Whenever I meet a business owner running a large company of at least $10 million, they are usually always thinking ahead. Coincidentally, companies who spend a lot of money on lead generation programs are no different. These companies are often measuring their lead channels effectiveness while also looking to see what other advertising channels can return better results. What is often overlooked is how can a company do more with the existing leads they already have.
Close More Leads with What You Already Have
I was at a lead generation conference in Boston recently and what usually happens when I go to these conferences is that you hope to come out with a few good ideas. That one idea that was worth the trip was when I came across a company called Velocify. Velocify is crm software specifically built to force your sales team to close more with the leads you already have coming in.
Velocify does this by making sure that the leads that come in are:
- Immediately called
- Makes sure that there is a constant reminder of leads that still need to be called
- Makes it easy for your sales team to have a proven process of lead follow up
When our company implemented Velocify, we had the same number of leads that always came in. Within the first month after we implemented Velocify, we doubled how many deals we closed based on the same leads. There is nothing worse to be spending money on all of these leads and your team not getting a hold of the prospect. It certainly is the number one selling point of Velocify when they pitch their software and it was a big selling point for me.
Start to Understand Every Phase of Your Lead Generation Process
Another thing that we tried to do is to make sure we categorized why prospects were rejecting our offering and to try and make changes to our product on how it was being presented. We just kept trying to improve every single phase of the sales process from:
- How we were communicating our offering on our website
- What we were saying in our offer letter
- What our sales reps were saying on the phone
- How our final contract red
I wish I could say this improvement process is completed but every time I come back to our sales process; I find new improvement ideas.
Delegate and Focus on What is the Most Important Part
One of the key advantages we have at our company is that we have two owners allowing me to really focuses in on marketing & sales. This allows my partner to focus on back 
office operations. In prior articles I have written extensively about the need for every business owner to prioritize building lead generation systems. If you are no doing so already, I would strongly recommend building lead generation systems on the top of your own list.
Start Working on Your Business and Not in It
From the many small business owners I have met, it seems like $3 million in yearly sales is the magic number for when the owner needs to start working on the business instead of working in the business. This is when the business owner moves towards working on the part of the business they like working on. Usually, what a owners works on is usually what they are good at. The other responsibilities of a business then can be delegated to either existing employees or new hires.
When a business owner begins to really understand what is happening with every single lead that comes in only then can waste be reduced. I wish I could say it is a fun process but it isn’t. Every time I look under the covers of our business, I get frustrated. Things seem to never be done the way I would do them but there is just so much affect a business owner can have.
Get Buy In Because Execution is Critical
Over the year.I have gained the trust of my employees so that I never have had to tell them it has to be done my way. That has never been my style anyway. Instead, we have all worked together to come up with the best solution. The added benefit is with everyone’s involvement, we are able to execute the idea better.
To summarize, don’t forget to look at all the existing leads that area coming in and make sure your sales team is doing what you would do to close those deals. Not only might it improve your close ratio, but it might shed light on some lead channels that need to be shut down.
Written by Stephen Halasnik, Cofounder of Financing Solutions which provides lines of credit to businesses and nonprofits. Mr. Halasnik has built several successful companies in the $5-$20 million/yr in revenue range including a company on the Inc 500 fastest growing list.
