For businesses looking to grow sales, the instinct is often simple: generate more leads. But Joe Ignace, CEO of Velocity 360 CRM, argues that the bigger opportunity may be hiding in the leads businesses already have.
In this episode of The RTO Show Podcast, Pete Shau talks with Ignace about sales processes, follow-up and the numbers that can reveal where potential customers are falling through the cracks. Drawing on his background in sales and sales operations, Ignace explains why businesses should examine how effectively they handle existing opportunities before investing more money into generating new ones.
Close More Sales by Fixing the Follow-Up
According to Ignace, one of the biggest problems businesses face is a lack of visibility into what happens after a lead enters the sales process. Are salespeople responding quickly? Are quotes being followed up on? Are phone calls being returned? Without that information, an owner may know sales are underperforming without knowing why.
Ignace describes the sales funnel as a “leaky bucket.” Velocity 360’s data, he says, has shown situations where 80% of quotes received no follow-up call. His point for dealers is straightforward: adding more leads to a process with significant gaps simply creates more opportunities to lose potential sales.
Instead, businesses should understand their close rates, response rates, and lead sources. Ignace recommends tracking metrics such as the number of leads generated, close rate by product, average sales price, sales cycle length, and close rate by marketing source.
Speed also matters. Ignace emphasizes creating processes that respond to leads quickly and consistently, especially as consumers increasingly research and shop digitally. Automation can handle some of those early touches, allowing salespeople to focus their time on conversations, quotes, and closing.
The conversation also highlights the importance of matching marketing investment to lead quality. A large volume of low-intent leads may produce fewer sales than a smaller number of customers who have already demonstrated stronger buying intent.
For rent-to-own dealers, the takeaway is worth considering: before spending more to fill the top of the funnel, look closely at what is happening inside it. Better visibility and consistent follow-up may help businesses close more sales from opportunities they already paid to generate.
Catch the full episode of The RTO Show Podcast, proudly sponsored by APRO, on Spotify.
