Editor’s Note: This article is Part 3 in a three-part series on Attracting, Capturing, and Converting eager leads into brand loyalists. Read Part 1 and Part 2 in preparation for this article.
Years ago, my accountant introduced me to a mortgage lender.
That lender became a client, and he introduced me to a woman who was starting a new brokerage.
She became a client, and she introduced me to a team of investors.
Those investors became clients.
And then she introduced me to home remodelers.
And those remodelers became clients.
It’s funny how one connection can morph into multiple opportunities over time.
But that word—opportunity—is key. An opportunity is only as valuable as your ability to capitalize on it.
That’s really what marketing and sales are all about:
- Marketing is the ability to create an opportunity.
- Sales is the ability to seize that opportunity.
When combined together, marketing and sales build thriving businesses.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at late-funnel moments so we can better turn high-quality leads into customers and customers into long-term clients and referral sources.
Stay In Front of the Lead
I’m not a cocky guy, and I’m definitely not an intimidating figure in this slight frame, but one thing I do take pride in is my defensive prowess on the basketball court.
In my basketball text thread, I’m known as a lock-down defender who consistently makes it difficult to score, regardless of your position.
No matter where you are on the court, I’m going to make it a nightmare for you to get the ball into the basket.
Now, what the heck does that have to do with marketing?
We can treat our leads with a similar level of fervor, but instead of physically obstructing their path, we use communication, psychology, and automation to prevent them from:
- Not making a decision.
- Deciding to work with someone else.
So, how do we stay in front of our leads? Well, some of the best strategies include:
Retargeting - Say what you want about retargeting ads—those ads you see after visiting a website—but they’re an effective strategy for staying top-of-mind and gradually converting those leads who need a little more time.
Email Campaigns & Automations - Email is powerful, and research tracks its ROI somewhere between 10:1 and 36:1.
Your routine email blasts are a great way of staying in front of your leads with relevant content, but do you know what’s even better?
Targeted automations.
If you’ve ever downloaded one of our free eBooks, you’ve gone through one of these automations before, as we’ve built out product-specific campaigns to guide you through the funnel to book a call with us.
Events - We have a soft spot for live events (and we’ll talk about large-scale events later in this article), but even small invitations to grab breakfast or coffee can go a long way in fostering stronger relationships and moving the lead toward committing to a sale.
Remember: Most leads don’t convert on the first attempt. Our marketing efforts are largely useless if they assume our audience will do business with us after the very first engagement.
Overcome Objections
Let’s get back to the basketball metaphor for a minute:
When I was in fifth grade, my basketball coach taught me the biggest word I’d ever heard up to that point:
Anticipation.
Great basketball defense comes from anticipating the offensive player’s movements—so you can cut them off from making a great play.
A huge part of marketing is based on anticipation.
Since you’re not in the same room with your audience when they engage with your material, you have to anticipate their reactions—and adjust accordingly.
That means everything you create—your copywriting, your ads, your banners—has to be created with some expectation for pushback.
Here are a few of the most common objections you’ll likely encounter, and how you can start thinking through them:
| Common Objection | Potential Rebuttals | How to Work It Into Your Marketing |
| “This costs too much.” | Don’t focus on price. Focus on value—both in terms of hard ROI and even the emotional satisfaction that comes with the product/service. | Craft your website, ads, and other marketing materials to highlight the benefits—the true relief—your product/service provides. This is a great time to include your case studies! |
| “I can get this from someone else.” | We all have competitors. Focus here on your brand differentiators and what makes your product/service experience unique. | Craft your website, ads, and other marketing materials to highlight your brand’s personality and the user experience. This is a great time to include testimonials, awards, and other social proof! |
| “I’m not ready to make a commitment right now.” | This may be true! But this is often a stalling tactic used when the lead isn’t totally clear on the value. | Refer to the tips above. |
Tools for Overcoming Objections
Some of the best marketing tools and resources for overcoming potential objections include:
- Blog Posts - These are great platforms for showcasing your knowledge and giving your audience time to “interact” with your brand before making a commitment.
- Resources - Developing a “resources” portion of your website—packed with webinars, eBooks, white papers, and other thought leadership—is a technique for building long-term trust that simplifies the conversion process.
- FAQ - A detailed Frequently Asked Questions page allows you to jump ahead of the most common rebuttals, so site visitors can self-select whether or not they’re an ideal fit for your company.
- Case Studies - Your case studies are marketing gold, so write about these as much as possible—about as many different client types as possible. The more a lead identifies with your past successes, the more likely they are to work with you.
Refine Your Sales
Look, if you’re responsible for sales in any capacity, you have to continue building your sales skills.
This is especially true if you’re a freelancer, solopreneur, or even an owner-operator who occasionally jumps in for a sales call.
It’s OK not to be an ace marketer.
It’s OK not to be an ace salesperson.
But if you’re a small business owner, you should have a firm grasp on some pretty basic concepts.
That’s why I wrote Boost, our marketing and sales eBook.
Boost is designed to help you:
- Determine how many leads you actually need.
- Increase your close rate with tried-and-true techniques.
- Create a marketing-sales feedback loop that helps you refine your marketing language by paying close attention to your sales wins.
The better you get at sales, the easier your marketing becomes (because you maximize the value of every lead).
The inverse is also true: The better you are at marketing, the easier sales become (because you maximize the quality of every lead).
Creating the Offer: To Discount Or Not to Discount?
One of my favorite marketing books is Brainfluence for its accessible dive into human psychology and purchasing behaviors. It’s an especially powerful read if you’re new to marketing.
Here’s a great general rule from Brainfluence to follow when it comes to discounts and sales—something marketers are often a little too eager to offer:
- Small Ticket Items - These are the perfect candidates for sales and discounts, so you can get that first purchase into the system, and you can begin focusing on repeat sales. Pizzas, affordable SaaS products, tires—these are great options for discounts.
- Large Ticket Items - Resist the urge to discount major purchases. After all, it’s not really the discount that’s going to make a difference here. Instead, your audience needs to be educated and assured that they’ll receive significant value for their investment.
Here’s the bigger lesson: There’s a lot more to messaging than an attractive price tag.
As we’ve discussed over and over again in this Spring Into Sales series, marketing is packed with nuance—and successful sales stem from that nuance.
Instead of focusing on price:
- Refine your messaging
- Create a compelling offer
- Make your solution an absolute no-brainer decision
Case Study: A Classy Restaurant Built On Regulars
Here’s an awesome case study I heard recently:
A high-end restaurant owner realized some important math after reviewing their past guests:
- When someone dines in their restaurant for the first time, there’s only a 10% chance of them coming back.
- If they come back for the second time, there’s only a 10% chance of them returning for a third time.
- If they return the third time, there’s a 70% chance of them returning for a fourth time.
- If they come back a fourth time, they’ll become a regular.
For the owner, the strategy became clear: Do everything possible to schedule the next reservation while they’re still in the restaurant.
That led to modifying the overall customer experience:
- The hostess asks about the next reservation before they even sit down.
- The wait staff may comp a portion of the meal.
- The receipts are modified to include space for details on the next reservation.
The entire user experience is designed to gradually lead the guests to booking their next reservation before they leave the restaurant.
Continue Building
Here’s one of the biggest marketing mistakes businesses make: They treat the first sale like the finish line.
In reality, the first sale is just the beginning.
Long-term business growth depends on your ability to create repeat customers, referrals, and ongoing relationships that continue generating revenue long after the initial transaction. That means your marketing and sales efforts can’t stop once the invoice is paid or the contract is signed.
You have to continue building.
Part of that process starts with refining your sales strategy. Great marketing might generate interest, but it can’t compensate for weak follow-up, poor communication, or a lack of confidence during the sales process. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or leading a larger sales team, improving your ability to communicate value will always improve your results.
You also need to become obsessed with your metrics. Measure everything you can: close rates, customer acquisition costs, repeat purchase behavior, referral rates, email engagement, and lead sources. The more you understand your numbers, the easier it becomes to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for growth.
Most importantly, stay in front of your past customers. Consistent communication through email campaigns, retargeting ads, events, check-ins, loyalty offers, and educational content keeps your brand relevant long after the first purchase.
Marketing & Branding: The Balance Between Intention and Innovation
This section was written by Lead Designer Nicole Suchin.
One of the biggest ways that we know we can trust someone is that they show up consistently.
As business owners, we tend to feel like innovation is greater than staying consistent. If we can just come up with that million-dollar idea, then we’ve won it. However, in reality, it’s the regular, repeated decisions we make that cement our relationship with our audience.
The same goes for how we show up as a brand.
Oftentimes, I notice business owners think that with every new campaign, they need a brand-new, eye-catching look. They run to Canva to find a new trending template or ask AI to generate a new graphic for social. Yet, they haven’t taken the time to consider what defines them as a brand and how their unique visuals can fit that story. This causes their brand to appear unpolished and lacking in a clear identity, which breaks trust and deters audiences.
In other words, when it comes to marketing and branding, there is a balance to strike between intentionality and innovation. While innovation can be leveraged in the early stages of brand development, once it’s been established, you need audiences to see your brand often enough to recognize it at a glance, before you can properly flip their expectations.
Build A Comprehensive Brand Guideline
In order to establish some consistency, the number one thing you need is a comprehensive brand guideline. This is a document that outlines everything from your colors to fonts to the style of photography you use. The purpose of this document is to set up a foundational system for every designed piece of your branding and marketing. It also ensures that you are consistently exposing your audience to the same visual story.
Some sections that are essential to a strong Brand Guideline include:
- All Fonts and Font Weights that fit the brand
- All Colors to use, in order of what fills the page vs what is an accent color when needed
- All shapes and variations of the logo and specifications of what not to modify in it
- All styles of photography that are acceptable to the brand style
- All shapes and graphic assets to be used
The more detailed these sections are, the more confidence you can have that you’re establishing a consistent look that your audience will pick up at a glance.
Craft Websites With Strong Social Proof
Your website is one of the most important artifacts for your brand. Not only because it’s an opportunity to flex your brand’s visual presentation, but also because there are a variety of ways you can establish trust through the content presented.
One thing we regularly encourage our clients to do is to lead with strong social proof. Testimonials and case studies are some of the most powerful conversion tools available to a small business. But many clients bury them on the site rather than lead with them.
With testimonials, visitors to the site can read through real customers' experiences. Rarely are individuals willing to risk being the first one to try a new product, particularly when their money is on the line. But if other customers have taken the time to vouch for you, then new customers will more easily begin to trust you.
Case studies take it even further. When a prospective client sees a case that mirrors their own situation, told clearly and presented professionally, the decision to reach out gets a lot easier. These aren't just nice-to-haves. They're proof that you've done this before and done it well.
And of course, with both of these, ensuring the layout is easy to digest and visually engaging is just as important as which testimonials and case studies you select.
Develop Pitch Decks That Put Your Best Foot Forward
For many prospects, your pitch deck is a first look at how you engage with your clients one-on-one. Think of it like a first date — you want to lead with the best version of yourself. If you show up looking sloppy, and constantly trip over your words, you’re pretty unlikely to get a second chance.
That means your brand guideline applies here, too. Using the same fonts, colors, and visual language that your audience has already begun to recognize is essential. Inconsistency at this stage of the relationship could be costly. You've done the work to earn a seat at the table. Don't let a cobbled-together deck, which signals a lack of professional polish, be the reason they hesitate.
Ultimately, your pitch deck should present that you know exactly who you are, who you are for, and what you do best. And that clarity and confidence will draw in the ideal client, while also deterring a poor match.
Leverage Live Events to Close Sales
We’ve talked throughout this series about the importance of staying in front of your leads, building trust, and overcoming objections.
Live events might be the single best environment for accomplishing all three at once.
There’s something powerful about getting people into the same room together. Whether it’s an open house, educational workshop, networking mixer, seminar, webinar, VIP appreciation event, product demonstration, or private consultation, events create opportunities for deeper conversations that are difficult to replicate through ads, websites, or emails alone.
When someone spends time with your team in person, they’re no longer interacting with a logo or a landing page—they’re interacting with real people. They can hear your personality, observe how you communicate, ask questions in real time, and experience your brand firsthand.
That matters, especially for high-ticket services or relationship-driven industries.
Some of the biggest advantages include:
1. Events Can Address Concerns & Objections Immediately
One of the biggest advantages of live events is the ability to address concerns and objections immediately. Maybe a lead has concerns about pricing, timelines, implementation, or whether your product/service is the right fit. During an event, those concerns can be discussed naturally through conversation instead of sitting unanswered in the back of their mind for weeks.
2. Events Educate & Nurture
When you host a workshop, webinar, or seminar, you position yourself as the expert guiding the room—not the salesperson desperately chasing a close. The audience gets value first, which lowers resistance and builds credibility before you ever transition into a sales conversation.
3. Events Spur Conversation
Almost every business has leads that went cold—not because they hated the offer, but because life got busy, priorities shifted, or the timing wasn’t right. A casual invitation to an event can reopen that relationship without the pressure of a direct sales call. Sometimes all it takes is one meaningful conversation, one demonstration, or one positive experience to restart momentum.
When attendees see a room full of interested prospects, happy customers, engaged staff members, or enthusiastic speakers, it creates social proof. It reassures hesitant buyers that they’re making a smart decision.
4. Events Build Relationships
Most importantly, events give you a natural opportunity to finalize relationships.
A great event should never end with “Thanks for coming!” and no follow-up plan. Instead, use the momentum of the experience to encourage next steps while the excitement is still fresh. Schedule the consultation. Book the next meeting. Offer the product demo. Reserve the next appointment.
The businesses that win with events understand something important:
The event itself isn’t the finish line.
It’s a carefully designed experience meant to move relationships one step closer to trust, commitment, and long-term loyalty.
Keep Pushing Forward
Congratulations! You made it to the end of this three-part series.
If you still feel like you need a hand, contact us.
We love working with other businesses.
Need a consultant? We’re there.
Need an agency team? We do that too.
Tell us your goals, and we’ll map out a strategy to help you achieve them.
