So, you have a defined sales strategy (if you don’t, here’s why you need one) and you’re putting in enough leads at the top of the funnel but at some point, your funnel is leaking leads and you’re not converting as many prospects as you’d like.
What can you do to change this?
1. Identify Where the Leak is
First, you must identify at which point in your sales funnel, you are losing leads. Are you:
Getting plenty of traffic to your website but only a handful of conversions? Getting a lot of trialists but few prospects are converting into paying customers? Getting to the proposal stage but struggling to bring prospects over the line?
Identifying your problem area is the first stage in being able to stop leak leakage in your sales funnel.
2. Repair the Leak
The next step of course, is to repair the leak. The repair work you need to do will be dependent on what area of your funnel is leaking:
You’re Not Getting Enough Conversions on Your Website
If you’re getting plenty of traffic to your landing page but very few conversions from there, there could be several reasons for this. It could be that what you’re offering doesn’t solve a pain point for your leads, it could be that your Call-to-Action isn’t clear enough or that you haven’t built enough trust with your lead.
Here are a few tips to improve your landing page:
• Make sure you’re hitting a real pain point for your leads and offering immediate value.
• Make your CTA as clear as possible- if your leads don’t know what to do when they land on your page, they’ll simply leave.
• Build trust by providing social proof- testimonials that back up what you are claiming.
• Remove distractions- some landing pages are far too busy and your lead can be easily distracted.
• Make it as quick and easy as possible for your leads to convert- if you’re using a webform for example, limit the number of fields to 2 or 3 and don’t overcomplicate it. If you’re asking them to sign up to a trial, don’t ask for their card details and make sure they’re aware of how easy your cancellation procedure is.
• Test different designs to see which works best.
You’re Losing Leads After the Trial Stage
If you’re getting plenty of leads to take a trial, that’s great news! You’re over the biggest hurdle. However, if they’re dropping off after taking a trial, you must ask yourself why. If you’re confident that your product solves a real pain point for your prospects, then it isn’t your product that’s letting you down. So, what else could it be?
• You’re not communicating enough with your trialists- communication is key during the trial period. Offer help, advice and tutorials throughout the trial and let your lead know you’re there if they need you.
• You’re on boarding process is too complicated- Ensure your on boarding process is as simple as possible. Remove any barriers between your lead and them upgrading.
• Your product is difficult to use- Your product might solve a problem for your prospects but is it too difficult to use? Alongside sending them regular tutorials, try building a knowledge base- a go-to area that will talk your prospect through every area of your product. (Here’s ours, for example.)
You’re Getting to the Proposal Stage but Struggling to Bring Prospects Over the Line
So, you’ve got a big deal in the pipeline, you’ve had numerous meetings and you’ve sent the prospect a proposal and suddenly, they go cold. They won’t answer your calls and they’re not opening your emails.
This may happen on occasion; the lead’s priorities may have changed, however if this is a regular occurrence, you need to consider what could be going wrong. It could be that:
• You didn’t define the next steps- always finish an interaction with a prospect by defining the next step in the process.
• They don’t see the value in what you’re offering- it’s easy to wonder if your priced your services too high when a lead goes cold. However, it’s never about the price- it’s that your prospect doesn’t see the value. It could be that your proposal didn’t demonstrate enough value to them and so you need to work on this.
• You had already lost out to a competitor- to have a better chance of preventing this from happening again, ask the question early in the sales process. Are you looking at any other options? That way you can prepare yourself for this and do your own research to see what you’re up against and give yourself a better chance of winning the deal.
When a prospect goes cold, it’s important not to give up on them. Their circumstances may have changed or, unbeknown to you, something else could be going on that’s out of their control. Keep emailing and calling until you get an answer.
3. Maintain Your Sales Funnel to Prevent Future Leaks
Without regular maintenance, your sales funnel will begin to leak again before long. So maintain it by constantly improving your process. Ask for feedback from your leads- those leads that took a trial but didn’t sign up for example- ask them why. What improvements would they like to see?
Continually improve your processes and you’ll see far less lead leakage!
We’ve shared just a few stages in your process that could go wrong, however every business is different. If you are experiencing leaks in another area of your pipeline that we haven’t mentioned, let us know in the comments below!