Converting Your Leads Into Phone Calls

Leads conversion. In this video, I want to talk about leads conversion, which is essentially converting your leads into phone calls. This is super important, as it’s a lot easier to sell over the phone, than it is over email. It’s also a lot quicker too. So lets start out with the absolute basics. How do we define a lead? Well, the way I’m defining a lead is, a lead is someone who contacts you and expresses an interest in your service. So this can be through your contact form on your website, it can be through email, through social media, it doesn’t really matter. The leads you generate will vary dramatically when it comes to quality.

And the quality is typically defined by what we call buyer intent. Which is a measure of how interested someone is in purchasing from you. So if someone sends you a message and they say, “Hey, I’m looking to hire someone to help improve my SEO.” Then this is going to be high buyer intent, as a person knows what they’re looking for, which is SEO and they also have some money to play with, hence when they said, “I’m looking to hire someone.” so in this example, this would be high buyer intent. In the second example, this would be medium to high buyer intent. If someone says to you, “How can you help me?”

So, you can see the buyer intent behind this isn’t as high as the first sentence, as the person isn’t really sure exactly how you can help them. However, from the sentence it’s clear that they are open to ideas, so this could potentially lead to a sale. So this one we would call medium to high buyer intent. So for the third example of “How much is it?” I would classify this one as medium buyer intent. The reason why I would classify this one as medium and not high, is because the person is solely focusing on the price and not the value you can deliver.

So as a result, you’re not really sure if they’re going to be a confident buyer and if they’re really that serious. The deciding factor for them could simply be the price and not actually growing their business. So in the fourth example, we have someone saying, “What is it you do?” So this is what I would classify as a low buyer intent, as the person isn’t even sure what we do in the first place. Which means they don’t even have a good understanding about SEO, how it all works and so on. So in this case, this would be classified as low buyer intent.

And then lastly, we have zero buyer intent, where someone literally replies to you and says, “No interested, please don’t contact me again.” And so on and so on. So these people are a complete waist of your time. They are never going to be clients, so don’t even bother trying to reply to them and try and convince them. Just save your energy and focus your energy on where it matters, which is the high and medium buyer intents. So when it comes to leads, there should only be one main goal. Our main objective is to get the lead on the phone with us.

So many people get this wrong and they try and sell to the lead straight away, which is just asking for problems. The best thing you can do to land the client, is to try and get them on the phone and figure out exactly what they’re struggling with. However, what we need to do first is to get the lead on the phone. So let’s look at an overview of the whole sales process. So first, we have the lead. And then the next goal is to get them on the phone, which is what we actually call a discovery call.

The discovery call is basically where we find out all the information about the client, their goals, how many enquiries they like to generate and so on and so on, but don’t worry about that bit for now, as in the next video I’m going to walk you through all the questions you should be asking to find out all the information you need. But for now, what we need to know is that getting them on the phone is super important. Now, not every lead you message will happily jump on the phone with you. Some of them won’t even reply to your messages. So as a result, you may need to send follow up messages.

Once you do eventually speak to that lead and you get them on the phone for a discovery call, the next step and final step is to present your proposal, which is basically where you pitch your services. So now we understand the sales process, it’s time to discuss how we can get the lead on the phone for the actual discovery call. So to get the lead on the phone, you can either schedule a time with them through email by suggesting a couple of times and dates, schedule it in and seeing what’s a good fit for them.

It’s a bit more manual and it may take two or three messages or emails to get a schedule, but that’s fine and it works really well and a lot of people like this method. Or we can speed up things and use a service like Calendly, which automatically checks your calender, it see’s when you’re available and lets them schedule directly into your calender. This is a huge time saver for both of you. Now not everyone understand how this works, so if you’re working with younger people who are really tech savvy, then it shouldn’t be an issue at all. However, do just bare that in mind, it does involve using a service.

So, if you are talking to a client who operates in a old fashion industry, then you might want to play it safe and just schedule the email manually. The discovery call should last for roughly 20 minutes. 20 minutes is a sufficient time to run through everything. Listen to the clients needs and get all the answers you need later on for the proposal. So here is the exact template that I use to send to clients when I need to schedule in calls. So my email template is very straight forward. It says, “Hi Sam, do you have 15 minutes “in the next few days to jump on the phone “and discuss exactly what you’re looking to achieve?

“Once we know this we’ll be able to let you know “if we’re a good fit to work together. “How’s Friday at 10:30AM? “Otherwise you can schedule anytime directly here. “Kind regards, Joshua.” So as you can see my email template is providing tons of value. I’m just trying to get them on the phone. I’m asking if they’re free and the reason why we need to jump on the phone, is because I need to figure out exactly what they’re looking to achieve. If I don’t know what they’re looking to achieve, then I can’t actually help them.

So most businesses will jump to get on the phone to you, just so they can tell you about their business, how amazing it is, what they’re struggling with, it’s all about them. From a selfish point of view, people love talking about themselves. This is why the whole email I send is focused on them and not me. And this is exactly how it should be. And another good thing about this email, is it doesn’t come across as I’m desperate at all. As my second sentence says, “Once we know this we’ll be able to let you know “if we’re a good fit to work together.” So as you can see, I’m not really applying pressure at all.

And I’m kind of letting the client know that, hey, just because we’re jumping on the phone together, it doesn’t mean we’re gonna work together. We need to see if we’re a good fit first. Which is the right angle you want to go about this, as you don’t want to seem desperate. And lastly, the last line says, “Otherwise you can schedule any time directly here.” And then it has a link to my calender. So if someone clicks that link it’s going to open up a calender page, which looks like this. And essentially they can book anytime into my calender. For example, this is my calender for the next few days. You can click any dates.

For example, Friday the first, you can go for Monday the fourth, Tuesday the fifth, so on. Give that a click and it will tell you all the times I’m free based on what’s booked out in my calender. And then clients can then go through and pick a time which suits them. So as you can see, it makes the whole booking process so much more easier. However, you don’t have to use this. And when I first started my SEO business, I actually did everything manually. But essentially, the main goal is to get the person on the phone. I thought it would be useful to include a section on this. So how to respond to leads that aren’t high buyer intent?

And knowing how to reply to these leads is going to help you a lot. I remember when I first started my SEO business, I literally had no idea what to say back to these people. And as a result, I was throwing tons of leads down the drain, which actually resulted in my agency growing slower than it actually should’ve been. So if someone sends you a message and they say, “How much is it?” I would respond saying this. “Honestly, I couldn’t give you a price “without specifically knowing what you’ll need. “Some companies don’t blink at investing 5K per month “as they know they’ll make 10 times that back “every single month.

“It entirely depends on your objectives, “but either way if we work with you “it’s not a cost because we won’t work with you “if we’re not confident we’ll get you a good return “on your investment. “With that said, just so we don’t waist each others time “we have a minimum budget of $500 per month. “If you would like a specific price “and to see if we can help you “then we can schedule you in for a call this week?” So as you can see, I’m not really giving them an answer. I’m just trying to explain to them that the price varies a lot.

However, we need to get on the phone just to figure out exactly what it is you need and then we can quote you accordingly. However, I do check or qualify in that email as well, just to say that our prices start from $500 per month, as if the client only has $100 or $50 per month, then I don’t want to waist my time getting on the phone. So focus your efforts on the clients that have budgets, as those are the ones who are going to pay you. Here’s another example of a lead that isn’t higher buyer intent. So someone can reach out to you and say, “How can you help me?”

Which means they don’t quite understand how SEO works and they don’t see the value behind it. In this instance, you can reply to them and say, “I help you get more quality enquiries from your website “by positioning your website higher in search engines. “So when someone looks for your service “in your city, “they’ll find you and not your competitors. “I’d be happy to explain more details “and help you figure out if it’s something “that’ll benefit your business. “Do you have time for a call this week?” So as you can see, I’m giving them the answer and I’m also pushing for that phone call. But the main take away, is to never give a price over email.

Get them on the phone, as selling over the phone is way more effective than selling over email. In the next video, I’m going to go through all the questions and things you should be answering the client once you’re on the phone to them. I’ll see you there.