You have a professional website and a sophisticated sales funnel, and the leads start to come in. What now? Understanding what to do with incoming online sales leads is just as, if not more, important than finding them.
There are certain questions you can ask to convert these leads into customers. These questions can help you prioritize leads, spending more time on the potential clients that are most likely to become paying customers.
1. Basic qualifying questions
Asking practical qualifying questions allows you to determine if your product or service is a good fit for the lead. This is basic information that they should be comfortable answering. As the conversation goes on, you can ask more detailed questions. Qualifying questions include:
1. How did you hear about us?
2. Are you the decision maker?
3. What is your timeline?
As you gather information, you can start to build a customer profile that will help you move forward.
2. What can we do to help you?
If the initial qualifying questions show promise, continue the conversation. Making sure the clients wants and needs line up with your brand and company can help close a sale moving forward.
The answer to this question is important, because it can either start, or end, the conversation. If your service can’t help them, move on. Don’t try to convince them to buy something they don’t need. This will just lead to an unhappy customer later, which creates negative reviews, the cost of correcting the problem, and other headaches for you and your staff.
3. What is your budget?
This can be a hard question to ask. But this can help qualify a lead quickly. If the budget is close to being in line with the services you offer, you can prioritize the lead and work towards a common number. If the budget is way off, you can keep the lead, but move it farther down your list when you have time to try and bridge the gaps and see if you can make it work.
4. When do you plan to make a decision?
Is this an urgent need, or one that can take time? Is it a firm date or flexible?. Is it a deadline that your company can meet? Do you need to set up another meeting quickly? Their answer to this question can help you develop a timeline and next steps.
5. When can we follow-up?
There are important sales-related questions, but before you wrap up any communication with an online lead, always remember to confirm contact details and next steps.This might include questions like;
- How do you prefer to be contacted?
- Can I confirm this is your phone number and email address?
- Are you available to schedule our next meeting?
- Is there anything holding you back that we can discuss before disconnecting?
Knowing how to approach online leads can help you close more sales. And, the more leads you talk to the more comfortable you will be with the process. You can even practice the questions with a family member or co-worker to gain confidence and develop answers to any objections you might face.