Since the dawn of time, there’s been a disconnect between the marketing and sales industries. So if that’s the case, how can we (as business owners) minimize the gap between leads and conversions?
The Lead Conversion Gap is the result of misalignment between marketing and sales teams.
It’s the difference between the number of leads that a company generates and the number that they’re able to successfully convert into paying customers.
There are a number of ways to close the Lead Conversion Gap, but it starts with understanding where the problem lies.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Marketing Failures to Generate Leads
- How Time Consuming Nurturing Is
- The Disconnect Between Sales and Marketing
- Speed to the Lead
Marketing Failures to Generate Leads
Marketing failures are commonplace. Many businesses find themselves struggling to generate leads, despite investing in marketing campaigns.
Often, this is because businesses don’t properly understand their buyers and what motivates them. As a result, they fail to create effective marketing messages that resonates with their target audience.
Additionally, businesses often do not allocate enough resources to their lead generations efforts, which can often lead to fewer leads acquired overall.
Some of the most common causes of marketing failures include:
- Creating effective marketing materials – Includes everything from your website and logo to your sales collateral and advertising. If your materials don’t grab attention or communicate your message effectively, people will be less likely to do business with you.
- Targeting the wrong audience – You may have the best product or service in the world, but if you’re targeting the wrong audience, you’ll never make any sales. Make sure you know who your ideal customer is and craft your marketing messages accordingly.
- Following up with potential leads – Failing to follow up with leads after you’ve been contacted can result in missed opportunities. Make sure you have a solid system in place so that you don’t lose any potential sales.
- Tracking results – If you don’t track your marketing results, it’s difficult to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Make sure to have a system in place for tracking key metrics such as website visits, email open rates, and conversion rates.
By understanding these common marketing failures, businesses can take steps to correct them, in order to improve and minimize the Lead Conversion Gap.
Businesses should focus on understanding their buyers, creating relevant content, and allocating adequate resources to their lead generation efforts.
You can learn more about the different kinds of marketing failures to watch out for in another one of our articles, here!
How Time Consuming Nurturing Is
Nurturing is the process of developing a bond or relationship with a prospect over time in order to convert them into a customer.
However, this can be a very time-consuming process, and if it’s not done correctly, it can often take weeks or even months to turn a lead into a paying customer.
During this process it’s important for businesses to:
- Continue to engage with leads
- Provide valuable information
- Be available to answer questions
- Offer incentives of giveaways
- Conduct surveys or polls
- Track marketing trends
Furthermore, if you’re not constantly reaching out to potential customers and providing them with the information they need, they may feel discouraged and go elsewhere for their needs.
This can lead to lost sales and a widened gap between your leads and your conversions.
Regardless, having the best nurturing techniques in place is essential for minimizing the Lead Conversion Gap, especially for any business that wants to succeed in today’s market and improve lead generations over time.
The Disconnect Between Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing teams are often out of sync when it comes to leads.
In some cases, for example, sales teams may feel that marketing is not providing them with enough qualified leads. While marketing teams may feel that sales is not doing enough to close the leads they provide.
This disconnect could potentially lead to a Lead Conversion Gap, where sales is not able to convert as many leads as it would like.
In order for businesses to close the Lead Conversion Gap, it’s important for sales and marketing teams to be aligned.
However, this is often easier said than done. The two industries have different goals, objectives, and ways of measuring success.
This can often lead to miscommunication between the two teams.
To bridge the gap, businesses should start by:
- Setting shared goals and objectives
- Establishing KPIs that can be used to measure success
- Tracking progress towards for both sales and marketing
- Holding meetings on a regular basis to discuss accomplishments, challenges, and plan future strategies
By aligning the goals and objectives of both sales and marketing, businesses can begin minimizing the Lead Conversion Gap and increase their overall sales.
Speed to the Lead
One of the biggest factors that contributes to the Lead Conversion Gap is the speed at which businesses follow up with leads. This is can also be referred to as the path to purchase.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, 37% of businesses responded to a lead within an hour of being contacted.
There is a direct correlation between the path to purchase and sales. The faster you can get in touch with a potential customer, the more likely you are to close the sale.
However, if there are multiple people involved in contacting leads, it can slow down the process and decrease the chances of converting the lead.
Having a streamlined process that allows for quick contact with leads can help minimize the lead conversion gap.
There are several factors that contribute to the path to purchase including:
- How you generate leads
- How optimized your website is
- How quickly you respond to leads
- How quickly you build a relationship with leads
Whatever method you use, it is important to act fast and close the gap between generating a lead and starting the sales process.
If you can address these issues, you’ll be able to move leads through the sales funnel more quickly and reduce the Lead Conversion Gap.
To Review
To minimize the Lead Conversion Gap, businesses should focus on quickly following up with leads, improving your lead capture process, and design a fully optimized website.
By following these steps, businesses can increase their chances of qualifying a lead and ultimately closing the sale.
If you have any questions about minimizing the Lead Conversion Gap, leave them in the comments below!