Which leads are most likely to turn into sales?

[Bruno Tabbi]

Hello Everyone,

New member here. 

I wanted to pose a question to the forum here. 

Which types of leads are most likely to turn into sales for you? Put another way, what is your best source for generating new business? I don't want to know how you advertise, I want to know know for example if phone calls are more valuable than web leads, or which types of leads have the highest closing ratio for you?

For most people here and in most industries, its unanimous that word-of-mouth and in person interactions are your most likely sales but besides those what is the most reliable? Web leads, phone calls?  And when you do advertise do you push people to the form of contact that your most likely to close?

The reason I ask is because I see people just advertise their website with no phone number sometimes or some people really push people to call. 

Do you find that people who call your shop are more likely to come in than people who might come from a web lead such as an online form?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[xrac]

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[AndersonAuto]

I track overall conversion rates through the web site, but it doesn't break down phone call vs appointment request form.

I'm willing to bet that someone who fills out the appointment request is more likely to show up, because they're committing to an appointment up front. But I certainly wouldn't want to omit my phone number from the web site, because the people who are calling are already unwilling to commit without more information, hence the phone call. Without the phone call option, I would guess a very low percentage of those people would come in.

[Bruno Tabbi]

On 7/3/2017 at 9:46 PM, xrac said:

My on line reviews seem to generate as many sales as anything.

Xrac,

What i am trying to understand is generating sales by utilizing your most effective marketing tool. When you say that your online reviews generate sales for you do you know this from polling customers? Also, i wanted to understand what you were saying so i looked up your shop and you only have 2 yelp reviews. Two reviews can't be enough to generate sales? Are these people calling you? or just coming in? 

Thanks.,

[Bruno Tabbi]

17 hours ago, AndersonAuto said:

I track overall conversion rates through the web site, but it doesn't break down phone call vs appointment request form.

I'm willing to bet that someone who fills out the appointment request is more likely to show up, because they're committing to an appointment up front. But I certainly wouldn't want to omit my phone number from the web site, because the people who are calling are already unwilling to commit without more information, hence the phone call. Without the phone call option, I would guess a very low percentage of those people would come in.

You make a good point about whether online leads are more likely to result in someone showing up for service. When someone fills out the web form to schedule service online, do you follow up by calling the person? How much time goes into contacting a web leads, meaning do you have to make repeated calls sometimes? 

I am asking this specifically because I am wondering if it is better for me to to have a really well trained person answering the phones and driving traffic to the phone or push people to fill out an online form. The reason why i am thinking this way is because of how unpredictable the internet has become. Whether you are sending people online to fill out the form or they find while searching the reality is that you have no control over that ecosystem. You are really subject to Google and whomever else is making the rules on what ranks well and what doesn't. So if you don't turn that person into a caller as fast as you can you might lose them if they continue searching.

I have feeling the best thing you can do is get them off of the computer and on the phone with someone who can answer questions and make the person feel comfortable about coming in. Also, I have seen some data indicating that phone leads are the best. Check this out: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2015/27264/the-human-voice-is-crucial-for-online-sales-heres-proof

If i call a shop and am politely greeted by a friendly and knowledgeable staff member wouldn't that be more persuasive? What are your thoughts? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xrac]

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[meowpox]

As a consumer, if I cannot find information I need or an email to contact, I won't even bother. Phone calls are such a waste of time, in my opinion, because it requires two people (caller and receiver) to be readily available at the same time. If its for something urgent or is just hard to convey in an email, then I'd call but that's rare. 

From the business side, we try to push everything to email. We have our appointment form on our website as well as our phone number... but we get majority of our quote requests from the appointment form. It could be because our customer base is not your average car customer. Although I do not have an official way of tracking, I believe our quote form requests are more likely to turn into sales than phone calls. Phone quotes seem to be more from people that price shop and just want a quick quote. People who take time to fill out the quote form usually know they already want to come to us. Plus, I like that the history of a quote conversation is recorded in email so that we can reference back to it if needed. 

[Bruno Tabbi]

11 hours ago, meowpox said:

As a consumer, if I cannot find information I need or an email to contact, I won't even bother. Phone calls are such a waste of time, in my opinion, because it requires two people (caller and receiver) to be readily available at the same time. If its for something urgent or is just hard to convey in an email, then I'd call but that's rare. 

From the business side, we try to push everything to email. We have our appointment form on our website as well as our phone number... but we get majority of our quote requests from the appointment form. It could be because our customer base is not your average car customer. Although I do not have an official way of tracking, I believe our quote form requests are more likely to turn into sales than phone calls. Phone quotes seem to be more from people that price shop and just want a quick quote. People who take time to fill out the quote form usually know they already want to come to us. Plus, I like that the history of a quote conversation is recorded in email so that we can reference back to it if needed. 

Meowpox, i agree with. if your contact info is not  immediately visible on your site you are frustrating people. A good amount of people visit a site just to get contact info. I think you are right when you say your customer base differs from most here. It looks like you are catering to a very high end clientele.  Much different than most of the other members I am guessing. The information I am reading is leading me to believe that we have been brainwashed to blindly focus on page views, clicks, likes and now everyone is neglecting generating calls. Check out this article; http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/rise-phone-leads-sylvan-picks-call-data/307943/ 

I would be interested to see what 50 web leads vs 50 unique phone calls would generate in sales.

 

 

[meowpox]

5 hours ago, Bruno Tabbi said:

Meowpox, i agree with. if your contact info is not  immediately visible on your site you are frustrating people. A good amount of people visit a site just to get contact info. I think you are right when you say your customer base differs from most here. It looks like you are catering to a very high end clientele.  Much different than most of the other members I am guessing. The information I am reading is leading me to believe that we have been brainwashed to blindly focus on page views, clicks, likes and now everyone is neglecting generating calls. Check out this article; http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/rise-phone-leads-sylvan-picks-call-data/307943/ 

I would be interested to see what 50 web leads vs 50 unique phone calls would generate in sales.

 

 

Interesting article, thanks! Without actual numbers, my opinion is not much. Sounds like they are onto something

[Andre R]

Hi Bruno, based on the responses that we generate from our clients its a process . They get a direct mail piece with our phone number and our web site adress. They check us out on Yelp or Google and then if they like what they see they call.

At that point our service writer has to make the conversion. We do get new clients just making appointments through our web site without calling but that is about 12% of our new clients. So to answer your question, for my shop having a good person answering the phone generates the most new business.

[JustTheBest]

Hi Bruno Tabbi! From what I am reading into your question (and I may be wrong) is that you're looking for the one best way. The truth is - there isn't "one best way". I say that because I often get calls and emails from shop owners looking for the silver bullet that will get them 30-40 new customers a month. The truth is - I don't have that bullet. But neither does anyone else. 

With that said, I DO HAVE 30-40 ways to get 1 new customer a month. I know - it sounds like work; but with a little automation and simple systems - it's all easy. 

You said 

On 7/3/2017 at 9:58 AM, Bruno Tabbi said:

its unanimous that word-of-mouth and in person interactions are your most likely sales but besides those what is the most reliable?

That is the truth! But what "system" do you have to generate that "word-of-mouth" advertising? (Good things never happen on their own)

You don't just rely on customers saying things like "Oh sure, I'll recommend you!", do you?? Because it almost never happens.

But that's because you're not giving them the right tools. Customer's don't walk around talking about your shop. And without the tools... you're the furthest thing from their mind! So how can you make it happen? It's done by implementing a customer referral program. Oh... sorry, that sounds like work, right? Well, it is. A little work and effort now - a system that works for ever and ever. Got it working right now with clients of mine. I don't know if consistent 25-30 new customers a month is good or not - but he's giggling!

If I were you, I would start by implementing a customer referral program that works. No, it's not just offering your customer something lame like 10% off your next service - because that doesn't work. You've got to turn that into a system - and that means it's done regularly - all the time - every time. And then you remind them a few times in between. But when you look at the cost of getting new customers (like anywhere between $75-$150 each!) it's cheap!

I don't want to bore you with details and all that here, but I would be welcome to share them with you if you're interested. You can PM me through the forum or email me direct. 

Hope this helps!

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"

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[Jay Huh]

Make sure to have a "schedule appointment" on your webpage where it is convenient. 70% of our appointments are through online scheduling. People love doing things online nowadays. Me too, I rather schedule online rather than call in. Keeps our phones from ringing off the hook too. On our specials page, I have a "schedule appointment" on every single box.

http://carmedixnc.com/specials/

This is also our landing page for our google adwords. It's been working extremely well as customers love knowing prices upfront and avoiding interaction (esp the millennials)