The sales process · Lead generation
Ads reach the people already searching, and nobody else at all.
Search engine ads put you at the top of the results for a phrase somebody is typing right now, for a fee every time they click. This step works out which phrases carry a buyer, what the person sees when they land, and how you tell which enquiries the money bought.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Search engine ads put you at the top of the results for a phrase somebody is typing right now, for a fee every time they click. This step works out which phrases carry a buyer, what the person sees when they land, and how you tell which enquiries the money bought.
The appeal is obvious. Search engine optimisation, the step before this, takes months. An ad account takes an afternoon to switch on and the phone can ring the same week. Two things get underestimated. The ringing stops the day the card stops, and a good share of the early spend goes on people who were never buying.
So the work is narrowing. You start from the phrases somebody types once they have decided to spend, not the ones they type while still reading about the subject. Then you write down every word you refuse to pay for. Jobs. Courses. Wholesale. Free. Repair, if you only sell new.
And somebody has to pick up. An advertisement running at nine at night for a firm that answers calls until seven is paying for missed calls. Setting the ad hours to the hours you answer is a management decision that saves money.
Where this sits
Stage 4 of 10, lead generation. The routes an enquiry can arrive by, and what each one costs in money or in time.
- The stage before
- Prospecting
- The stage after
- Sales enablement
If you want this done for you
Show up at the exact moment someone searches for what you sell.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The negative list is the campaign”
Every week, read the report of what people actually typed before they clicked. Half of it will be wrong, and the wrong half gets added to a list of words you will not pay for again. This is the part small accounts skip, and it is why the same budget in two hands produces different results.
“Send them to the page about the thing they searched”
A person who searched for one specific service and lands on your home page has to start looking again, and a fair number will not. The page they reach should repeat the words they typed, show what it costs to talk to you, and ask for less information than you would like.
“Wrong where nobody is searching”
If you sell something people do not know has a name, there is no search to buy. If the work comes through tenders or through a dealer appointment, the buyer is not typing. If your margin on one order is thin, the clicks that produced it can cost more than the order earned. Check that arithmetic before the account is opened.
“Count calls, not clicks”
The ad account reports clicks and cost. Your business runs on orders. The join between the two is one question asked by whoever answers the phone: what did you search for. Without it you get a beautiful report about advertising and no idea what it did for the business.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The search term sheet
Each phrase you are willing to pay for, what the person wants when they type it, the page they land on, and what counts as a result. Phrases that describe a decided buyer sit at the top. Phrases that describe curiosity go in a separate list.
Result: You can explain in one line why you pay for every phrase in the account.
The negative word list
A growing list of words that stop your ad appearing. Job, vacancy, salary, course, second hand, free, plus whatever your own report throws up in the first fortnight. Added to weekly and never finished.
Result: The wasted share of the spend falls each week instead of staying where it started.
The landing page and its one action
One page per group of phrases, carrying the words that were searched, proof you have done the work, and a single thing to do next. A phone number that opens the dialler beats a form with nine fields.
Result: Somebody who clicked can reach you without going back to the results page.
The answering rule
Written down: which hours the ads run, whose phone rings, who covers lunch, and what happens to a form filled at midnight. Ads bought during hours nobody answers are the most expensive mistake here.
Result: Every click you paid for reaches a person, and the log shows how long each one waited.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How much should we put in to start?
What happens when we switch the budget off?
We got plenty of calls but they were the wrong people. What went wrong?
Can we run ads and search work at the same time?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of lead generation
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.