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Episode 19 - Part 1: Improve your conversion rates and grow your sales
106 Plays2 years ago
Improve your conversion rates and grow your sales!
In Part 1 of Episode 19, we're speaking with Simon Bath from PinLocal about how you can increase your conversion rates and grow sales.
Simon is the CEO of iPlaceGlobal which operates PinLocal, Moveable, iPlace Financial Services and Altium Legal.
Over the four parts of this episode, Simon shares his thoughts on a range of topics around sales, conversion rates and optimising processes.
In part 1, we discuss:
👛 Converting leads in the surveying industry
✏️ Lead conversion strategies
⏰ Importance of timing
🗓️ When to adjust pricing and fees
💶 Understand how to price to maximise your profit margin
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Transcript
Introduction to SurveyBooker Sessions
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to SurveyBooker Sessions. Tune in to hear from people working in a range of industries and roles to provide you ideas that you can take away and use in your own business. I'm your host Matt Nalley, the founder and director of SurveyBooker, which is the leading CRM and survey management system for surveyors. So on this week's episode, we've got Simon Bath, who's the CEO of iPlace Global. Thanks for coming in today, Simon. Hey, good to see you again, Matt. Do you want to give us a bit of background as to who you are,
iPlace Global's Role in Customer Discovery
00:00:26
Speaker
what you do? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm the CEO of iPlace Global.
00:00:30
Speaker
And one of our brands and products is a proposition called Pin Local. And Pin Local effectively manages the customer discovery for surveying, for removals, and for our conveyancing channels. Awesome. Awesome. So you provide leads for different players on a paid basis? Exactly that. So, hey, imagine the scenario. Matt's sat on his sofa tonight. He gets his laptop open. He Googles, I need a surveyor in Woking.
00:01:01
Speaker
What typically would happen is that the Google results would show a number of our assets, either in the paid ads or in the organic search. Matt would click on one of those, would fill in the details of his surveying requirement for his potential home move. And that those details would then pass over to us and Matt would be presented with a number of quotes from really high respected, good quality surveying firms.
00:01:27
Speaker
that would then contact Matt after the form submission to then convert that lead into a job. Awesome. Okay. So that ties us nicely actually into the first topic I'd like to cover, which is the key to converting leads. I suppose we'll cover this from a general aspect. So how do you convert any leads? But obviously that could include leads to a local, for example. What in your experience is the key to converting leads and getting a higher conversion rate?
Strategies for Lead Conversion
00:01:55
Speaker
Absolutely, the number one key is to contact that home mover as soon as possible. The fact that somebody has taken the time to go on to a surveying comparison website means they're in the journey. They're not tire kickers. We're not that bored that we sit at home and start filling in lead gem forms for surveying. So absolutely, the key to conversion is contact that home mover as soon as possible.
00:02:25
Speaker
Now, depending on the size of your business, depending on the scale of the business, there's certain ways that that can be achieved. That can be achieved through an automated email. That can be achieved by an SMS. We see great conversion from SMS, or that can be achieved from an old-fashioned telephone call.
00:02:42
Speaker
but absolutely the number one key to lead conversion is immediate contact. Yeah, I think that actually ties in with a few studies we've read, which comes down to that. Interestingly, I know we didn't discuss this before the call, but we did a lead response study, I think back in 2020. So the context is everyone's just coming out of lockdown, so perhaps they've had a bit more time.
00:03:08
Speaker
Um, I think it was, it was around half that responded within an hour. Um, so the, there was, you know, if you're, if you're then any later than the hour, then, you know, they've already spoken to a number of people already. Um, and I suppose the context that as you've got less power, you can add in the conversation. Um, absolutely. What is it for you that this makes the speed so important?
Impact of Market Changes on Home Movers
00:03:32
Speaker
I think the market has changed considerably across all parts of the home moving journey. Historically, we were referred our services, we were referred our surveyor, we were referred our mortgage broker, we were referred our conveyancer, but actually what we see now is that behaviour has changed and the home mover feels empowered to do their own research, to understand the difference between a level two and a level three, to understand
00:04:02
Speaker
you know, what they need in the journey. And so they're happy to do desktop research. We spend an inordinate amount of time on our phones, on our laptops, on our iPads. And these comparison sites, such as the ones that we host at Pinlocal, are more prevalent. And I think, you know, it's a competitive market. And the referral partners, I guess, are still going to try and win that referral. So if you're buying leads direct from the consumer,
00:04:30
Speaker
Number one is to contact them as soon as possible to have the best chance of winning that job. Yeah, interesting. And then what can you, from your experience, what can you say within your initial response, whether that's via phone or email, to stand out better?
Building Trust Through Scheduling
00:04:45
Speaker
Because, you know, let's say there's four surveyors, they all get in touch within the first 10 minutes. What can you do with it to make the quality of your response better?
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah it's a really good point and I think what we've seen definitely since the return from the pandemic and from remote working is that immediate contact still is very important but it's about then scheduling a relevant time to discuss. So if somebody takes a phone call at work it's not trying to force the sale or the conversion at that point but actually understanding hey is it better for me to give you a call
00:05:22
Speaker
you know, later on when perhaps you're home or when you pick the kids up or when you've done dinner or tomorrow morning, you know, on your way to the office. And that builds a sense of empathy into that call so that we're not trying to just force that lead conversion down at the first attempt. It's about building trust essentially in the brand. And if you can build that trust through empathy of understanding when the best time is to talk, we see that as a really good aspect to conversion.
00:05:49
Speaker
Awesome, okay, so on that point, obviously people, it could be during the day they're searched, but as you say, they could be stood in the queue at the school gates and they're just filling in a form on their phone, so they're not quite ready for a call. But equally, I suppose a lot of people might search at night after work, and therefore, I suppose the point I'm coming onto in my head is that automated response. I think there can be a misconception around that, i.e. it's not personal, and no, it's not, but it buys you that time to be able to get in touch when the customer's ready.
Timing for Lead Generation
00:06:19
Speaker
But on that note, of all the searches you see through the system, you might not have the stats to hand, but do you know how many are actually during the day, during office hours and how many are outside of that in terms of a rough split? You might not have it available. Yeah, there is a strong weighting towards the evenings, a strong weighting towards weekends, especially for surveying. It feels like a bit of an admin.
00:06:42
Speaker
part. It feels identifying the property, the excitement of getting the property. And then you kind of got to get into they have been, well, I need a surveyor. Of course I do. I need a conveyor. And then down the road, well, I need a remover so we don't really get excited about those three things. They tend to be in the periods of the evenings, all the weekends. There tends to be a stronger weighting, although lead distribution across all of our assets and our sites would be
00:07:09
Speaker
relatively even throughout the day with slightly picking up in the evenings and weekends. And again, that leads back to that immediate contact. Hey, if you have the resource, if you have the capacity, the capability, then definitely some out of hours lead conversion attempts will give you great results over competitive quotes. Cool.
Automated Responses and Customer Engagement
00:07:33
Speaker
And in that automated response, from your experience, is there better things you can put in there
00:07:38
Speaker
to buy you that time. Is it worth mentioning the fee at that point without maybe not having the chance to discuss it or does the fee help to keep the customer warm? Are there other things that you can put in there to keep that warmth and engagement ready for a phone call? Yeah, where I've seen it work really well is where it's essentially validating what was put in on the lead form, because then that again builds that sense of trust that, hey, if there's a consistency of data that's being passed through,
00:08:07
Speaker
absolutely confirm the price with a knowledge of the information that the firm has already received, they can commit to this price. Again, that shows a level of transparency and consistency with the lead gen originator. So, again, just about being very succinct, accept that the device that that homemover is typically going to read out on is a mobile phone. Don't flood it with too much information, too many page scrolls, really succinct.
00:08:38
Speaker
state the data that was on the original eGen form and absolutely have the price front and center. They've come to a comparison site because they are price sensitive. So it's important to make sure that the price don't hide behind that price, you know, have it have it up there, have it front and center.
00:08:54
Speaker
So that actually ties in with something we discussed in our first season of the podcast with someone from a marketing background, which is it's not just the content that you put out, but the way you display it and the layout being so important. And you mentioned about not having reams of, you know, of content that's endless scrolling.
00:09:14
Speaker
And it's all about how you write it better, but structure it so that it feels easy to go through and it's more engaging than just a big block of text that no one wants to read. So yes, that's just as important, I think. Absolutely. 100%. We get overloaded with email communication and it's important to make sure that you have that ability to stand out. Hey, you can get into the terms and conditions, you can get into everything else at the point where it's relevant, but the home mover, when they're making that decision at that stage,
00:09:44
Speaker
don't need to see that level of detail. No, that's a very good point. Actually, there's lots of stuff you can strip out to focus on more key
Effectiveness of SMS in Lead Conversion
00:09:51
Speaker
bits. And I think the final part for me is what you touched on earlier, which is the SMS route, because that's proven to have a much higher open rate, isn't it? It really does. And again, the evolution of digital comms, right, we used to be overloaded with SMS, and then it kind of came out of favor, which means that now I personally can say that every time I receive an SMS, I look at it.
00:10:13
Speaker
because it feels strange. It's not WhatsApp, it's not an e-mail communication. Don't discount SMS as a cheap and easy to use, but actually a great enabler for conversion. Yeah, it's an interesting point. It's a bit like getting a leaflet through the door. You don't get them very much now, so it stands out a bit with you. Yeah. Like I said, I always read my SMSes.
00:10:41
Speaker
They typically tend to be from just a few providers, but I always, I never have any on Reddit, SMS as well. I'll have them read emails and WhatsApps and everything else. Yeah, that's right. I'm a bit similar actually. I don't like having any on my iPhone on my SMS, but I don't care about email. I can keep going on Reddit. Yeah, exactly. There's something in that then.