The problem isn't always lead quality. Sometimes it's our expectation of when someone should be ready to buy.
We have a new phenomenon in marketing.
An abundance of leads. Sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands. And surprisingly, many of them are actually good leads.
People are watching our videos, clicking our ads, downloading content, filling in forms, visiting our websites and engaging with our social media posts.
So why aren't they buying?
Because somewhere along the way, we seem to have decided that engagement equals buying intent.
Someone watches your video? They're a lead.
Someone likes your LinkedIn post? They're interested.
Someone fills in a form? Fantastic! Get sales on the phone immediately.
And when they don't buy?
The lead must have been rubbish.
But perhaps the problem isn't the lead. Perhaps it's our expectations.
Here's something worth thinking about.
At any given moment, only a small proportion of the people engaging with your marketing are actually ready to purchase. Depending on your industry and buying cycle, that proportion can be very small indeed.
For many businesses, it could be less than 10%. And even among those who are ready, not everyone will choose you.
Yet we often judge our marketing efforts as though every engagement should produce a conversion.
Think about how ridiculous that expectation is.
You wouldn't expect someone who walked past an estate agent's window and admired a house to immediately put down a deposit.
You wouldn't expect someone who watched a video about electric vehicles to buy one that afternoon.
So why do we expect someone who clicks a Meta ad to immediately subscribe to our software?
Interest is not intent. And intent is not always immediate.
I can almost hear the question.
Why am I spending all this time creating videos, writing blogs, attending events, posting on LinkedIn and filling my CRM with contacts if hardly anyone converts?
My first recommendation?
Read a few books.
Seriously.
One of my favourites is Atomic Habits by James Clear.
It's not a marketing book, but its principles apply to almost everything we do, including growing a business.
The idea that small, consistent actions compound over time is incredibly relevant to marketing.
Creating content, showing up, engaging with your audience and following up with prospects should not be something you do when you have a spare afternoon.
It needs to become a habit. Non-negotiable.
I have recurring tasks in my calendar.
Create a social post. Write a blog. Record a video. Attend an event. Follow up with existing clients. Reach out to prospects.
Nothing particularly sophisticated.
Just consistency.
Do I convert everyone?
Absolutely not.
Nobody does. And anyone claiming they convert every lead deserves a few difficult questions.
But here's what has changed.
Today, we have the tools to stop guessing and start making evidence-based decisions.
And that brings me to a real story from Flowella.
Today, I had a call with a prospect.
Nothing unusual about that, except that this particular conversation started eight weeks ago.
Eight weeks!
The prospect originally clicked on one of our Meta ads for Flowella.
We captured the lead, and I reached out via WhatsApp.
Message delivered.
Two blue ticks.
Silence.
Sound familiar?
Now, I could have marked that lead as lost. Plenty of sales teams would have done exactly that.
But I didn't.
You see, I treat our high-quality leads with a lot of love and care. (And I'll write another article about what I consider a high-quality lead, because that's a subject in itself.)
I had taken the time to understand this prospect's business. I could see a genuine use case for Flowella and how our WhatsApp functionality could make their life easier.
I wasn't trying to sell something they didn't need.
I genuinely believed we could help.
Which brings me to my second book recommendation.
You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen.
Another book I highly recommend.
One of the lessons I take from Cohen's approach is that a successful negotiation isn't about forcing someone into a deal.
It's about understanding what matters to both parties and finding an outcome that works for everyone.
That's how I approach selling Flowella.
If someone doesn't need it, I don't want to convince them otherwise.
But if I can see that our product genuinely solves a problem, I'm happy to invest time in helping them understand how.
And sometimes that takes longer than we'd like.
Back to my prospect.
Over the following weeks, something interesting happened.
The prospect kept returning to our website.
They continued reading the WhatsApp messages we sent through our Flowella workflows.
They were engaging with our content.
But they still weren't booking a meeting.
I offered a call.
Nothing.
Now imagine looking at that lead in a traditional sales report.
No meeting booked. No immediate response. No conversion.
Lost opportunity?
Not quite.
Then we published a blog explaining how to get a number set up for the Meta WhatsApp Business Platform.
We included it in our Flowella newsletter.
And suddenly...
Boom. Meeting booked.
Not because we sent another message saying, "Just checking in."
Not because we offered a discount.
But because we published something that answered a question the prospect actually had.
We provided value.
And that gave them a reason to take the next step.
Nope.
And that's absolutely fine.
The call went very well. The prospect was genuinely interested, we discussed their business and how Flowella could help.
But they didn't sign up there and then.
Why should they?
Buying business software is a decision. Sometimes it involves other people, budgets, existing systems and internal processes.
And while immediate conversions can be wonderful, I would rather have a customer who understands the product, sees the value and is ready to commit than someone who signs up impulsively and cancels a month later.
So we continued doing what we do.
Creating content.
Sharing information.
Showing up.
Then we published another blog, this time about attending a conference.
The following day, the prospect returned.
And this time?
They wanted to sign up.
Eight weeks after that original Meta ad.
Think about the journey.
At every one of those stages, someone could have decided that this was a dead lead.
They could have removed the prospect from the pipeline.
Stopped communicating.
Moved on to the next shiny new enquiry.
And who would have lost?
Not the prospect.
We would have.
Because the lead wasn't bad.
The lead simply wasn't ready.
And there is a huge difference.
One of the reasons we built Flowella was to make business communication more useful, more personal and more relevant.
Through WhatsApp and our CRM integrations, we can maintain a conversation with prospects over time.
We can share useful content, deliver relevant updates, answer questions and make it easy for someone to reconnect when they're ready.
And importantly, we can use the engagement information available to us to understand which content resonates and when someone might benefit from a follow-up.
But having technology doesn't mean you should bombard people with messages.
Quite the opposite.
Automation should help you be more thoughtful, not more annoying.
Nobody wants another sequence of desperate "Are you ready to buy yet?" messages.
People want answers.
They want reassurance.
They want to know that you understand their problem.
And when they're ready, they want an easy way to speak to you.
That's where good technology and good marketing meet.
We spend so much time talking about conversion rates, cost per lead, attribution and return on advertising spend.
All important metrics.
But sometimes we forget that there is a human being at the other end of that lead.
A person with priorities, responsibilities, deadlines and a hundred other things happening in their life.
They don't operate according to our sales targets.
They don't care that it's the end of the quarter.
And they certainly don't owe us a purchase because they watched our video.
Their buying journey belongs to them.
Our job is to make sure that when they're ready, we're still there.
Use your CRM properly. Pay attention to engagement. Look at the evidence rather than making assumptions.
And above all, treat your leads like people, not conversion statistics.
Care about whether your product or service will genuinely make their life easier.
Because the prospect who doesn't buy today isn't necessarily a lost opportunity.
Sometimes they're simply a future customer who hasn't reached the right moment yet.
And when that moment comes, you want to be the business they remember.
You can't force someone to be ready to buy. But you can make sure you're ready when they are.
At Flowella, we're building WhatsApp-first tools that help businesses turn enquiries into meaningful conversations, automate relevant follow-ups and stay connected with customers throughout their journey.
Find out more at flowella.io.