Sadly, no matter how brilliant your marketing is, how pretty it is, how expensive it is...the only question worth addressing is this - Does it sell?

Most businesses focus all of their marketing attention on advertising or lead generation. That's fine, you've got to make the phone ring but, if you don't turn a significant amount of those leads into new clients then your marketing is little more than an exhausting and often expensive exercise in grab a**. (sorry about that, my high school football coach used that term when we weren't accomplishing anything - and it seemed to work here.)

Marketing is lead generation and lead conversion...well, come to think of it, it's also customer service, but one step at time.

Don't even think about running an ad or sending out a direct mail appeal until you have fully scripted what you are going to do when the phone rings.

You must have planned in advance what you want the client to experience, what you want them to know about your firm, what you want them to do next. And the way you do this is to document it right down to scripting the words you are going to say.

You can't just wing it. Winging it is what lands clients that turn into nightmares.

The greatest value of a true lead conversion process is that it puts you in control of the marketing relationship and allows you to present your value in the way you want your client to understand it and experience it. Anything else allows the client to come to their own conclusions.

Far too much of the popular selling wisdom today promotes the probe and listen for pain, redirect and reposition style. That, to me, is how you end up telling the prospect what you think they want to hear and that's just not going to work in the long run.

A lead conversion process should be more like an internal seminar. You walk the client through a process and educate them in a way that presents what you need them to understand. Now, that approach won't be for everyone but you don't want everyone as a client.

You want clients who get and appreciate what it is you do. The only way your clients will come to understand and appreciate what you do is if you can demonstrate it in a logical and systematic way. Think of in terms of teaching them. First they need to know this so they can build upon this.

Here are a few pointers for creating your lead conversion system.

Know you want the client to do when you advertise. - Call them to action, a phone call, a website visit, a reply coupon.

Only attempt to do one thing with each contact. First get their attention, then go for an appointment, then present your research, then ask for an order

Take control of the appointment. Set the agenda and make it a valuable use of your prospects time.

Always set next steps. Always get a yes or a no to proceed.