How to Turn Web Visitors into Sales Leads

One of the big challenges in sales is reaching a prospect early enough in the buying process that you can influence RFP criteria. But trying to pinpoint that crucial window when a customer recognizes he has a problem and begins to research his options is a little like trying to win a prize at a carnival midway: the odds are stacked overwhelmingly against you.

Not anymore. A company called Demandbase (www.demandbase.com) is shifting the odds back in your favor with a product that informs you in real time when a potential customer is looking at your Web site. Its solution transforms your previously anonymous Web traffic into a source of timely sales leads. And best of all, the basic product is free. "So often, we’re calling on people who aren’t in the market for what we sell," observes Susan Scarth, marketing VP for Demandbase. "But if someone has been on your Web site, the chances are much better that they’re in the market for your product."

Scarth knows firsthand what she’s talking about. She uses her own product to identify possible customers, then launches an email campaign to those who visit the site and match a certain profile. She says the conversion rate is three times higher for leads that were identified through a visit to Demandbase’s Web site than for those who were identified in other ways.

The Demandbase info runs like a news ticker across the bottom of your computer screen, giving you the name of the company looking at your Web site as well as the time of day they arrive, what search terms they used to find your site, and which pages they visit. Click to purchase the contact, typically about $1.80 per lead, or let Demandbase Stream search your LinkedIn network to find contacts for visiting companies. Need more? You can upgrade to Demandbase Standard or Demandbase Professional for a fee. The Standard product is a pay-as-you-go service that delivers validated business contacts one at a time or by the hundreds based on your profile for the type of contact you want. The Professional product includes a daily lead report displaying all the businesses in your target market that visited your site the previous day and a list of the best contacts for you to follow up with, detailed trend reports on your Web traffic, trend analysis, and lead routing.

Beyond the obvious advantages of knowing who is checking out your Web site, Demandbase information can help you identify new markets for your product or service. When higher education institutions began looking at the Demandbase site, Scarth recalls scratching her head wondering what their interest was. Now, the University of North Carolina uses Demandbase Professional to sell its executive education courses and Scarth says Demandbase will pursue this vertical as a new source of business. In another instance, a high-end restaurant in San Francisco found that by monitoring its Web traffic, it could identify companies that were considering using its facilities for corporate events – and go after them immediately, while those prospects were in their search phase.

On a typical Web site, less than 5 percent of Web traffic converts. Demandbase gives you the tools to identify the other 95 percent of traffic so you can spend less time with tire-kickers and more time with ready-to-buy prospects.