Nurturing the Tire Kickers

Every business has them – the people who take up your time but aren’t ready to buy. A lot of our clients tell us that these folks are a hassle, and it can no doubt feel that way when you have many other things to do to keep your business running.

But we’d strongly encourage you to take a step back and think more strategically about the value a “tire kicker” can provide to your business. Without a doubt, that value is not immediate. But it is up to you and the actions you take to determine whether you’ll ever see any revenue from these folks who are “just browsing.”

A Change of Attitude

The first leap you need to make to extract more value from all leads, not just those highly likely to convert right away, is to change your perspective on what a lead really is. Do you consider anyone who contacts your business to be a lead, or only the people who seem serious, ask “good” questions, and quickly pony up the cash?

The most lucrative approach in the long run is to treat every single person who contacts you as a little chunk of gold. Too often, we see clients who want to separate leads into “gold” and “garbage.” That’s just not the way to do it, no matter how dumb the question you get, how uninformed the person is, how far away from you they are, or any other reason why you jump to the conclusion that they are unlikely to ever pay you for goods or services.

A Real-World Example

Here’s an interaction that sticks with our vice president Matt to this day:

I had just graduated from college in Pittsburgh and was visiting my girlfriend in Philadelphia. The Ford Focus had just come out and I really thought it could be the ride for me (ah how times change). I had some free time while she was finishing finals so one afternoon I popped into a Ford dealer by Bryn Mawr. He gave me the usual grilling to find out whether he was going to make a sale that day, and when he found out I wasn’t local, the switch in his brain flipped to “no.” I asked for a test drive and he actually said, I remember it clearly, “why should I put miles on my inventory if you’re not serious about buying?”

I did end up buying a Focus, after a very helpful encounter at a dealer back in Pittsburgh. But before I was basically insulted at the place in Philly, I hadn’t really ruled out buying from them. The horrible customer experience I had in Philadelphia sticks with me 15 years later.

The moral of the story: don’t be the Philly Ford dealer. You can all too easily make assumptions about whether a lead is any good or not, and it can quickly escalate into a self-fulfilling prophecy that at best costs you a sale and at worst leaves a terrible impression too.

A Change in Practices

Armed with a new perspective on the value of any person who contacts your business for any reason, there are some concrete things you can implement to ensure that all your leads get the royal treatment.

1. Lead by example. First, get the term “tire kicker” out of your vocab. Emphasize the respect you have for all leads and let your staff know how important it is to show respect to everyone who contacts your business, even with the silliest questions.
2. Create templates. Some clients feel like people who are just emailing about prices aren’t very serious. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. But don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your differentiators and hit home your core brand message on every inquiry. You may want to create template emails or phone scripts for staff to use on the questions you get most often, and make sure those templates are helpful, warm, and friendly.
3. Respond promptly. Everyone who contacts you has made some effort to do so, even if it’s just typing a quick message and hitting the submit button. Respect the time they took and respond as quickly as you can.
4. Anticipate needs. In our experience, almost every person asking a question either has a larger question in mind or will have additional questions once seeing your answer. For example, someone who asks you “I’m 51. Is that too young for a facelift?” has a larger question about what they can do to look younger. Simply answering “you may be a candidate for a facelift” doesn’t fully address the question. Provide a more thoughtful response about understanding the goal of looking better, hoping to avoid surgery, and sharing some possible nonsurgical options.
5. Encourage future engagement. Make it super simple for any prospect to get in touch with you, now or in the future. Give them options (phone, email, social channels, maybe even text). Better still, give them a special way to reach you, such as a dedicated phone number or email address.
6. Be persistent. Let each lead know that you plan to follow up in a certain number of days just to make sure you’ve helped them out completely. Some of our clients may find this presumptuous or invasive, but in the long run it works.
7. Track your leads. Once you “get” the core idea that all leads are gold, the best thing you can do to convert more of your leads is to get scientific about what people are asking and what types of responses and interactions are helping to drive conversion. By tracking and measuring leads (shameless plug for our own solution, LeadAlign), you might find that people who get a response within 15 minutes are 30% more likely to become customers, or people who receive a follow-up email with a free whitepaper are 25% more likely to convert.