Understanding Lead Traffic and Conversion: A Guide for OSCs, Marketing, and Leadership Collaboration

In the competitive world of new home sales, Online Sales Consultants (OSCs) play a pivotal role in converting website visitors into buyers. Understanding lead traffic and conversion rates is crucial for OSCs to optimize their efforts and collaborate effectively with the marketing team. By tracking key conversion points and analyzing lead behavior, OSCs can provide valuable insights to the marketing department. These real-world interactions can help drive strategic improvements in marketing spend and overall sales performance.

Key Conversion Points to Track

For OSCs, it’s essential to monitor several critical conversion points to gauge the effectiveness of lead management strategies. These include:

1. Unique Monthly Visitors to the Website: The starting point of the funnel. This metric helps in understanding the reach and initial interest in your offerings.
2. Visitors to Leads: The number of website visitors who fill out a form, call, or otherwise express interest.
3. Lead to Appointment: The percentage of leads that schedule an appointment. On average, 25-35% of leads should convert to appointments.
4. Appointments That Show: The percentage of scheduled appointments that are kept. Ideally, 90% or more of these appointments should show.
5. Appointments to Sales: The conversion rate of appointments that result in a sale, typically between 1 in 3 to 1 in 5.
6. OSC Contribution: The percentage of overall company sales that originate from OSC efforts. This highlights the impact of OSCs on the company’s bottom line.

Understanding Lead Volume and Conversion

Monthly Volume Analysis

On average, 25-35% of leads will convert to appointments, with 90% or more of those appointments showing up. From these, 1 in 3 to 1 in 5 should eventually convert to a sale. But what happens to the leads and appointments that don’t convert?

• Non-Converting Leads: Understanding the fate of the remaining leads is crucial. For instance, if 100 leads are generated in a month and only 25 convert to appointments, what happens to the other 75?
  • 25 may communicate with OSCs but aren’t in the right market.
  • 10 might be mismatched inquiries (warranty issues, subcontractor inquiries, or maybe it’s just someone who wants to order a pizza).
  • 40 might be non-responsive.

What do we do in each of these scenarios?

Unqualified leads – we need look at the source of the leads and provide feedback to marketing incase adjustments need to be made. (See more with analyzing lead channels.)

It’s important to give feedback to marketing and try to divert calls that are not meant for an OSC to the appropriate departments.

Mismatched leads – We need to find ways to get them to the right departments.

Non-responsive leads – This is why it’s important to continue nurturing beyond 30 days. Statistically 50% of buyers buy within the first 30 days of inquiry, but 50% don’t. This doesn’t mean the lead is dead, it just may mean they are not yet ready to communicate. We need to think outside of the box and continue follow up in the efforts to get these leads to respond.

Analyzing Lead Channels

Leads come from various channels, such as phone calls, form fills, third-party leads (MLS, Zillow, and more), google ads, and social media ads. By tracking which channels are generating leads and which are converting, OSCs can provide valuable feedback to the marketing team. This collaboration can help fine-tune marketing strategies and allocate spending more effectively.

Improving Lead Conversion Rates

Feedback to Marketing

While generating leads isn’t the OSC’s primary responsibility, providing detailed feedback to marketing is. If certain lead sources (e.g., social media ads or specific third-party platforms) aren’t converting well, marketing needs to know. This information helps in reallocating resources to more effective channels.

Strategies for Non-Responsive Leads

For leads that have not communicated in the last 30 days, OSCs can employ several strategies to re-engage them:

1. Personalized Follow-Up: Reach out with personalized emails or phone calls addressing their specific interests or inquiries. Sometimes you need to get out of your CRM and into your inbox.
2. Provide Meeting Options: Sometimes you need to throw the ball into the prospect’s court. If they aren’t answering the phone, create a call to action for them to sign up for a time slot to talk to the OSC on the phone.
3. Content Engagement: Share valuable content, such as first-time home buyer tours, grand opening parties, home buying guides, or virtual tour invites, to maintain interest.
4. Re-Targeting Campaigns: Collaborate with the marketing team to run re-targeting ads aimed at non-responsive leads. Then track their visits back to the website. What are they looking at? What are they engaged with? Then drill down with follow up from there.
5. Feedback Request: Ask for feedback on why they haven’t proceeded. Understanding their concerns can help tailor future communications. One of the most effective emails is, “Help me update your file.” Find out why they aren’t moving forward now and will they in the future.
6. Segment and Prioritize: Segment leads based on their last interaction and prioritize follow-ups accordingly. High-potential leads should receive more frequent and personalized outreach.

Understanding lead traffic and conversion is fundamental for OSCs to optimize their performance and support marketing efforts. By tracking key conversion points, analyzing lead channels, and providing actionable feedback, OSCs can significantly enhance the effectiveness of lead generation and conversion strategies. Collaboration between OSCs and marketing ensures that resources are spent wisely, leading to better lead quality, higher conversion rates, and ultimately, more sales. With targeted strategies to re-engage non-responsive leads, OSCs can turn potential drop-offs into opportunities, ensuring no lead is left behind.