7 Reasons Leads Generated Aren't Driving Sales for Specialty Contractors (And How to Fix It)

Acquiring leads is only one step in the specialty contractors sales process. Equally if not more important is converting those leads into customers. Unfortunately, some sales reps struggle to effectively nurture and convert their company's leads into customers. You can't expect to convert all your company's leads, but optimizing your sales strategy can improve your conversion rate while increasing your company's sales revenue in the process. In this post, we're going to reveal seven potential reasons your plumbing, painting, concrete, HVAC company leads aren't driving sales and how you can fix it.

#1) You're Waiting Too Long to Contact Leads

Time is of the essence when contacting leads. According to HubSpot, B2B sales reps are 100 times more likely to reach a lead if they attempt to contact the lead within five minutes versus 30 minutes. In other words, you'll have an easier time getting potential customers on the phone if you call them within five minutes of securing them as a lead. You won't always have the ability to contact leads within such a short period of time. When possible, however, contact leads as soon as possible to increase your chances of scoring an appointment which can lead to a sale.

#2) Your Plumbing, Lighting, Painting or Concrete Sales and Marketing Teams Aren't Aligned

While sales and marketing teams perform different tasks, they both have the shared goal of driving sales. The problem is that many specialty contractors operate with their sales and marketing teams independently of each other. The marketing team performs general marketing activities, including lead generation, whereas the sales team focuses on nurturing leads and converting them into customers. You'll experience greater success with your specialty contractor’s sales process by aligning your sales and marketing teams. When aligned, these two departments can exchange and share data to improve your company's ability to convert leads into customers.

#3) Your Leads Are Incomplete

Research shows that up to 40% of all leads are invalid or incomplete.

Of course, you'll struggle to convert a lead to a customer if don't have the right information about the lead. If you only know the lead's name, for example, you won't be able to contact him or her -- not without performing additional research, at least. To streamline and improve your Plumbing, Lighting, Painting or Concrete sales process, focus on acquiring complete leads that contain the prospective customer's name, email address, company for whom he or she works, budget and other pertinent information.

What if the lead doesn’t give you all of the necessary information? Then use SalesLeads’ Sales & Marketing Intelligence database. You can simply look up a company name, or website url. The database will give you all of the contacts. You can drill down by name, title, or location. Click on the name and you’ll get their direct phone number and email address. Now you have all of the missing pieces.

#4) You Aren't Qualifying Your Leads

It takes time, and energy, to qualify leads by vetting them for quality assurance purposes, but doing so will play a key role in driving sales. If you don't qualify your leads, you won't be able to prioritize your sales strategy to target the key, revenue-driving accounts first. When you acquire a lead, look into his or her provided information to learn more about their needs and what they are looking for. This information will prove invaluable in allowing sales reps to nurture leads and convert them into customers. You can even qualify your leads using a one to 10 scaling system. Low-quality leads that are unlikely to convert should be scored a one, while high-quality leads that are highly likely to convert should be scored a 10.

One of the quickest ways to learn about the potential project supplied by the lead, is to look it up in our identified projects reports. All you need to do is ‘View Projects by Company’. Whatever projects they are working on will display with a short description of the project. Now you can export, or save the project and begin your calling efforts with the project contacts phone and email address.

#5) You're Using Outdated Sales Tactics

Relying on outdated sales tactics to convert leads into customers won't work. You may get lucky and drive a few sales using an outdated tactic, but the highly competitive nature of today's specialty contractors, requires newer, more modern tactics. Hard selling is an example of an outdated sales tactic. It's called "hard selling" because it's an aggressive tactic that involves frequent, pushy communications with leads. In the past, hard selling was a common tactic used by specialty contractors and their sales reps. Today, it's lost its appeal, as buyers deal with less-aggressive and more flexible companies.

#6) You're Relying om Automation

Automation isn't necessarily bad. On the contrary, it can free up time so that sales reps can communicate with more leads and perform other tasks. But you shouldn't rely solely on automation to reach leads. Using an email autoresponder to communicate with newly acquired leads, for example, will likely yield a low conversion rate. Automated emails such as this often look like they were generated by a computer. To humanize your specialty contractor’s brand, manually reach out to leads rather than relying strictly on automation.

#7) You Aren't Personalizing Your Sales Messages

Don't use the same sales message with each lead to whom you promote your company's product or service. Studies have shown that personalized sales messages have a 19% higher conversion rate on average than generic sales messages. Whether you're using the phone, email, social media or any other channel to communicate with a lead, personalize your message. To do this, you'll need to research the lead to learn more about his or her background and needs. With this information in hand, you can create a custom, personalized sales message that resonates with the lead.