Let’s start with something that may be difficult to read.
You don’t need more enquiries.
I’ll bet that’s not what you were expecting to read in a marketing guide. But stick with me, because this might be the most useful thing you read this week.
What most marketers do
A sales-ready lead is someone who’s already shown an interest in your product or service. They’ve filled in your contact form, called you, dropped you an email. They want to talk. From there, most businesses run them through a sales process – and they either buy, or they don’t.
Simple enough. Here’s how it looks:
Marketing → Enquiry → Sales process → Sale (or not)
Most marketers track how many leads come in and where they came from. Good. But a lot of them consider the job done once the leads land – and that’s where things go quietly wrong.
An enquiry is not a sale. It’s an opportunity.
What is a sales conversion rate?
Your sales conversion rate is the percentage of enquiries that turn into paying customers.
Sales ÷ Enquiries × 100 = Sales conversion rate
Do you know yours? Most business owners don’t – and when they work it out, they’re often surprised.
Lets explore why your sales conversion rate is important. Say you get 100 enquiries and 5 buy. That’s a 5% conversion rate. The most common response is to go get more leads. But if nothing else changes, 200 leads just gives you 10 sales. You’ve doubled your marketing effort and got… 5 customers.
Now flip it. Keep the same 100 leads, fix the conversion rate to 20% (the B2B average) and you’ve got 20 sales. No extra ad spend. No bigger audience. Just a better process.
Same leads. Four times the output. That’s an amazing business win.
So where does it go wrong?
If your conversion rate is lower than it should be, the culprit is almost always somewhere in the sales process itself. Some of the most common offenders:
- Slow response times. Leads are not loyal. If someone enquires with you and three competitors simultaneously, whoever responds first usually wins. Speed matters more than you think.
- Leads going missing. No CRM, no ownership, no follow-up process – enquiries get lost and nobody notices until the sales pipeline starts to thin out.
- A pitch that isn’t right. Sometimes the problem is the conversation. If the same objections keep killing deals, that’s worth paying attention to.
- Wrong fit enquiries. If a lot of people are enquiring but few are buying, it’s worth asking whether your marketing is attracting the right people in the first place.
Some drop-off is inevitable – not every enquiry will convert, and that’s fine. But the trends always tell a story.
What to do
Calculate your sales conversion rate for the last three to six months. Then map out every step of your sales process from first enquiry to closed deal, and look honestly at where things are stalling.
You might find a quick win. You might find something more structural. Either way, you’ll know.
Want a senior pair of eyes on your marketing? A Marketing Audit is a good place to start. Or if you want ongoing support, take a look at how the Outsourced Marketing Director model works.
