Strategies for Converting Finance Leads Into Loyal Customers

For finance leads to transition into loyal customers, effective and consistent lead conversion proves invaluable. 

It may just be the first step, but the process is lengthy and requires refinement to succeed. Consequently, it’s key to understand what conversion is and how it impacts your strategies.

In this guide, we go over what you need to know about lead conversion, including how to calculate it as a metric and how to lay the foundation for a strong customer relationship through nurturing and closing.

• Conversion covers the process of winning new business. Understanding its impact can help guide your strategies and measure your performance. 
• Making first contact and nurturing shapes conversion. By using the right strategies, you foster a potentially loyal customer who sees long-term value in your business.
• Who Needs Leads helps you source top-quality leads who match your services and identify your next loyal customer faster. 

What Is Lead Conversion?

A lead represents potential new business. Turning this lead into a paying customer is called lead conversion.

The lead conversion process is multifaceted. You need to understand who your leads are, if they’re worth pursuing, and how to engage them appropriately. Lead conversion also requires you to calculate and monitor your performance. 

As lead generation takes time and resources, consistent and effective conversion is key! Not every lead becomes a customer or client. When they do, you should ideally see a return on investment (ROI) in addition to initial profit.

For example, as a finance broker or advisor, you might strive for increased client retention, higher lifetime value (LTV), and referrals. These goals not only bring in more revenue, but they set the stage for a loyal client base. 

How To Calculate Lead Conversion Rate 

Lead conversion is a calculable metric dividing your total of successful conversions by the number of leads you have. You then multiply to find a percentage result. 

Here’s the formula:

For example, if your business generates 200 finance leads and successfully lands 40 new clients, here’s what your LCR would look like:

• 20%  = (40/200) x 100

A high LCR is ideal, but keep in mind that there isn’t necessarily a “good” LCR to compare yourself to. Every business is different and the rate can fluctuate according to many factors, such as new marketing campaigns.

Another use of your LCR is to calculate and analyse outcomes by different lead segments. For example, your LCR can measure whether customers typically find you through pay-per-click (PPC) ads versus organic web traffic. 

Furthermore, LCR is a key metric for identifying where leads are dropping and comparing it against other numbers such as cost per conversion or time to conversion. 

This in turn helps you set goals, determine what your best leads and lead magnets are, and where to focus your attention and budget. 

The Importance Of Understanding Your Leads and Segmentation

Outside of quantitative data, the lead conversion process provides important qualitative knowledge about potential customers. 

Each client you convert sheds light on behaviour, preferences, and needs. This information helps you adjust your approach and refine your definition of a quality lead.

For example, you might analyse if the conversion process is meeting the specific needs of different lead segments.

Segmentation organises potential customers by distinct attributes, like company size or industry. As you convert these specific groups, you learn about their different risk tolerances, goals, and pain points, and how these factors may influence engagement, customer experiences, and resource allocation.

You can also use this information to ask and answer questions like: 

• Which messaging is collectively the most effective?
• Am I going after the best leads with the highest ROI?
• What are the common objections or issues?

By answering these questions, you can also predict future behaviour and trends, and personalise the buyer’s journey—which, in turn, helps you increase your LCR and foster stronger, more loyal client relationships. 

5 Initial Contact Strategies For Finance Leads

A solid first-contact strategy is essential to grab your leads’ attention and nurture conversions. 

The best strategies depend on your target market and what you’ve learned from past conversions, as well as your business needs, timeline, and budget. 

Here are some suggestions to get you started. 

1. Timely introductions

Warm leads can grow cold quickly. Consequently, it’s important to have the right tools and automated processes to engage quickly. 

For example, a customer relationship management (CRM) system with automated notifications keeps leads from slipping through the cracks. The same system can help you send out automated follow-ups when leads don’t respond.

It’s also easier to act on leads quickly if they come from a high-quality source. 

Lead generation services like Who Needs Leads provide anywhere from 50 to 1,000 verified, actionable, and relevant leads per month. Incorporating lead gen services saves you some of the legwork, leaving your sales team with more time to make a stellar first impression.

2. Cold calls and emails

Cold calling and emailing are the outreach backbone of many companies. However, you have to be selective about your approach.

HubSpot details how sales calls are more personal but potentially invasive. Meanwhile, emails are easy to scale but harder to track and often ignored. 

Additionally, consider the goal of your outreach. First introductions are important for brokers and advisors because you want to position yourself as a trusted figure on financial decisions, meaning there’s little room for error.

Consult your most experienced salespeople and tap into what you’ve learned from past conversions. Your best customers can point to effective introduction tactics. 

3. LinkedIn outreach

Making contact on LinkedIn is convenient, easy to use, and easier to personalise. It’s also often the preferred method because you can be conversational. Cold emails tend to be overly formal, whereas cold calls might cut into someone’s busy schedule.

Additionally, LinkedIn provides insight into both your lead’s needs and your credibility. You may also use shared connections to make an introduction, while your profile and business pages display social proof. 

4. Referral introductions

Regardless of which method you opt for, lean on your client base if you can. Referrals or testimonials are great entry points to new business. Moreover, the potential customers you meet this way likely have the same pain points as existing clients, making them a perfect fit for your services. 

Referral introductions also position your business as a trusted authority because you have the social proof right from the outset. 

You can back up your first interaction with the right personalisation too. For example, address the specific needs mentioned by the referrer or offer a tailored solution. 

5. Multiple ways to follow up

Another strategy is to incorporate multi-channel communication. Leads are likely active on different platforms but prefer one over the other. 

Consequently, multi-channel communication widens your scope and offers more opportunities for potential customers to respond. Additionally, you can tailor your messaging according to each channel, using past successful introductions to guide you.  

How To Nurture Finance Leads: 5 Essential Strategies

After making contact, it’s time to nurture your leads. Lead nurturing lays the groundwork for a future customer relationship and guides prospects towards the decision stage. 

Here’s a couple of strategies we suggest. 

1. Develop a structured lead nurturing process

Structuring how you nurture leads provides the necessary foundation to convert effectively. Research from the Financial Planning Association shows that advisory firms with a nurturing process  – be it formal or informal – bring in more clients than those who don’t. 

A structured lead nurturing process is also a boon to your sales team. They’ll have the knowledge and tools to build relationships, position calls-to-action (CTAs), address preferences and behaviours, reinforce your value, and deliver a more seamless experience. 

The focus of your process should be on potential clients who have engaged and match your ideal customer profile. The best way to nurture these leads is to lean on both quantitative and qualitative data about them and prioritise consistency, value, and timeliness, which we also touch on below.

2. Free consultation offers

Great leads understand their pain points. By offering a free consultation during the consideration stage of their journey, you incentivise a potential customer to see first-hand how you can help. It expresses both how and why you care, without putting a deal on the table.

Regarding this strategy, always work with your lead’s needs. Offer to schedule a call or meeting that suits their timeline and show that you’re ready to provide value.

3. Be clear and consistent 

When it comes to warm leads, clear and consistent communication is key at every stage of the nurturing process. Follow up after important interactions and answer questions meaningfully by providing extra value. 

For example, if a potential client asks about refinancing their mortgage, offer useful and free information to promote further engagement. 

Make periodic check-ins as well. If a lead has gone cold, rekindling the relationship is worth a try, but for other prospects, follow-up to clarify any potential misunderstandings and encourage decision-making. 

4. Personalise communication

Tailor communication based on what you know about your leads (and what is scalable). Choose their preferred method of contact. Emails, calls, LinkedIn messages—these touchpoints are great opportunities to build trust by addressing their distinct pain points.

Use what you’ve learned from your lead segments to improve personalisation further. For instance, if a distinct group of leads consists of small business owners, content on business growth, tax strategies, or loans would likely resonate.

5. Educational webinars and seminars

Another offering is webinars or in-person seminars. These experiences are interactive and enriching because of the insights they provide. As they’re often a time investment, they’re suitable for nurturing a potential customer further along the buyer’s journey.

Webinars and seminars are also a chance to discuss new incentives, industry trends, or solutions in detail. Doing so reaffirms your value, offering a unique experience and positioning you as an expert in personal or business finances. 

How To Convert Leads and Turn Customers Into Loyal Clients

The final push to conversion comes at the closing stage of your sales pipeline. 

You’ve nurtured warm leads and disqualified those who went cold or were a poor fit. To convert, your sales team should tap into the insights they’ve gathered and implement several strategies. 

Here’s a short list of examples:

• Be quick: As with nurturing, you don’t want a potential deal to sit on the table for too long. Stay engaged and, when the lead is appropriately nurtured, present your offer. 
• Reaffirm your value: Finance brokers and advisors provide insight into financial decisions. Reaffirm this position—as well as your business’s unique advantages—according to your lead’s distinct needs. 
• Coach your salespeople: Sales managers can coach your junior salespeople. They can help address objections, refine pitches, and provide pointers on selling. 
• Be flexible: Closing a deal can go south, even with a receptive lead. Consequently, it’s important to be flexible. Handle objections, present additional offers, and suggest different payment plans that better align with your client.
• Don’t sell too hard: A nurtured lead trusts your services, but selling too hard may erode that trust. Close your deal by asking their opinion or thoughts and gauge whether they’re ready to commit or not. 

This is just to close leads. Take it a step further by using what you’ve learned to inspire loyalty.

For example, you can present future incentives before or after you close. A young couple may desire to refinance their mortgage or get a car loan after they have children. These offers may not be within your client’s scope now, but they could be one day.

Furthermore, closing a deal establishes you’re trustworthy. Don’t neglect that trust. Use a lot of the same strategies developed for nurturing to engage your new customers. 

Instead of free consultations, make long-term financial planning and advisory a part of your communique. Be transparent in your interactions and encourage financial literacy by regularly creating new content about finances. Suggest opportunities for refinancing, investing, or saving money.

Additionally, update your client base on changes and check in periodically. Doing so provides insights into the customer experience and how to improve it. To encourage future business, reward loyalty and referrals with new incentives.

Backed by an effective lead conversion process, developing a loyal client base comes naturally as you’ve shown you care and are engaged.

Key Takeaways

• Lead conversion helps you build a loyal customer base. It’s also a calculable metric you can track across multiple segments and provides direction on your strategies.
• Initial contact strategies like timely introductions and multi-channel communication help you make a strong first impression, kickstarting the conversion process.
• Nurturing finance leads is vital if you want to obtain more clients. Develop a structured approach and use different tactics to guide leads to purchase. 
• Converting a lead and cultivating a loyal client thereafter is key to your ROI goals. Close effectively with a multi-pronged strategy. Provide incentives based on what you’ve learned to inspire and reward loyalty. 

How Who Needs Leads Helps You Find Your Next Loyal Customer

Who Needs Leads is a trusted finance lead generation company. We help Australian brokers source potential customers, expediting your outreach and building a loyal client base with relevant, actionable leads.

We use the latest trends and technologies to match your needs and provide leads interested in car, personal, home, or business loans.

How do we do it?

We do the legwork so you don’t have to. By owning several brands in the consumer auto, commercial equipment, working capital, and mortgage refinance, we advertise on multiple channels and identify potential loyal clients. 

Every lead we send is also pre-qualified. With the help of a multi-step questionnaire and our industry authority, we capture lead information, sorting out the bad from the potentially amazing. 

All numbers are pin-verified while emails are validated for future remarketing. After which, we deliver leads in as little as 24 hours.

Land loyal clients with better leads

We deliver anywhere from 50 to 1,000 leads per month. Just tell us what you need and how you prefer to receive it—email, CRM, or straight to a Google Sheet. We also offer discounts upon enquiry for bulk orders and a trial of 20 minimum leads for certain types of generation. 

To learn more, get in touch today and start sourcing your next loyal client. 

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