They're All Web Leads - Haden Interactive

Our CRM software shows us our sales according to lead source, complete with this handy-dandy pie chart that clearly demonstrates how important our website is to our revenue. Web leads are the number one source of clients.

If you had asked us before we had this software, we would probably have said that most of our business came through referrals. We’d have been wrong.

Can you identify web leads?

In fact, even now we probably don’t give our website enough credit. We’re talking right now with a company that heard of us from a guy we met at a conference a couple of years ago. The human inclination is to call that a referral, or maybe to credit it as a trade show lead.

We remember the guy, we liked him, we’re human beings. We naturally imagine that the person we’re talking with said, “Gee, I wish I knew a good SEO firm,” and he said, “You should talk with Haden Interactive. Here’s their phone number — I just happen to have it memorized because I thought so highly of them when I met them.”

That’s not how it really goes. Chances are good that sentences like these came into the conversation:

“I heard someone speak on that a couple of years ago — let me Google and see if I can find their name.”
“I get emails from a company that does that and they seem to know what they’re taking about. Let me see if I can find that info for you.”
“A friend of a friend of mine knows some people. I think I remember what town they’re based in — let’s Google them.”
“Well, Google suggests… hey, I recognize this company. Their Twitter feed is pretty heavy on SEO; maybe they can help.”
“Have you heard of Haden Interactive? Oh, you saw their blog when you were searching for companies? I’d recommend them.”

With that social proof, they went to our website, liked what they saw there, and contacted us.

What about your sales team?

Let’s imagine something more direct. Let’s say that your salespeople have a list of companies they want to work with and they make cold calls all day long. You get a contact from one of those companies through your website and your salesperson pipes up, “I contacted them!” You give that salesperson credit for the lead, but is that accurate?

Once again, you might be imagining that they have been thinking about that phone call for weeks and finally they contacted you because your salesperson was so effective. If that were true, they’d have contacted your salesperson directly. Instead, they brushed off that call or they thought about it some more. Maybe they even saw your ad somewhere. Finally, when they were ready, they went to your website and liked what they saw there, so they contacted you.

Where did your callers get your phone number? From your website. Where did your walk-ins find your address? At your website. Where did they discover that you offer the services they need? At your website. Where did they decide for themselves that they want what you have to offer? At your website.

Go ahead. Give your salesperson the credit. Chalk up a victory for that trade show. Get happy about the results of your Facebook contest.

But some 96% of all the consumers who buy from you will have been to your website first. If they didn’t like what they saw there, they wouldn’t have contacted you.