You read that right. Does your organization use paid marketing campaigns? Then you also pay for leads that eventually convert with your competitor. This phenomenon is not new, it has been around for many years, but in most companies this is a problem they are not aware of. And that's a shame! In this article, you'll learn about several ways companies lose high-paying warm leads.
Warm leads have little patience
Let's start with an important insight. In theory, leads can convert in a variety of ways. For example, on your website, via e-mail, or by phone. Most marketers only monitor online conversions on the website. But telephone leads are your warmest leads. They are generally further along in the customer journey, and have a significantly higher intention to convert. That's why you want to bind leads who come to your website and who want to call you directly to your company. But this often goes wrong in several ways:
- Your company is difficult to reach.
- The lead wants to call while your business is closed.
- The lead has submitted a contact request online, but it is not followed up (in time).
In other words: due to suboptimal accessibility and lead follow-up, you miss out on a lot of turnover. Leads will look for a competitor who offers the same product or service.
Example
Automotive is an industry in which telephone leads are very important. Many test drives, appointments and visits are scheduled by telephone. But the decision to want to take a test drive is made by most people at a time when they are free. Generally, this is in the evening, in the morning before 10 a.m., during the lunch break, or on weekends. And these are precisely the times when car companies are closed, or difficult to reach. The following situations often occur:
- The lead intends to call the company the next business day. In practice, this does not always happen. Instead, the lead will Google again, and then end up with the company that is currently at the top.
- The lead leaves a contact request on the website. Now it comes down to a watertight and lightning-fast lead follow-up. Every hour it takes you to get in touch, the less likely it is that the lead will convert with you.
Tackle lead leakage
As you can see, many organizations lose valuable leads this way. This problem is called lead leakage. The good news is that lead leakage can also be fixed. That starts with a better understanding of what lead leakage is exactly. In this article, we'll tell you even more about that.
