An important sign of health, especially for the Local Professional who has a longer Buyer’s Journey, is to have a funnel of Leads who aren’t yet ready to buy.
Your funnel of Leads gives you:
- Peace of mind, knowing that you’ve got business coming next week, next month, next quarter.
- Stability of revenue and cash flow.
- Stability of work to keep your staff productive
- Ability to select only the Best Clients to work with.
However, many (most!) businesses live a much more “hand to mouth” existence and don’t cultivate a funnel of leads. When times are good, they turn off their advertising efforts. When times are lean, they panic and do some combination of: hope, ads, and brute force networking. (And it’s my observation that most Local Professionals merely rely on hope and luck…that’s a whole other topic!)
The goal is to eliminate (or at least greatly minimize) these dips. And to do that you want to have a lead generation system in place that attracts Buyers at all stages of their Buyer’s Journey.
This gives you a list of Future Buyers, people who know you and are predisposed to doing business with you. Now, if you sense times are getting lean or heading into a slow season, you can craft compelling offers to bring them to the finish line. This has the effect of sustaining your revenue, escaping the feast or famine cycle.
AND IF YOU AVOID THE DIPS, THAT MEANS YOU’RE ACTUALLY MAKING MORE MONEY!
