When it comes to lead conversion rates it’s important to know how you compare to the competition. Without benchmarking your performance against your industry you could find yourself in the dark. But what percentage of leads turn into sales in the first year of B2B?
It’s a question that shouldn’t be left unanswered, which is why we’re here to help.
We know that doing so could have detrimental effects on your business, which is why it’s imperative to compare your lead conversion rates against the competition, as this gives you the ability to gain the insight and edge you need to succeed.
Then it becomes a case of asking the right questions. Important ones to ask like; what are my competitors doing to generate those conversions? What channels are most, or least effective, at driving the leads I need? And which online activity is going to make that telephone ring and secure a prospect?
Understanding these conversion trends, the statistics and averages from your industry can help you to make considerably smarter and more informed decisions. This means you can invest your time and money far more effectively and who doesn’t want that?
But what does conversion mean?
We often look at conversion as the term qualified sales lead. This is someone that shows a clear interest in your products, services and overall business. They have a higher likelihood of becoming a customer or client but need to be successfully primed beforehand (you can read more on How to Prime A Prospect For A Sale in our previous article).
Once you have your prospects believing in your company’s values and overall mission you can begin the process of seeing how many of these leads eventually become sales. It’s important to remember though that when it comes to conversion rate there is no one size fits all approach.
In fact, they can vary considerably, by industry marketing source, average sales length and more. This can make it easy to get distracted. Especially with low ticket items, as they are easier to sell, shift and come without the risk that higher value items can present. Of course, these can be far harder to convert and will often require more time and nurturing, which is why it’s crucial to measure your marketing campaign success against your specific industry to ensure that you don’t over or underestimate your lead generation performance.
But how do you compare your conversion rate?
Comparing your conversion rate against the industry enables you to spot and prioritise opportunities, like marketing channels that have the propensity to drive higher qualified conversions. All of this can prove hugely beneficial and while conversion rate varies across all industries there is one constant…
Quite often the higher the price, the lower the conversion rate.
This is largely in part to buyers behaving differently when making purchasing decisions that involve those high ticket items, which as a result can lead to a longer customer journey that can run the risk of becoming more complicated.
Optimising your marketing
Ultimately, it’s all about optimising your marketing and finding the tools needed to help you achieve this. For many businesses that would involve varying web-based platforms and solutions to generate awareness and purposely drive offline interactions. Whether that’s phone calls or in-store purchases, using tracking and offline attribution can really help.
It allows businesses to accurately measure the ROI of the marketing channels that drive actions away from the web and lead to a sale offline.
Turning those leads into sales is something that’s become gradually more and more difficult to master. Especially when customers are becoming more informed, independent and socially connected, meaning they have a wealth of information and reviews at their fingertips. Now prospective buyers are finding themselves weaving in and out of online and offline channels to engage with reviews and compare prices, functionality and competitive solutions.
As a result, the initial contact a buyer has with a company to purchase is getting longer. It can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, which is why marketers are finding the move towards revenue attribution is the most obvious way to go. It means that you can measure profitable outcomes and allocate marketing budgets to the campaigns that are proving to be the biggest driver of higher value leads.
Looking to the future
While it’s imperative to know which marketing channels are driving your conversions more often than not the conversions aren’t the actual sales–at least not yet!
That’s why you have to maximise your conversions, and marketing performance and take a more collaborative approach to understand what makes a high-quality lead. That way you can use the insights gleaned to reduce churn, improve your retention and ultimately increase your revenue income.
