Trust But Verify Every Single Form Fill & Live Chat
Key Points From The Article:
- Lead generation forms and live chats remain at the core of sales and marketing — prospects filling out information on strategically placed forms on websites.
- Many MSPs dismiss most form-filled and live chat leads as spam without verifying, costing them a sale opportunity.
- Instead of rushing in and acting on a lead from your website form or live chat, you should verify all the critical customer data to ensure you aren't losing leads.
- There are several ways you can verify form-filled and live chat leads.
Like any other business, getting more qualified leads that brings conversion every time for your MSP is the end goal.
While it may be beneficial to attract more leads you want customers who spend money on your services— those who actually match your offer. However, there is one assumption that many MSPs make which is quickly dismissing leads from website forms and live chat as spam by failing to follow up and verify.
When an organization reaches out to many MSPs via website forms, live chats, and even phone calls making an order, they quickly dismiss it as spam.
Sure, there are obvious indicators of spam, such as:
- Bad email
- Bad phone numbers
- Improperly formatted phone numbers
- Improperly formatted email addresses
Spam form submissions are certainly annoying and will skew your true form submission — barring legitimate leads. However, before you jump in there and think all form-filled and live chat leads are spam, execute some verification first. Here is a step-by-step lead verification procedure you can follow.
Step #1. Call the Number to Check if the Person Exists
Your first step to verifying your lead is to check if the number they shared works, belongs to them or another person.
Examine the form fill or the live chat and identify the phone number your lead shared. Call the number to check if the owner was the one who filled out your website form or participated in your live chat.
If you get a bad phone number, or the person doesn't exist, or the number belongs to a person who didn't fill your form, you know it's spam form submission right away. Just delete it and move on. The information in spam form submission or live chat is false.
However, if the call goes through, and you establish that the person is the one who filled your web form or the live chat, have a conversation, and examine their needs. Ensure that you understand the customer's needs.
Step #2. Ensure the Person You're Talking With is the Right Person
After establishing that the lead who filled your web form or live chat is real, your next step is to ensure your customer is who they say they are. You want to ensure you don't fall for the impersonation trap.
Sometimes, people put a fake phone number, and when you call them, they pretend to be someone they're not. You want to ensure that any transaction you'll make is safe, seamless, and fast.
You need to follow up by some mechanism to ensure the information the customer provides is correct and that they are who they say they're. The verification step helps you ensure your customer isn't a crook, saving your business from fraud losses. You can execute this verification by a follow-up communication via email, LinkedIn message, or other social media platforms.
You need to verify the existence of that person by checking the following:
- The organization's website
- Physical address
- Organization background
- Customer feedback
- Social media account
- License and registrations that the company must have
Step #3. Request Payment Upfront
The only thing worse than having no leads is delivering services to a customer and then getting stiffed. Once you verify the customer is who he claims to be, don't rush to close a deal.
There is a possibility that you could be getting scammed from this form-filled or live chat lead that comes in.
Your best shot at protecting your MSP from fraud is to get payment from that organization upfront. If the organization doesn't want to pay upfront, don't make the deal. You don't know the person, so you can't extend the credit. Avoid the risk of getting.
Apart from avoiding the risk of getting scammed, charging upfront has plenty of benefits which include:
- Elimination of the need to send invoices and reminders of payment when you complete working
- Saving time used in creating invoices and sending follow-up emails
- Shows that the clients are psychologically bought in and don't second-guess your expertise
If charging full upfront is impossible, you can agree on maximum efficiency and minimum stress payment process. For instance, you can agree on over half price upfront payment.
Whichever way, ensure the lead give you safe a form of payment, such as:
- Credit card
- ACH
- Checks
Once you have your money in the bank and verify that everything's legit, then fulfill the order. A lead might try to scam you by offering payment via unusual or easily manipulatable methods.
Your MSP Shouldn't Dismiss Every Form Fill and Live Chat Lead
Many lead opportunities come through form fill and live chat every day. Your work as an MSP is to execute your homework correctly and verify real leads from fake leads. Always trust but verify.
However, anytime a person tries to rush you through or to get you to do things that you don't feel comfortable with, then back out of the deal. After all, the worse thing than a lack of leads is delivering MSP services and getting scammed.
Ulistic Helps MSPs Solve All Your Lead Issue
Without qualified lead generation, the efficacy of your marketing strategy is stunted, and it becomes nearly impossible to nature and convert new prospects.
Your MSP needs to know how to generate qualified leads and set up a system of constant lead flow. If your organization faces any lead generation problem, Ulistic has the marketing expertise to help you out.
We've served MSPs across USA and Canada for over a decade, and we can help you too. Contact us today for a free consultation about lead generation.
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