As a business owner, you’d agree with me that “I’ll get back to you” is one of those dreadful responses you never want to hear from a prospect. Sometimes, they even drop off without any explanation.
With social media, it is very easy to be caught up in the bubble that your business is growing because your follower count keeps skyrocketing and you get them flowing into your DMs. Getting enquiries everyday with no sale becomes the point where reality hits.
Why You Struggle to Close Clients
If you struggle to get clients or you don’t get clients at all, here are a few reasons why:
- Wrong Visibility
It goes beyond running ads every other week and getting the eyeballs. If you’re constantly in the faces of the wrong people, it means you are attracting the wrong audience. They may be interested in your brand, but for reasons that don’t matter to you. They don’t see themselves in your solution so it is not possible for them to convert. As much as visibility is what sets the ball rolling, it needs to be tailored to the right people. (how to find your ideal clients online blog post) - Your audience does not trust you enough
Even when your service is life-changing and solves a crucial problem, you won’t be able to sell if you haven’t gained trust. You need to establish credibility and show the results you have. Clear objections your prospects may have towards you and leave no room for doubt. - Your process is unprofessional
Put yourself in your client’s shoes, nobody is willing to go through any stress when making a purchase. Your prospects have a million and one options, they won’t miss the chance to drop off or hop on to the next person on their list. A great place to start is by evaluating, when someone reaches out to you, how long does it take before they get a response? When trying to make enquiries, are you there to guide them? Someone emails asking for your rates, and you just email them a rate card back. This is a very poor way to get them to buy. - You cannot differentiate your marketing process from your sales process
Marketing is the process of getting people interested in buying from you WHILE Sales, on the other hand, is the process of taking those enquiries and turning them into paying clients. They are two different processes. Essentially, when you’re getting traffic but not sales, it means your marketing efforts are working but you need to double down on sales. Understanding the art of closing (closer framework blog link) and having conversations is a skill in this regard. The process of conversion involves more than just visibility, which leads me to my next point. - You’re not investing in a clear cut pathway – a FUNNEL
A funnel is that marketing process that shows the entire buyer’s journey, from the moment they know your brand until they become customers. Every sale begins with a large number of prospects and ends with a much smaller number of people who actually make a purchase. Hence, the word, ‘funnel’ suffices; it keeps getting narrower.
If you can find your business in any of these situations listed, then you should keep reading because you are currently in a sales challenge. It can be particularly frustrating when you have worked so hard on your offer, and still you don’t land the client.
How To Convert More Clients Into Your Business
To start making sales, here’s what you need to start doing:
- Understand Your Ideal Buyer’s Journey
You may be getting the eyeballs and enquiries from your ideal client but visibility is only a step in the ocean, how do you get more of those enquirers to pull the trigger? That is, converting your prospects to clients.
First, you must understand that not everyone will buy from you even when they seem like your ideal client. For example; the timing might just not be right for them, they may not have the money or time to invest at that period.
Your customer’s journey starts from Awareness; this is the point where they find you, it leads further to Interest which is where they get to like you, then Decision which the point where they start to trust you and lastly, Action, where you make a sale.
It means you cannot meet a prospective client today and expect to make that sale today. There are exceptions however, but this is not the case most times.
Lets take an example; You are a career coach and you cater to women in the tech space. Irene has been thinking of a way of making a transition from finance into tech and because you have your data intact, she ticks all boxes of an Ideal Customer in this regard.
She has a painpoint she’s trying to solve. Irene is most likely going on Google to find resources to help her. It means you’re going to position yourself where Irene is already searching, probably through blog posts on your website or even videos on your YouTube channel. If your content is optimised enough, Irene finds you!
Irene has come across your content and the call-to-action prompts her to join your email list. In the case where Irene just reads your content and exits, that was such a waste of marketing. But if she joins your email list or subscribes to your YouTube channel, it means she’s interested in what you do and most likely wants more from you.
You host a free webinar that Irene joins. She is WOWed by the level of information she has gotten and now wants to pay you for your premium offer, a private coaching session.
This is a classic example of a buyer journey however, it is not as linear as this most of the time. It is often said that a prospect needs an average of seven touchpoints with you before they buy. Some people may go from Awareness to Interest and back to Awareness again, some may go down to the Decision phase only to stall their purchase. So many things can get in the way and that is why you need to keep the process running. This brings us to our next point
- Build your funnel
Your aim is to move a stranger to becoming a prospect and finally, a customer. Like I mentioned earlier, your buyer journey has a lot of touchpoints, what you do at each point determines whether a conversion will happen or not. In other words, going down the funnel or remaining in a position.
Sticking with the Irene example above. Upon stumbling on your content, Irene is a visitor, it is your duty to convert her into a prospect. The call-to-action asking her to join your email list may not be strong enough but if the CTA is prompting her to download a free career checklist or workbook, she is more likely to click faster because it addresses her painpoint. That is a lead magnet and Irene is seen as a lead or a prospect. A lead magnet is a free piece of valuable content that delivers a quick win to the person who is reading your content. It establishes a way for you to maintain contact and build relationship with a prospective client. I always recommend to go in for your prospect’s trust, right from the point where they are getting to know you, a lead magnet is one way to achieve that.
In the event that Irene exits and still does not convert to a prospect, your funnel can involve a retargeting ads setup that ensures that wherever she goes on the internet, your ads start to follow her around because she has landed on your website.
It is important to highlight at this point that you cannot afford to use a crappy lead magnet because it serves as your bait. I go on some websites and they ask that I sign up for their newsletter as a call-to-action. If you want a great conversion rate on your newsletter sign ups, then it has to be convincing enough to the visitor.
Now that Irene is a prospect, you want to establish a process that moves her down the funnel to becoming a customer(sales funnel blog link). A major reason why you need to build trust!
The emails you send to Irene should influence her buying decision, a great way to do this is to include testimonials and case studies from previous clients, provide numbers, talk about the transformation that your service is capable of providing and continue to provide value.
- Ask for the sale and learn the art of closing
The work is not done yet, how well you sell yourself can make or break the entire process you’ve started. If you offer premium services, they probably trust you at this point but they need to know what you want them to do.
Ask for the sale by using call-to-actions, include the fear of missing out (FOMO). If possible, let your offer describe a potentially lost opportunity from a possible perspective. What is currently missing in the life or business of a potential client without this solution? Why will they regret not making a purchase? If they reject your offer, how can your competitors use it? Remember there are other people who do what you do already, there are other products they can buy. So, what is going to make them buy from YOU?
If you sell premium or high-ticket offers and your approach is an application funnel, you want to hop on sales calls with them and get them to buy into your offer. You shouldn’t say “I’d love to talk to you more about my services,” because no one will be willing to get on the phone with you if they know you’re just coming on to hard sell them. Instead, let the conversation be about them, if they have mentioned any detail about themselves, use it as an opportunity to open dialogue and find common ground. People love to talk about themselves, so let them lead. That way, you get to know them better and that gives you more leverage.
While you need to ask for the sale, you don’t want to come across as too pushy, you need to have patience. Remember that sales is a process, not a one-time event, you may not get to convert them on the first sales call and that’s fine. What you want to do next is follow up (blog link)
Are you circling back to prospects who have declined? Are you keeping in touch with people who didn’t take a sales meeting before but might be ready now? You need to be very careful to ensure you don’t lose the the lead and how you do so, is through follow up so you’re front of mind. I already mentioned earlier that some people will not buy from you despite all your efforts, you want to keep them around and continue following up on them so when timing or circumstances change back in your favor, you are easily the first person they pick.
Keep in mind that in all of this, you cannot sell a product that misses the mark. All your best efforts will end up in a flop if you do not have a good offering.