In today’s world of unlimited access to the internet 24/7, there are over five billion people online, waiting to become a lead for one product or another. Good marketers have figured out how to capture the contact information of a percentage of those five billion.
The thing is, not all bits of information are captured the same way. There’s a difference between a lead and simply having some contact information. Just because you can reach out to someone, doesn’t mean it’s in their best interest to hear you out, when you contact them.
Most salesmen know this and they are skeptical of leads they did not generate themselves. If you’re a company owner or manager of a salesforce that you supply leads to, I’m sure you’ve heard “yeah, but are the leads any good?” a time or two.
When I went to work for a mortgage company that supplied leads to the LOs who worked there, I’d hear the other salesmen complaining about the leads being no good. They complained that the leads were bad and the programs we had available were not competitive.
Meanwhile, when I arrived on the scene, my attitude was one of gratefulness that I could contact people who might even be remotely interested in a mortgage. I quickly soared to the top of the food chain as top producer.
The other salesmen accused me of getting better leads than them, but that wasn’t true at all. The only thing I had better than them, was my attitude. I didn’t think of the leads as bad. I thought of every single lead I got, as a home run. Meanwhile, the others complained of how bad the leads are.
Even on the phone, humans can pick up senses from other humans. If you’re on a sales call and you have disbelief in what you’re selling, unless you’re a sociopath, the person on the other end will pick up on your lack of confidence. But, if you demonstrate how you are 100 percent behind what you sell, others will buy based on your confidence alone.
As a consultant, I tell my clients that I’ll go all in 100 percent with them and dedicate as much to them as they want. They know I mean it. They can rely on my confidence in myself to ensure I can help them with what it is they need. They buy my confidence in my ability to solve their problem.
The salesmen who complain about the leads are generally just not enthusiastic about what they sell. I spoke with some insurance guys who bought leads from random contest promotions in their area, and they write 400+ policies a month. Not only do they work the so called “sh!tty” leads they get from the contest, they hit each of them for 10 referrals each time, too! That’s how it’s done, folks.
There is no such thing as a bad lead.
There are leads which are better than others, but a lead is a lead. It isn’t good or bad, until you make it so. If you keep getting bad leads, chances are, it’s you who’s bad, not your lead source.
If there is no such thing as a good or bad lead, then it must be the salesman that’s bad! What? Yes. That’s right. I said it. You know why I said it? Because it’s friggin true. If it weren’t true, then how come you have top producers when all the leads are the same?
Not all people in a sales position are salesmen. Matter of fact, most aren’t. Our industry lives by an 80/20 rule. This means that 80 percent of the people in our industry shouldn’t be in the industry. They suck and they are turning over leads that WE could close.
Think of how bad that is for customer servicing. It means that 80 percent of the people who try to sell them what they are looking for, are simply bad at selling and never make the connection. When I was a LO, I wanted the leftover leads from the complainers. I’d go behind them on slow days and close their lost leads.
I’ll end with this statement. There are no such thing as bad leads, just bad salesmen.
Are you ready to take your sales game to the next level with a network of savages? Head over to www.breakfreeacademy.com/entourage and we’ll have a sales conversation about your future.
