How to Turn Prospects into Customers Through Engagement

As a bootstrapped startup, we couldn’t afford to pay for website traffic and conversions, so we had to work extra hard to bring in quality organic traffic and turn those visitors into leads and sales. Lots of things helped, like: ✅ Improving page load time ✅ Clarifying copy ✅ Showing an explainer video on our home page ✅ Niching down our audience ✅ Creating industry-specific landing pages ✅ Blogging and other content ✅ Earning backlinks and mentions from outlets our audience trusted ✅ Adding social proof throughout the website ✅ Earning online reviews on trusted platforms But one small thing that had the most surprising impact on our conversions was adding a Calendly form to our website to let people schedule demos on their own. Beforehand, prospects had to submit a form to request a meeting. Then we had to email them. Then we had to go back-and-forth to (hopefully) find a time that worked. We lost so many opportunities that way. I forget the exact numbers, but once people could book on their own, we began earning ~40% more demos from the same traffic. That was HUGE for our marketing and sales. We’ve changed a lot over the years as we’ve grown, but we still use that demo booking form (though we do use their routing forms now to send prospects to the right rep based on company size). Sometimes small changes to the user experience make a big difference to your numbers. Just keep asking: How can I make their experience better? #marketing #conversionrateoptimization #bettermeetings P.S. What’s a small change you’ve made that’s had an outsized impact?

I have been on over 500 calls till now asking creators to try topmate.io and guess what, I have been ghosted countless times by them! "I will get back to you soon." is one of the most common responses when people are not interested in your services. As a professional, it is frustrating when your promising prospects fail to convert into clients, even after an engaging initial conversation. And it hurts even more when they ghost you without giving any reason. Here are four key factors to consider: 1⃣Misaligned sales and marketing: If your sales and marketing teams aren't in sync, your prospects may be receiving mixed messages. Ensure open communication and shared understanding of the ideal customer profile and lead qualification criteria. 2⃣Lack of customer understanding: Don't assume you know your prospects' needs. Take the time to truly listen and ask insightful questions to uncover their unique challenges and requirements. This will help you provide tailored solutions. 3⃣Credibility gap: If prospects don't trust your advice or believe you have their best interests in mind, they'll hesitate to commit. Focus on building rapport and demonstrating your expertise, not just closing the deal. 4⃣High-pressure sales tactics turn off prospects: Position yourself as a helpful guide, not a salesperson on a mission. By addressing these common pitfalls, you can create a more transparent, customer-centric sales process that builds trust and addresses your prospects' real needs. This will not only improve your conversion rates but also foster long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. After I started keeping the above things in mind, I have seen an exponential increase in the conversion rate. What else do you think puts off a prospect during the call? Your opinion is valuable!

Two simple but impactful wins for your website. ➡️ Show, or better yet, interact with the product and let your prospect book a call immediately when they are ready. Two common things I often recommend to increase your website pipeline that often get INSTANT objections. The objections are all internal issues. My response, "That's an internal issue. Let's align with the right people and start moving the number." Sometimes you just need to remind people who owns the number and we're all matching to move it together! Next, I use data to show them the potential impact. I pull previous results we've seen but I also reference external benchmarks. 1. Calendar booking to increase conversion rate. Chili Piper just launched a great benchmark report. "86.97% of form submissions are from qualified customers. And 65.09% of those qualified prospects are booking time with sales. Pretty good compared to the baseline of 30-40%" I model this out using their data and show them how this increase can impact revenue. 2. Let people see and interact with your product BEFORE they talk to sales. The best way for your buyer experience is to do an interactive tour. "Interactive tours have 2.5x CTR when compared to videos" Source: Navattic State of the Interactive Product Demo 2024 Video is still a win in my book but it's a half step. If you are serious, take the full step. These benchmarks help show what can be possible based on what others are doing. Model it out for yourself and input your adjustments based on your business but TAKE ACTION. P.S. Not a sponsored post. #gtmstrategy #websiteoptimization #productdemo

Recently, I've consulted with several companies that excel at creating or capturing existing demand. However, the real hurdle isn't just about creating or capturing existing demand. It's about converting that demand into revenue. 🔍 Let's break it down: 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - This is about generating interest. It's the top-of-the-funnel activities, the content marketing, and the brand awareness campaigns. It's essential, but it's only the beginning. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 - This is where you get potential customers to raise their hands. They could fill out your contact form, schedule a meeting, sign up for a webinar, or attend an event. But just because someone raises their hand doesn't mean they're ready to buy. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 - This is the crux. It's taking those interested parties and turning them into paying customers. And this is where I see a glaring gap in many marketing and sales strategies. 💡 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: If you're driving a ton of traffic, but only a fraction are converting, That's like having a bucket with a massive hole. No matter how much water you pour in, you lose most of it. 🤔 So, what's the solution? 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 - Go beyond personas. Understand their pain points, their journey, and their objections. 𝗧𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Generic messaging won't cut it. Speak directly to their needs and concerns. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - Ensure your sales and marketing teams are in sync. A lead that's nurtured and understood is more likely to convert. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽 - Always be iterating 𝗔𝗡𝗗 implementing. Use feedback to refine your approach and plug those holes in your bucket. It's not enough to create and capture demand in today's competitive landscape. We must understand and optimize every step of the customer's journey. Don't let demand conversion be your blind spot. Make it your strength! #DemandConversion #RevenueGrowth #MarketingStrategy __ I'm Rob Timmermann The SEO for CEOs & CMOs 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗲 🤝 I help companies create conversions. 📊 DM me for help with your company's marketing. 💌

"What if prospects don't engage in our Mutual Action plan?" This question comes up a LOT. Here's what I shared with a customer during a training workshop yesterday: ✅ 1. There's a good chance they might not...in the beginning - Prospects barely answer our emails or our phone calls as it is - Whether they engage or not, it shouldn't really matter. There's a ton of value to use the MAP internally for deal execution - You should use the MAP to help qualify your deal, pull it up on every call to talk timelines, uncover potential roadblocks and objections, and gauge if a deal is "real" - Good news is that eventually they will engage. Our MAP engagement rate is ~75% across all customers. That's huge. ✅ 2. How you present the MAP really impacts engagement - Just emailing it over without context will result in zero engagement - It's critical to pull it up at the end of your call (allow 5-10 minutes at least!) and walk through the MAP next steps with them - Use this is an opportunity to uncover possible objections, roadblocks, multi-thread stakeholders, and deal killers - Set clear next steps and due dates with OWNERS for due dates - If your champion refuses to give you this information, then I'm sorry but you probably don't have a real deal ☠️ ✅ 3. Make it all about enabling your buyer - Yeah, there's a ton of value for you and leadership to create a MAPs, but that's not the true goal - Everything in the MAP should be aimed towards enabling success for your customers - Include critical assets that help your champion sell internally when you're not in the room: Business Case, Key Criteria, Stakeholders Involved, Marketing Content, Tailored ROI, Case Studies, etc - Ask yourself "What does my champion need to sell this internally?", include that in the MAP, and share that with your You may not see engagement your first time. It's perfectly OK. Your first cold email isn't guaranteed to land either. Keep bringing it up on every call and make it all about your buyers. I promise you, once your relationship starts picking up steam, your champions will really appreciate the hell out of it. There's a reason why the average Recapped customer has a Win Rate of 44%. It's because Mutual Action Plans work. Really really well. 🎯 #sales #mutualactionplans #buyerenablement

I bought and installed a huge whiteboard in my home many years ago. I regularly close my laptop and put my phone on DND, and I just draw out loud. Prior to the launch of our small business (a dementia caregiving and support organization based out of our memory care community), I had one such white boarding session about marketing [pictured below]. In red I drew the typical sales funnel for senior living. It is one I’ve known for years and always thought, “if I could do it myself, I’d do things differently.” In black I drew a contrasting visualization of a customer journey centric approach. A few of the highlights in my thinking: - Embrace digital. Instead of thinking of digital as just a means to capture the lead to get it to a live person, improve the digital experience for customers so they can spend more of their time answering their own questions and opting IN or OUT of the sales cycle. - Focus on quality over quantity. Instead of simply driving higher lead volume, do your best to clearly define your audience and curate your leads (lower them!). Instead of converting 4 out of 100 leads, convert 4 out of 25. - Recalibrate marketing spend (including time) from solely focusing on new customers to engaging 50% of the time on existing customers and better content (facilitate word of mouth). - The website shouldn’t be the company’s story. It should be the customer’s story reflected back to them. I’m proud to say that this whiteboard drawing is nearly identical to the actual marketing strategy that our company has executed. Oh and that 4 out of 25 goal, we didn’t exactly land there. We went well past it. Over the past two years we have averaged an inquiry to closing rate of around 35%. (That’s a brand new company with zero market presence prior to opening.) At best, when I was a top performing sales person in senior living, I converted about 10-15% of my total leads. Today, we spend LESS time on leads that don’t match our persona. We spend ZERO on paid referrals. We don’t have a dedicated sales position. We have virtually no discounts or incentives. What all this really means…? We are being GOOD STEWARDS of our customers’ resources. When we don’t have superfluous and leaky spending in sales and marketing efforts, more of our resources are spent toward: - staffing ratios - training and development - resident programs - food - community engagement I spent years and years trying to convince other companies to embrace a new sales and marketing approach. “Good ideas, James, but…” The morals of this story: 1️⃣ Make time to be creative!💡 2️⃣ Reverse engineer sales from the customer journey. Create marketing that’s a love letter to your customer’s story. 💜 3️⃣ Embrace the mavericks on your team or watch them become your competitors. 🔥 P.S. These are nowhere near our boldest and most moonshot ideas. We’ve got a lot more fueling us than something as brittle as ambition. We’ve got LOVE in our gas tank. 🫶

Don't just tell your team to go talk to customers . . . I tried that and it failed... Instead, train your team how to have those conversations so they can glean valuable learnings and turn them into actions. But make sure you also note the BIG caveat below 😀 Early in my tenure as head of growth at Teltech, I told my team, "We are not talking to customers enough, so get out of the office and go talk to them." It sounded good to me, but nobody knew how to take action on it. For your team to talk to users and drive impact they need to have direction and a plan: 👉 Who do we need to talk to? 👉 What are we trying to learn? 👉 How are we going to approach each conversation? --> Who do we need to talk to? Focus your customer conversations around the specific growth objectives you are trying to achieve. For example, If you are trying to improve activation rates, you might look to speak with customers who activated 6 weeks ago and were also active in the last 7 days. --> What are we trying to learn? What does your team need to know to identify and prioritize the high-value experiments? If you are working to improve engagement, for example, you might focus on building questions to uncover what triggers active users to come back at least once a week. --> How are we going to approach each conversation? The more consistent you are in your approach to speaking with customers, the more likely you are to see trends across conversations. Assigning the same team member to ask questions, defining "rules of engagement" for listening and learning, etc. can be super-valuable. *️⃣ BIG Caveat - while it's great for your team to go out and talk to customers, you shouldn't outsource your own direct customer learnings. Customer interviews are valuable for teams, but they are critically important for founders and growth leaders. Ferdinand Goetzen had a recent post about the dangers of hiring too early, and I couldn't agree more with this statement, especially regarding customer interviews . . . "👐 You start delegating much earlier than you should. Sales, marketing, customer interviews....these are crucial sources of learnings and insights which need hands-on founder involvement." What else has helped you and your team get better learnings from customer interviews? Let me know in the comments below.

Last week, my daughter started kindergarten – a transformational journey for most kids. As I observed her and her classmates navigate the first week of ‘big kid school,’ I gleaned some insights that apply to any consumer experience, regardless of age and size:    1. There is no "one-size-fits-all" consumer journey: Each kid entered the kindergarten with a specific mix of emotions and expectations (i.e. their emographic profile). As the week went on, each kid adjusted and readjusted their experience at different paces. By Friday, some kids were joyful and skipping into school on their own, and others were hysterically crying at the drop-off door. Despite the product offering being the same for everyone (in this case, it was kindergarten), each kid was experiencing the brand and the consumer journey differently. 2. Personalization is key: Because kids were entering the journey with varying emographic profiles, they responded to messages and behaviors from parents and teachers differently. Some kids needed high-energy enthusiasm, others needed calming and reassurance, and others hardly needed any messaging at all. The content, creative, and messaging must meet the particular consumer where they are at that moment in their journey. The wrong message to the wrong kid at the wrong time would completely disengage them and they would fall out of the funnel. (i.e. “I don’t want to go to kindergarten ever again!”) 3. Unlocking the emographic profile is critical to success: Kids who successfully acclimated to kindergarten in that first week had one thing in common -- parents and teachers who understood their specific emotional profile and adjusted their offering, messaging, and content. The better the parents and teachers understood the kid’s underlying emotions (anxiety, fear, excitement, enthusiasm, confusion), the more successful they were at converting that kid into a happy student. Understanding the complexity of the consumer’s emographic profile is the key to unlocking successful engagement and higher conversions. You can’t personalize without first having insights and understanding. #marketing #consumers #experience