Step 4 Show me the Money: Converting Leads into Sales

This is the fourth step in our continuing series on Lifecycle Marketing. In our last step, we examined ways to nurture the sales leads you’ve generated.

At some point in time, many of us have had a frustrating experience when we try to order something.  From complicated menus to badly organized sales sheets, some companies almost seem to fight you through the ordering process. 

You want to give them money, why do they have to make it so difficult?

Don’t be one of those companies. If you’ve gone through all the trouble of finding and nurturing potential customers, the last thing you want to do is make it difficult for them to buy what you’re selling. You want purchasing products and services from you to be a pleasant, seamless and most importantly easy process. 

Start by examining your sales processes.

Are your order forms clear and easy to read? Can a potential buyer access your site, quickly find what they need and then proceed to the checkout? Count the number of clicks it takes from the time the customer comes to your site to the time they’ve completed their transaction and try to find ways to reduce it. Have convenient links in multiple locations throughout your site that can quickly direct the customer to your order form or sales page. 

When designing your order forms, take advantage of opportunities to cross-sell related products. For example if you’re running a small printing company that creates custom-made banners, why not advertise the fact that you also carry banner stands?

Try to simplify and automate the buying process as much as possible. Even your most loyal customers won’t enjoy having to type in their information multiple times. Yes, it only takes a minute, but such occurrences can quickly frustrate potential buyers. 

Even though you’ve been careful to educate potential customers about your products and services during the previous steps of the Lifecycle marketing process, they may still have questions during the buying process. Make sure you’ve set up easy-to-access support features so they can quickly find the answers they need then make their purchase to become your customer.  

Once their order is complete, set clear expectations as to when the customer will receive the product or service. If you’re shipping them a product, provide a tracking number so they can anticipate its arrival. 

You don’t have to set all of these things up yourself. Several companies, including Infusionsoft and their suite of marketing and e-commerce tools, can greatly simplify the process and let you focus on the core aspects of your business.

In the next step of our Lifecycle Marketing series, we’ll look at life after the sale and what you can do to keep your customers coming back.