E247: These 3 Lead Qualification Rules Will Stop You Wasting Time on Quotes that Won't Close

Today we're going to unpack how 3 lead qualification rules, hard and fast rules, will stop you wasting time on quotes that simply won't close. Welcome to Trade Sales Made Simple, the show helping 7 to 8 figure trade, construction, and industry leaders finally end the stress of inconsistent sales by simplifying your sales systems so that you can close more deals and grow faster. I'm your host Ben Wright, and over the last 15 years I've helped hundreds of trade and sales leaders grow their businesses and generate over $200 million in additional revenue by simplifying their sales processes. Let's get started. In this episode, we are going to focus on the 3 things that you can do to improve the qualification of your leads and how, when you get this right, it can lead to a really significant improvement in your close rates. So a saying that I live by with most of my trade businesses that I work with now, particularly those in the Sales Academy, is that for the majority of them, it's actually not about more leads, but it's about getting better at closing the leads that they have in front of them. And thankfully, when it comes to qualifying these leads, with almost every trade customer I work with, there's some really easy changes that they can make to help them take not just any lead through the sales process, but leads that are more likely to close. And today's podcast actually came from a direct conversation that I had with one of our Academy team members that's in the, broadly speaking, the real estate industry. And we spoke about the importance of a couple of things that he needed to do for his lead qualification rules. He'll be listening. He knows exactly who he is. And I hope you got a smile on your face because I think that what we went through today was really impactful for you and your business. Okay, so 3 things that I really encourage trade businesses to look at when they're qualifying leads are number 1, get really clear on what a good customer looks like for you. It's called your ideal customer profile or your ICP if you want to get technical, but to make it really commercial, and this is the important part because most people have heard on what an ideal customer profile is. But not many actually know how to bring it to life in their business. So a customer that, that is most likely to close for them, the way that I recommend our customers go about this is to actually look back through your list of last 10, 20, 40, 50 customers and have a look at the similarities between them. We actually have an ICP, uh, handout, which you're welcome to get in contact with us and I'll happily send across to you without any obligation, but it actually helps step people through the types of things they should be looking for. But when we get really clear on the types of leads that are more likely to close for us, i.e., our ideal customers, then these are the ones that we can start qualifying for in the first stages of dealing with a prospect. So, so often I see trade businesses get tempted to quote everything or anything and everything. And what ends up happening is they spend huge amounts of time quoting deals that they're never going to win. And not because they're not good at the job, but quite simply because the customers weren't ever really likely to move forward. They are the wrong demographic. They are the wrong type of people or businesses that your business itself serves and serves well. So number one, get clear on your ICP. Number two is really make sure that you are prospecting through lead generation channels that work for you. Now you might think, okay, how is this a lead qualification wall? Well, for me, what it means is that the leads that are coming into us are already pre-qualified as we're generating them through channels that close. An example I want to give you here is that For most trade businesses I work with, they talk about social media as being important to their business and one they'd like to get better at. However, when I ask these trade businesses how many deals they've closed through social media, so commonly— not all the time, but so commonly— the response is either, "I don't know," or, "Yeah, we get some leads, but I haven't closed many." And look, for me, social media has its place in so many ways in generating social proof and in many instances generating business. But I think the point of the example here is that not all leads are created equal, quite simply because of how they were generated. For me, when I'm personally out in the market and looking to generate leads myself, I know that my go-tos are past customers, are my network of people, and trade shows. So going to trade shows and meeting with key speakers of trade shows who may be interested in what I do. Now these are the 3 ways, they're my 3 go-tos when it comes to prospecting. And I know that when leads come in from any of these 3 channels, they are multiples more likely to close than when I have a social media lead, than when I have a Facebook ad lead, than when I have, you know, a lead that's come in from something that is less successful historically in my business. So the first thing I'd encourage you to think about is your ideal customers. Make sure that you're qualifying these and only going to see them. Please don't take, you know, that temptation to go and quote everyone. Second piece here is work through lead generation channels that work for you. And the third one is to qualify really early if your customer is ready to buy or they're just looking. And what that essentially means is if we have a customer that is in the market to have their house renovated now, or if they're just starting to look. Because when we have a customer that's ready to buy, we can roll straight into that sales process. Whereas if we have a customer that's just looking, we generally need to take a softer approach to step them forward. So if we have a customer who is ready to renovate now, we can start to talk to them about, great, have you thought about number of rooms? Have you thought about the types of finishings? Have you talked about whether you want, you know, wood or brick? Have you thought about the type of flooring you want, etc., etc., right? Versus when we have someone that's just looking, if we start to ask those conversations, we can really quickly overwhelm someone, right? Versus a conversation that goes down a more general path. It's just, okay, great, what can I do to help you get yourself ready to renovate without necessarily picking who you're going to use? When we take that slower approach with our just looking customers, generally what we see is that that when they are ready to look, we are included in that process. And often we're the lead player because we have proven ourselves as someone who has provided great advice without getting anything in return, which of course builds a little bit of trust with people, right? That they can rely on you when they need you. So for those customers that are ready to buy, we can instantly move them into our sales process and put them through that funnel, if you like, that's going to move them through to a, hey, let's do it, or no, it doesn't work for us. Right now. So those 3 things, ICP, getting really clear on who the types of customers are you're more likely to close are, then which lead generation channel generate customers that will close for you. And lastly, getting clear on the customers that are ready to buy now so you can prioritize those and spend less time on those that are not. Now those 3 ways, when executed well, will generally make a 20 to 25% difference on the close rates of our business. And I think from today, what I'd really encourage you to do is have a think about which of those you can implement in your business now. And if you're stuck, start with your ideal customer. Go back, look at your past deals, get your ideal customer really clear, and then see how many of those are coming through in your lead generation activities. Because if you don't have the majority of them coming through, well then we need to change that in your lead generation activities. Or if you do, well then we can really quickly move into your next steps, right? Are they coming through lead generation channels that close? And are they ready to buy versus just looking? So that's how I'd encourage you to act today. And then of course, if you are doing a lot of quoting, you're not closing deals and you're getting a bit frustrated that putting hours in, but there's not enough money in the bank to show for it, we have a free quote quiz that's in the show notes. It's really quick, it's really easy to do, and I come back to everyone personally on their results and how they can think about growing and improving their, their business. So have a go at that. It's quick, it's less than a minute to complete, and you'll really like the results. That's it for today. Please keep thinking about how you can be 1% better each and every day, because it does make all the difference. Bye for now.