When you are considering how much to spend on marketing and advertising, you may be overlooking a critical (often hidden) cost of generating new business.

Whilst it’s easy to calculate ad spend, and general sales and marketing overheads, it’s often much more difficult to accurately calculate the time your sales team are spending with potential customers.

It’s important to know not only how long a sales rep spends developing a new opportunity but how much work is required to move a potential client through your sales process to closing.

Web design is a notoriously sales-intensive industry with lots of work having to be completed to even quote a potential client on a project. One-size-fits-all approaches to proposals are rarely effective, leaving clients with a pile of similar proposals to sift through.

To stand out in the sales process, you need to thoroughly consult with a client to gain a deep understanding of their needs, show how your offering will meet their requirements and demonstration your prowess through a continually updated and maintained portfolio of your wok. All this takes time and money – neither of which you want to spend on sales prospects who will never turn into fee-paying clients.

So how do you avoid wasting precious resources on clients who’ll never sign on the dotted line?

Start with high quality leads. Terminology is important here, as a lead is not the same as a prospect.

Prospect: Someone who has expressed passing interest in the services you offer

Lead: Someone who is actively looking for a new website, has provided you with details of their requirement, and is ready to hear your proposal.

If a lead doesn’t meet all the above criteria, it isn’t really a lead at all – it’s a prospect.

Maintaining a consistent flow of high quality leads means your sales team will be spending most of their time, having meaningful conversations with businesses which are likely to move more quickly and efficiently through your sales funnel, resulting in a faster, less laborious sales process.

Improving your ROI in this way doesn’t have to be as much of a challenge as it has in the past.

At Web Design Index, we connect UK businesses who are looking for web designers with an agency that fits their needs. We’re able to deliver leads directly into your business, connecting your sales team directly with decision-makers who have a genuine requirement.

If you’re interested in becoming an approved supplier, Get In Touch today.