Have you invested in your digital marketing, only to find that few, if any, of the leads converted into actual sales? It's arguably the top concern for chemical suppliers when starting their digital journey.
Let's explore how to avoid that.
A chemical supplier we recently worked with was facing this exact challenge: despite a strong digital strategy and a steady influx of leads, the efforts weren't turning into sales quickly enough to meet their business objectives.
Generated leads were losing interest and valuable opportunities were slipping through the cracks. Without addressing the issue, the supplier risked wasting their digital investment.
To support Suppliers business objectives, our lead management teams investigated the processes and reached out directly to 35 identified prospects to gather feedback about the status of the projects, intent, and the possibility of collaboration with the company.
After thorough analysis, we were able to identify the bottlenecks in the company’s conversion processes. The main reason: the follow-up process lacked regularity and relied purely on email.
With our tested and proven conversion and nurturing processes, our team successfully reconnected with 23 of 35 prospects with the Supplier.
After identifying reasons for delays, we were able to help the supplier reactivate the business discussions with 5 prospects, that moved to the sampling and testing phase.
Most notably, this helped confirm 2 additional customers, demonstrating the vital role of effective follow-up practices in converting digital leads.
As a result, the Supplier redefined their practices and processes through training with our team, with the objective of ensuring the best conversion of digital leads into business.
How to ensure optimal conversion of your digital leads
You need to organize your teams to make them ready to capture opportunities when your leads are still hot. Your lead conversion process must be structured: what, who, when, where, why.
- Define your conversion funnel: Identify what constitutes a visitor or lead, when do you identify a business opportunity and what are the next steps for each stage of the funnel
- Set up Qualification criteria to organize and prioritize your follow-up
- Name a person or a team responsible for keeping track on these leads, and making sure they are contacted by the right team (sales, inside sales or marketing)
- Make sure you have all the resources needed to follow-up, including a defined organization, relevant content, and sufficient resources to match your lead generation volume
Explore this topic here.
2. Be insistent in your follow-up
A crucial factor is to realize that expectations of a digital buyer are far different from traditional persona your sales may be used to.
For best conversion chances, the priority should be in rapid responses. It’s important to follow up within 24-48 hours to maintain interest and momentum.
Don't stop at the just one email. Use multiple channels if needed, email, phone, or even LinkedIn, to reach prospects in the way that’s most convenient for them.
3. Nurture your leads until they are ready
If your technology is new or unknown, your leads may need more time to adopt it, which means you may need to add an extra effort to educate and nurture them so they don't go cold.
Ultimately, the goal is to keep leads interested through thoughtful, relevant communication while adapting to their buying journey. Set up automated processes to make sure your deliver personalized and engaging content to maintain the interest of your future customers.
By following these steps, you can significantly improve your lead conversion rates and turn more digital opportunities into profitable customer relationships.
