“I’m Just Looking”: When Leads Go Quiet

The most frustrating part of running lead generation or click-to-message ad campaigns:

The amount of people who make contact with the business, but when greeted by staff, go quiet or say they didn’t mean to submit the form.

We hear this on occasion from our clients who run direct-response campaigns such as those on Meta Ads. This format typically yields higher lead volume than ads sending people to a website, but there is a balance in navigating quantity vs quality.

It’s hard to believe that the people submitting leads aren’t even a little bit interested; they were probably shown the ad in the first place because they had apparent interest/behavioral cues, plus they had to click through multiple steps to submit the form and make contact. It’s even more perplexing with retargeting campaigns, because by the time the lead arrives, you know they’ve been on your site recently.

Determined salespeople might coax some interaction beyond that initial rejection, but are often quick to ask for a phone number so they can communicate how they prefer, which is not necessarily how the customer wants to engage. If the customer used email or chat, and didn’t ask for you to call them, that’s a solid indicator of how they wish to communicate.

But maybe there’s more to it than that.

Maybe the ad wasn’t clear that the next step involves talking to a person rather than simply having a brochure or discount quote pop up on their screen.

Maybe the form’s steps were too vague, and could benefit from a few extra hoops for them to jump through to ensure the lead is high-intent (we call that adding friction).

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad lead, but maybe the approach was off.

There was a great line in Glengarry Glen Ross when the trainer says to the discouraged salespeople “You got the prospects coming in, you think they came in to get out of the rain?”

Picture this: you walk into a retail store, or the showroom of a vehicle dealership, to browse around. A salesperson approaches and says “Can I help you?”

What’s the knee-jerk response 90% of the time?

“I’m just looking”.

It’s not that you have zero interest. If that was the case, you wouldn’t be there.

What’s more likely is that you didn’t see the value of dealing with a salesperson in that moment. With information being more accessible than ever, shoppers are informed and do their own research rather than relying on salespeople, especially with large purchases.

So What?

When contacting a lead, instead of just saying “can I help you”, have something of value to offer that they couldn’t easily figure out on their own.

It also helps to take a full-funnel approach with your marketing, reaching prospective customers consistently at different touchpoints so that they will be familiar and more comfortable talking to you when they are ready - and at that point, are also closer to pulling the trigger on their purchase.

If you want fewer people saying “I’m just looking” and more people ready to talk business with you, consider getting in front of them early and often to build trust and improve your closing rate.

That’s the part we can help with!

We want to amplify your story to prospective customers. Let’s put a digital advertising plan together that will address the top, middle, and bottom of your marketing funnel with compelling creative and strategic targeting.

If you do that consistently, you’ll have a better chance of them going from “just looking” to buying.