Buy Me Dinner First: Why Conversation is the Key to Lead Generation

There’s a reason dinner often symbolizes the beginning of things. Whether it’s a first date or a business meeting pending a large deal, the opportunity to connect and shoot questions back and forth opens the door for further interaction.

People are naturally reluctant to give away information, but they love answering questions about themselves. Which is why conversation is the perfect way to get to know a new visitor on your website (and collect their information to follow up at a later date).

To explain, I like to tell the story of Kate and Ashley, two store owners who own shops at Piccadilly Circus in London.

Two Approaches to Lead Generation

Kate values her time highly and is of the opinion that if customers wants to chat with her, they must first sign up for her mailing list so she can have the opportunity to follow up later.

On the other hand, Ashley loves talking to everyone who comes in, but she also realizes that she must have a mailing list to stay in competition with Kate. What Ashley does is chat with customers when they walk in the door, only asking for information after she feels she has sufficiently gotten to know them.

Bill is a shopper and a tourist fresh off the plane into London. He’s enjoying a day of window shopping but isn’t particularly interested in any certain item. He comes across Kate’s shop first and is drawn in by the shiny trinkets in the window. As he steps across the threshold, Kate approaches him and asks him to sign up for her mailing list. Bill is in no mood to sign up — he’s just browsing — so he politely declines and leaves Kate’s store.

Bill continues walking down the street and sees Ashley’s store. She also has some shiny things, and he steps inside to check it out. Ashley approaches him and begins asking Bill about his flight (he’s obviously a tourist). Bill begins telling Ashley of his journey and how the person next to him on the plane was a snorer. Ashley chats along, continuing to ask Bill about his experiences. When it’s time to make the sale, Bill isn’t really interested in any of the items in the store, so Ashley asks if he would be so kind as to sign up for her mailing list so she can send him online offers for when he gets home. Bill agrees. After all, he feels like he knows Ashley at this point.

How This Works Online

Kate and Ashley symbolize two different ways of doing lead generation. Kate is like a fancy ebook offer, promising a shiny new way of driving more traffic to your website if only you’ll put in your email address and name. Ashley’s method is more like an online assessment that asks a series of questions about your needs and trades a report for your contact information.

Every online business has “shiny things” to offer — whether those things are free reports, ebooks, or free trials.

How we choose to use those assets can determine how many leads our sites generate.

Using Kate’s approach where no interaction takes place unless the visitor gives up information first can work, but it’s cold and unfriendly. Ashley’s approach, using an automated assessment, allows some conversation to occur between the visitor and business owner, even if it is premeditated.

There’s actually a scientific reason Ashley’s method works better than Kate’s. When humans engage in conversation, both online and off, our bodies release Oxytocin, a natural drug that elicits good (or bad) feelings depending on the nature of the conversation.

By asking light and non-threatening questions in an online assessment, it’s possible to create good feelings before you even ask for an email address or other information. It’s as if you’re priming the visitor for the big ask at the end of the assessment. By the time they reach the end, they feel enough of a connection to hand over their contact information.

Republished with permission from MadMimi.com.