Steps for growing your small business: How to handle Inbound marketing leads.

The right steps for growing your small business is often keyed to obtaining leads, and knowing when—and how—to act on them.  

Back in the 1990’s, there was a simplistic view on just what was the best way to develop customers and handle leads, according to Eric Markowitz, staff writer for Inc.com, “How to Best harness Inbound Marketing Leads.’’

Then, the Web was fast becoming the New Frontier back then, and a conference study, set out to “know how and when sales reps should react to sales leads online.”

Today, Markowitz emphasizes the importance of keeping a pulse on the consumer’s shift in brand preferences; here is a summary of a few of his tips on developing inbound marketing leads and closing them:

Question Whether They are Good Leads

Temper all that excitement you may be experiencing as the leads keep coming in. Always, it’s about quality over quantity.

To begin with companies should implement a ‘customer relationship management’ system, or CRM to educate employees on the best ways to get to know and understand their customer’s needs.

Setting Up a Response Team

Approach your sales leads with ‘urgency.’ After all, each represents the lifeblood of your organization. So, instead of routinely providing your customer with a template to fill in, try engaging him to flesh out his real needs—you might even up sell him.

According to Chad Levitt, a marketing consultant based in Boston: “ Every company should be taking data from their CRM…There’s ways to map buyer behavior. When you get all that data, it allows you to understand their decisions.”

As the economy continues to improve, you may be making plans to add more staff. Contact us to learn how our website helps managers in the HVAC, electrical and plumbing industry hire skilled staff.