What to do with event leads AFTER you contact them
Get a CRM – Don’t know what a CRM is? Google it
- It’s like saying “I want to build an online business” and you don’t know how to use an Autoresponder
- Are you building a real business or playing house?
You contact an event…then what?
Initial Contact
- Email 1 – Who hires?
No response?
- Follow up
No response again?
- Pitch anyways
Why they don’t respond?
- You’re using inbound for outbound
- Infusionsoft, Activecampaign, etc
- Has ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom
- Sounds like a template
- They think you’re a bot
- They’re busy
- Must pitch immediately
You contact them, mark the lead as ‘working’
- Purpose of emailing = Qualify the leads
- Rich Phone Book – He was qualifying
- Working a lead = Qualifying the lead
WHEN should you follow up?
- No rules…just guidelines
- Contact more at first
- Don’t contact TOO much
- Create a Sales Cadence
- Sequence of activities you follow for certain leads
Combine Sales Cadence with Lead Score
- “I’ll follow up with these events ‘this’ way, and these events ‘that’ way”
- Ex: Conferences = 1 follow up
- Ex: More qualified = 7 follow ups
General Rule – Don’t delete leads from your CRM
- ALL leads give you information
- Spend time on events more likely to close
- Lead score
Create templates for everything
- “We don’t hire”
- “Fill out this form”
- You need a process for everything
- If X, then Y
Take your emotions out of it
- Ex “Take me off your DAMN list” etc
- If X, then Y
- Dumb responses = ignore
“Fill out this form” = template response…Why?
- Low lead score, low chance of closing
- BUT…if you’re new, fill out the form
“We don’t hire/pay” = template response…why?
- Low lead score, low chance of closing
Keep thinking QUALIFICATION
- Purpose of emailing = Qualify
- More you contact = better you get at qualifying
- You don’t know if they hire speakers or hire YOU
Use CRM filters – “days since last communication” etc
- Keep thinking about how to spend time on the right leads
As you talk to events,
- Take notes in your CRM
- Email not syncing? = Copy/paste into notes
- Set follow up tasks
Push them through the pipeline
- Incoming – Questions – Quote – Contract – Closed
- Each stage has emails
- Be prepared for EVERY possible outcome/response
Not getting responses = doing something wrong
- Not contacting enough
- Not saying the right things
- Bad leads (weren’t interested to begin with)
- Bad website (they’re not interested in YOU)
Contact so many you have a hard time keeping up with responses
- Dave “I have so many tasks…”
- More practice = better you get (like any skill)
- Use your lead score more
- Qualified events = more time
- Unqualified events = less time
You need someone showing you HOW to practice
- Practice doesn’t make perfect
- Perfect practice makes perfect
How long are you going to wait before you implement on your goals?
- “I have to do X first” = your goal isn’t as important as you claim