Firstly, let’s get clear on what a ‘LEAD’ is. A lead is anyone who has expressed an interest in what you do, what you make, your offers or services. They will do this by signing up to your mailing list, commenting on your socials, joining your group, or attending an event, challenge, or masterclass.

These ARE your leads. 

Your job is to convert leads into sales.

Leads can be warm – they are in your world and know roughly what you do and are aware of you.

Leads can be cold – they have no idea who you are or what you do.

The difference between them is the difference in your copy, but the job you have remains the same.

Here are my top tips to converting leads into sales, no matter what you do!

1. Communicate VALUE first. You must focus on bringing value into the life of your potential customers. People in general really don’t like salesy people, so if your copy is purely salesy it is time to change it. Your aim should be to improve your customers life and address their needs. People are not that bothered about your solution; it is all about their relief. Behave as an expert in your area of genius. People will trust your judgement, advice, and solutions if you are the face of your business.
2. Pinpoint their problem. Your job is to find out exactly what the problem is that this person (your lead) is experiencing. Use a varied approach to asking questions that feels natural and allows your potential customer to open up. People often don’t realise the extent of the problem, or they are looking at the wrong problem. 
3. The sale is a conversation. The potential buyer will be much more receptive if you make the interaction between you a two-way conversation. Talking is a great way to engage people and for you to learn more about their needs in a more informal way. You can connect the dots and ascertain how your product or service is a fit for them. Don’t make it sound like you are reading from a script because people can spot this a mile off and it will instantly get their back up. Be warm, responsive, and gently guide the information you need from them. This takes practice.
4. Keep them on a simmer. Even if you make contact in person within a few minutes of them commenting or signing up to your call to action, they still may be nowhere near ready to buy. There can be a lag to the sale and your job is to keep them warm and create a love and interest in your product or service that keeps you top of mind and moves it up the wants list in their head. This is simple great customer service and starts a long time before the sale happens. Remember the new statistics indicate that you now must be seen over 30 times before they buy.
5. Ask for the sale. Many people just don’t ask for the sale and this is sales suicide. Most people expect to be asked and it is the simplest part of the process. Just ask if your customer is ready to get started and see how often you get a yes. They wouldn’t be talking to you if they hadn’t been interested in the first place, if you don’t ask, I can assure you that someone else will.
6. Follow up. If the sale doesn’t happen immediately then you must follow up. Keeping your potential customer interested and in decision making mode is part of the process. Have a list of warm leads and check in with them at regular intervals, no more than a couple of days after the initial contact. They are in buying mode so keep them there until you get them over the finish line. This does not have to be pushy or annoying, think about yourself, we are all busy and often forget, there are times I have been incredibly grateful for follow up.
7. Don’t keep them waiting. Make first contact as soon as possible. This is money in your account, a profitable business that supports you and your family, so don’t allow this initial fresh interest in your product go stale. Make contact as soon as possible, within the hour or the same day if you can, while their desire for what you are selling is fresh in their memory. If you don’t do this, they will see something else or someone else and spend their money with a competitor so own the responsibility for that sale. Have routines in place in your business to follow up quickly, if you post at 1pm then the hour between 1 – 2 is critical.
8. Build trust. People buy from people, so if they like you then they also like what you are selling, you have a foot in the door. Show up authentically and be honest, people can spot a lie, script, marketing speak, salesy dialogue a mile off these days and they will instantly mistrust you. Speaking your truth and creating an honest dialogue is much more likely to win you the sale these days. Listen intently and steer the conversation towards real business issues so that you can answer confidently and allow them to see you as an expert in your field.
9. Give them your time. I see so many people that are too busy to spend time talking to their customers and building relationships, this is folly. Smart business owners know that relationships are everything. Remembering them and respecting them without rushing them will mean a lot and is more likely to result in a sale than not.
10. Don’t reduce your value. So many of the creative women I work with struggle to price their work and ask people for what they are worth. Take the emotion out of it and set up a pricing calculator. Charge an hourly rate, the current rate for an artist is around £30 per hour. Then calculate your costs, and you need to consider every small thing – materials, packaging, postage, your time to the post office to post the product, tape, business cards, marketing costs, telephone costs if you are talking on the phone, online platform costs, paper, ink, light & heat in your home or studio and anything else you can think of that has a cost and is part of the sales process. Now price your product or service with all of that in mind. When big companies price their products, they know the volume and profit margins they need, this is all you are doing but on a much smaller scale. You are in business to make a living not to be a charity so price your real worth.

Viewing leads as leads and seeing the money first is probably why you are struggling with sales. Humanising the process and accepting that everyone has some problem to solve and that you hold the solution for many people in your product or service, allows you to soften the blocks in your thinking. Sales are a natural human exchange of vale for currency, no matter what the product is. You are easing people’s pain, helping them out and giving them something they need, want or desire which will make them feel better. There is nothing cheesy about that.

Happy selling.