategy and new tactics for responding to prospects.

Respond to sales leads and inquiries as quickly as possible

The longer you take to a respond to an inquiry from a prospect, the less likely they are to choose your business. Remember that you may not be the only business that your prospect has contacted – they may also be talking to your competitors.

Responding to sales leads and inquiries quickly puts your company in the mind of your prospect and shows them that you’re interested. It also demonstrates a quick turnaround and response rate – something that every type of customer values.

Not convinced of the benefits of responding to leads quickly? According to online marketing software company Hubspot – which, in this case, sourced its data from the Harvard Business Review – following up quickly increases your success rate.

In fact, it increases your success rate by a factor of seven. Sending a response (even if it doesn’t contain a detailed quote) within one hour of receiving an inquiry gives you a 700% increase in the likelihood of earning a prospect’s business.

That’s a number that any business – even those that rarely focus on digital sales and lead generation – can see the value in. Respond to sales leads and inquiries as fast as possible; it could septuple your conversion rate.

Use tailored email templates to speed up responses

It’s tempting to respond to all leads and inquiries using a premade template. While this is a great way to save time when dealing with prospects, it can also occasionally make your business come off as impersonal and unfocused on its customers.

Strike a balance between automation and personal attention by using templates and auto-responders to simplify email, but customizing them to suit your prospect. With a few tweaks, your automated emails can look and feel far more natural.

Start by including the prospect’s name in your automated follow-up email. After the prospect has received your confirmation email and knows you’re working on their response, use personal language frequently to show that you care about them.

Address the points they raised in their inquiry, offer a customized quote or solution and don’t be afraid to ask them more questions. Form emails are very useful if you need to confirm receipt of an inquiry, but hugely unsuitable for follow-up emails.

Is your sales team tired of writing out the same sentences again and again, all with slight differences? Text expansion software, such as Texter for Windows and Text Expander for Mac, make typing custom quote emails far less time consuming.

Don’t forget to follow up to reignite the sales process

Sometimes, inquiries from prospects that seem exceptionally eager to work with you can go cold and become dormant. Don’t think of these as dead leads – they’re certainly not – but as temporarily inactive leads that can easily be reignited.

The B2B sales process takes time, even online. In fact, since your competitors are often easy to reach online, the digital B2B sales process can often more at an even slower pace than its offline equivalent.

Be patient and give your prospects several days to respond to quotes and questions from your sales team. If they haven’t returned an email within two business days – and a response is clearly expected – follow up with a polite reminder.

While it’s important not to be pushy, getting back in touch with prospects that seem to have gone cold will pay off for your business. Sometimes, even the most eager of prospects need a small nudge and reminder to move forward with a potential deal.

Learn from every successful (and unsuccessful) sale

Every deal that you close over your website – whether it’s a small one-off project or a long-term recurring sale – has a lesson. It could be a lesson in persuasion, a lesson in persistence or simply a lesson in optimizing for a certain type of customer.

When you close a deal online, think about the techniques your sales team applied and the website elements that convinced the prospect to make contact. You could even survey your customers to learn what made them choose your company.

By learning what works, you’ll be able to refine your online lead generation process using real, proven data from customers. You can also ask failed prospects why they didn’t choose you – many will be refreshingly honest if approached the right way.

Polling customers is simple using Google Docs or dedicated online poll software. If you’d like to encourage detailed responses from existing customers, offer a special discount on their next purchase in exchange for their feedback!

How quickly do you respond to online inquiries and leads?

On average, how long does it take your business to respond to new inquiries, leads and offers from prospects? Remember the one-hour rule and try to respond to any new sales leads as quickly as possible to maximize your chances of closing the deal.

Let Bliss Drive Convert Your Leads Into Sale

Bliss Drive is a company that specializes in providing SEO services that help businesses swiftly respond to online inquiries and leads, and convert them into sales. Our team of experts understand that in today's digital age, having a strong online presence is critical for any business looking to grow and succeed. And one of the key aspects of a strong online presence is the ability to effectively respond to online inquiries and leads.

Our SEO services will help you improve your website's visibility and rankings on search engines, making it more likely that potential customers will find your business when they search for products or services like yours. We will also help you optimize your website to make it easy for visitors to find the information they need, and to take action like contacting you or making a purchase.

Once potential customers find your website, our team will work with you to create effective calls-to-action, such as forms, phone numbers, or chatbots, that will encourage them to contact you or make a purchase. We will also help you set up systems for tracking and responding to online inquiries and leads, so that you can quickly and effectively convert them into sales.

With our help, you'll be able to take your online presence to the next level and start seeing real results. Whether you're a small business just starting out or a large enterprise looking to expand, Bliss Drive can provide you with the SEO services you need to increase your online presence and convert online leads into sales. Our team of experts will work with you to create a customized SEO strategy that is tailored to your specific business goals and target audience. We will analyze your website's performance, identify areas for improvement and recommend a course of action to improve your website's visibility and rankings on search engines.

richard
Richard Fong is a highly experienced and successful internet marketer, known for founding Bliss Drive. With over 20 years of online experience, he has earned a prestigious black belt in internet marketing. Richard leads a dedicated team of professionals and prioritizes personalized service, delivering on his promises and providing efficient and affordable solutions to his clients.
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