Do Facebook Messenger chatbots help qualify leads? In short, you betcha, they do! And this is a good thing because qualifying leads can be a long, tedious process for a salesperson. It usually involves asking the same questions over and over again to dozens of people per day! Look, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling. Whether it’s cars, real estate, or gold bullion… there is always some necessary information from your prospect. See, there is always a set of disqualifiers taking people out of the running for your product or service. And this is a good thing! Because you only want to sell to your ideal customer anyway. This is the person that’s most likely to whip out his credit card and use it to pay you. Really… why would you invest time and energy into a sale that’s not going to happen?
Qualify Leads with the Help of Chatbots
The process of qualifying leads; Lead Qualification. And it’s done by asking the right questions, preferably in the correct order. There are various Lead Qualification Frameworks out there. Some older than others, but all go over multiple criteria to help qualify the lead. Till now, your salespeople always had to ask the questions. That is if you had any salespeople asking the questions! It may even be the case that no one was doing the asking? The equivalent of shouting your business in a sound eliminating room. Perhaps not having a sales guy was a budget issue? If so, a chatbot solves that problem too. Because a chatbot can handle thousands of conversations at the same time!
Lead Qualification Scenarios
Chatbots can help qualify leads with this lead qualification framework. A few case studies can make it clear how a chatbot would make it easier to qualify leads for any business:
Chatbots Help Qualify Leads in Mortgage Services
When someone is looking for a mortgage, the first questions are 100% numbers-based.
- “How much money do you make?”
- “What’s your credit rating?”
- “How much debt do you currently have?”
- “How much down payment?”
All these questions and more are part of the necessary interview process. None of these answers requires any real input from a salesperson or a mortgage broker. It’s just data that needs to be collected. Preliminary data to actually hold the conversation about selling the mortgage. And a chatbot can be designed to ask these questions. Once the questions have been asked, and the person is qualified… they can be sent to a human.
Now the mortgage broker doesn’t have to ask all those things anymore. Better yet, the entire sales process can be done through chatbots and forms too. Pro tip? For products over $500, it’s always best to get a human involved. Especially with a mortgage, lol. The key is to use the chatbot to ask those basic questions. Questions everyone needs to ask to get started with a mortgage. And this allows more top of the funnel without overwhelming brokers… and it helps in closing more deals as there are more qualified leads the brokers can focus on.
Chatbots Help Qualify Leads in Legal Services
It might seem like every legal case is unique, and it is, to a certain point. I.E., if your office is a DUI defense firm, there’s a lot that you can ask automatically.
- “When were you arrested?”
- “Where were you arrested?”
- “Did you take a breathalyzer test? What was the result?”
- “Have you had a DUI before?”
- “Did you have an accident? If yes, was anyone hurt?”
- “Was anyone’s property, other than yours, damaged?”
And so on. While the client will eventually need to speak to an attorney. They can answer all these questions automatically online in a secure environment. This sets the legal team free to handle the parts of people’s cases that can’t be done by a computer. Again, this allows the office to do a larger volume of cases. And to make sure that every question is answered fast. The latter holding true for all businesses that implement a chatbot for lead qualification.
Chatbots Help Qualify Leads in Hospitality Services
- “When would you like to come to our hotel?”
- “How many people will be in the room?”
- “Do you need one bed or two?”
- “Do you need a crib?”
- “Would you like to make a dinner reservation for the night of your arrival?”
- “Would you like to rent a car from the Acme rental agency right here in the hotel?”
- “Do you need to be picked up at the airport?”
All this will pre-qualify the customer for the hotel and even set up all their reservations. The chatbot will look at dates and room availability. After that, it will let the customer know if there’s anything that you can do for them. Of course, you need to hook in the bot with calendar software, and all that good stuff… Luckily with our webhooks, native, and Zapier integration, you’re good to go.
A Helping Lead Qualifying Chatbot
Every sales team has a list of basic questions that they ask when someone contacts them. It will usually run through questions about where the customer has been going before, what they need, and when they need it. All this can be programmed into a chatbot that speaks to them like a person. In fact, most chatbots are indistinguishable from a person. They can talk and interact just like you do, without the input of a person.
But How To Plan a Lead Qualifying chatbot?
The key to setting up a qualifying chatbot is to plan ahead for all the questions you might need to handle. It will start with some basics. Think of questions asking for name, address, etc… (if you’re having a Facebook bot, you don’t need to ask for names!) Then, the chatbot can dig deeper and look for products and solutions. Planning will take up the bulk of the time in getting a chatbot set up. It’s the fundamental ground on which your lead qualifier is built on… So take it seriously.
Consider Hiring a Chatbot Designer
This is a great time to mention that hiring a company, or conversational specialist, to help you do the work. This will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. A professional bot designer enables you to make sure that every possible question is answered. Helping you take care of your customers quickly, and that your backup systems are in place.
Facebook Messenger chatbots, at their most basic, can be easily created. You’re not going to get everything out of a chatbot doing it yourself. Let me put it this way. If you’re don’t have any experience as a copywriter or a conversational specialist… You’re very likely to miss something. When you miss a question or an answer, you’ll lead your customers down a dead end. Or end up having them waiting for a person to speak to. This is a great way to lose customers. If you don’t want to hire anyone, then please test, test, and test! Go through your chatbot by yourself and test it!
Where to put your Facebook Messenger Chatbot
Most companies put their chatbot in the lower right corner of their website. This works out well since that’s where customers expect to see them. I.E., Let’s imagine you’re buying a home. You navigate to a real estate agent’s website and locate the bot in the right lower corner. You immediately know where to find it, and with its help, you sort through thousands of listings. Discovering the 5 houses that meet your needs! Another place where chatbots added is mobile apps. This allows a customer to use your services from anywhere. The apps are linked to their Facebook Messenger. Which makes the whole process fast and easy for them. In most cases, they won’t need to even download anything more than a bookmark.
Lastly, they are, of course, added to your Facebook page. So whenever someone comes across your Facebook page, a chat automatically pops up… And visitors are immediately invited to get more information from the bot. Let us know how you use or plan to use Facebook Messenger chatbots. If you’re after qualified prospects… Check out how IBM’s BANT system works with a chatbot. (FREE Bot Flow Included)
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Founder Clepher