Generally, most of our customers are working to make more sales while also servicing the customers they already have. It’s the classic entrepreneurial balancing act, and it seems like everyone — from law firms to lawn services, tech firms to taco trucks — everyone is constantly splitting time between building their business and delivering quality service.

At the same time, we talk to a lot of business owners — they call us to talk about our service, and we spend a considerable amount of time making sure that we turn as many as possible into HubRunner customers. That means we’re constantly assessing the performance of our lead handling process.

Here are a few simple steps you can take to improve your own lead handling process — if you follow them, you just might see an increase in sales:

1. Refine your “first contact” (the L.E.A.D. process)
2. Organize your process of gathering information from leads
3. Ensure your follow-up process is personalized and efficient
4. A customer is still a lead (and a referral source!)

In this post, we detail the L.E.A.D. system of refining your first contact. When a lead emails you, calls you, or submits a form from your website, what’s your next step? Focus on this acronym:

L.E.A.D.

Leap > Explore > Amplify > Decide

• Leap on the opportunity: get in touch with the lead as fast as humanly possible, whether by calling them back or responding to their email.

• Explore: do not pitch your product or service at this point. You are building a relationship, and that starts with listening. Ask a lot of questions and don’t talk very much. By asking questions and listening, you will learn what problems the lead is facing. Then…

• Amplify: amplify the challenges that the led is facing, in the context of how your product or service can solve those challenges. For example, when a lead tells us they’ve had trouble getting their previous website provider to make updates, we make sure to explain how our service solves that specific problem in a very effective manner.

• Decide: once you’ve explored the lead’s challenges and discussed how your product or service can solve them, you must make a decision about whether or not the lead is a good fit for your company. Is the lead comfortable with your cost? Make sure you’re on the same page about this – if the lead isn’t comfortable with your price point, closing the sale isn’t likely and it’s probably not worth your time and effort.

We hope you find the L.E.A.D. system helpful in refining your first contact with new leads. Keep an eye out for future posts detailing how you can complete steps 2, 3, and 4 of improving the way you handle leads:

2. Organize your process of gathering information from leads
3. Ensure your follow-up process is personalized and efficient
4. A customer is still a lead (and a referral source!)