A frequent question in business is this: “Is our marketing resulting in quality leads?”

One of the largest hurdles for marketing to overcome in a business is how to best understand and target leads. Ultimately, the goal of marketing for your company should be to attract highly qualified leads that convert to customers.

E-Myth has shared five great tips on how to identify and target the optimal prospects for your business. We’ve enhanced their tips and added a couple of our own. Click here to read the full article at E-Myth.

7 Tips to Improve Your Lead Conversion

Tip #1: Know Your Ideal Customer

How well do you 'know' your ideal customer? Determine their income, where they live, occupation, lifestyle, buying habits and other data regarding their financial circumstances. It’s not just demographics, however; understand your customer’s psychographic data as well, such as their behaviors and preferences.

Tip #2: Your Sales System

Create a systematic approach to making (see our next tip) and tracking sales. Measure what you are achieving, and then focus on key enhancements that will impact this number. Make sure you are setting lead and conversion goals. Everyone involved in sales needs to know the system, its messaging, and what makes your business stand out from the competition (your key differentiator). And, of course, everyone in your organization sells and is a brand champion. Any staff member becomes part of your sales force when interacting with vendors, colleagues, or sales leads.

Tip #3: Sales Mapping and Milestones

Your sales system needs to have established milestones that mark the key events in the sales process. Develop a specific map that shows the step-by-step process that it takes to convert your inquiries into customers. This can include what it takes to build trust, understand your buyers’ goals, how to create certainty that your product/service meets their needs, and so on. Milestones will enable you to understand how far along your prospects are in the sales cycle, train other salespeople effectively, and enable you to more accurately forecast sales for strategic planning purposes.

Tip #4: Know Why They Buy

You need to understand why your customers buy your products and services. Essentially, your customers buy your products for the benefits they believe they will obtain. Sales messaging should trumpet the benefits of buying your products and services.

Tip #5: Know Why They Don't Buy

You need to know why prospects don't turn into customers. Knowing why someone doesn't buy from you is important knowledge, too. If you know why prospects drop from your sales system, and at which point in the cycle, you have a big clue as to what do next.

Tip #6: Qualify Leads Up Front

Time wasted on unqualified leads is the biggest factor that can affect your company’s sales success. Not everyone is a prime prospect for your products or services. You spend all day talking to people, but you won’t make sales unless you concentrate on qualified prospects. These are people who are receptive, interested, ready to buy, and can afford what you are offering.

Tip #7: Use a Planned Agenda

A planned agenda for meetings is one of the most effective, yet underutilized, tools in selling. It makes your sales meetings more productive and rewarding, and it shows you’ve taken the time and effort to plan for the meeting. It also allows you to be in control of the meeting and stick to a pre-determined time allocation. Follow up with meeting notes - record and follow-through on agreed-upon actions on time. This will set you apart from competitors by enhancing your reputation and professionalism, increasing the chance that you’ll win the sale.

These simple tips aren't a ‘quick-fix’ to solving your lead conversion challenges. However, by implementing these tips, it should help set the course for long-term success.