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Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's webinar. I'm your host Ryan. I'm thrilled to be here, and I'm loving seeing so many familiar names joining us today. For those of you new to this, welcome to Headbox's revenue series, all about putting the revenue into your venue. Today, we're talking about a topic close to my heart converting leads into bookings.

Before working at Headbox, I booked and managed events for a venue group in East London for several years. So I've been in your position and know that secret sauce, so to speak, of any successful venue salesperson, is the ability to convert opportunity to sales. We will be starting by looking at the sales funnel as a whole, and then we will deep dive into three crucial state pages.

We'll look at the mistakes. We often make as salespeople and discuss tactics that will help you build on and improve your current processes.

At the end of the webinar, we will be dropping a cheat sheet into the chat with some top conversion tips, so make sure you stick around and share it with your teams. Before we get started, a bit of admin, please add any questions you have into the chat, our team are on hand to answer. And if we have time, we will try and discuss them at the end of the session. Also, as always, we love to see where you're tuning in from.

So take a pic of your setup, post it on LinkedIn or Instagram, wherever you post it, just make sure tag head box. I'm delighted to be joined by two excellent guests today. The first is a friend of mine, Sophie Taylor, part of the head box team. She started around the same time as I did, and she's been an absolute superstar breaking several company records in her tenure at head box.

Really excited to hear about how she became known as the qualification queen.

Welcome Sophie. I know you'll have some great tips. So Sophie sits on the lead feed side. So this is all about cold calls, new new business developments, that sort of thing. Welcome, Sophie.

Thanks, Ryan. Thanks a lot for having me.

No problem.

We're also joined by the lovely Ellie Gibbons corporate account manager at rare restaurant looking after agency relationships for their brands, gaucho and M Restaurants. Ellie's conversion rate on the head box platform is unparalleled.

So thank you so much for joining us. Yeah. I know you're gonna have some great tips about how to convert just, you know, proof is in the pudding. So, let's get started. I'm excited to see what we cover today. I think Sophie specializing in new business and Ellie working solely with agencies will get a good mix of perspectives today. Before we deep dive into the three big areas that will improve your conversion, let's start by looking at the sales process as a whole.

Now I've said this before, I'm a big believer in you can't improve what you don't measure, and the sales funnel is a great case in point. So, Ellie, how do you take a step back and analyze your sales funnel?

So I think for me is pulling report every month and every quarter. So with that, I can kind of keep track of what agencies are confirming bookings, and as well without looking at what businesses are confirming, because obviously a lot of businesses do work with certain agencies. So as well, I think it's important is to know what age is confirming. I think it is good to know which businesses are also coming into your venue as well.

Yeah.

And I think as well, keeping on track of decline reasons, whether that's menus, time slots, availability, and anything involving what could be potential sales barriers keeping on track of that. And then, of course, at the end of the month and each quarter, you can then come back to that and look at those barriers and see how you can improve to stop it being a problem in the future.

Yeah. Absolutely. And the more you identify, these points, which you're tracking through data, you're measuring it. The more you do this, the better you develop a sixth sense for what's gonna convert and what is maybe gonna be a waste of, you know, not waste of time, but you're not gonna chase it to the end of the earth. So thank you for that. So, Sophie, same question, but sort of lead feed business development side. What are your top tips for managing a sales pipeline?

Well, for me, I think the most important thing is always timeline. So you know, without without anything being within a timeline without knowing the next step, without knowing the next catch up. It's really hard to convert that because you end up sort of chasing, you end up really second guessing everything. And I think without having that, you are really unlikely to convert that lead into a booking.

And also just recently I've realized that, you know, if you kind of frame it in a way that you're helping them, I think they're more inclined to to help you sort of so to speak, so to just be like, okay, sort of if you're having those conversations, how long do you think they'll be? When do you think be a great time for us to catch up. Kind of rather sort of implying to them like this is when I will catch up with you. This is what and because they're gonna be less receptive to that. So I think important to kind of work with them, when would be a good time for you and then have that diarized for kind of, you know, basically the the next point in which would be the best point for them, and then, yeah, keep doing that kind of until until the deal is closed.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It's like help me help you.

What does your process look like? What is that timeline? You're not pushing it. You're allowing them to answer those questions, and then you can adhere to that. Really great tips. So thank you.

We've identified five, three reasons your leads are not converting. So this session is all about the actionable tips you can use to boost that conversion. The first reason is not responding quickly enough. If someone is showing you a buying signal, you don't wanna wait days to get back to them.

You wanna hop on that now. With that in mind, Ellie, you are one of Headbox's quickest venues to reply on the platform. Thank you. What are your top tips for reducing response time when an inquiry comes in.

So I would say there's three golden rules. So the first one would be having folders to everything. So whether that's new inquiries, past inquiries, if you've got several restaurants or venues and having those in folders, and as well for certain agencies as well, just so that when you do have emails come in, you can categorize them properly.

And then I think as well with that, it's then having rules made in your inbox if it does allow. So say, if head box were to email, then as soon as that email comes in, that goes into head box folder. And I think having that done for everything just means that everything is just super organized.

And if you know, for example, a head box convert as you do, I know in the morning, I can just go straight into my inbox straight to the head box folder and just clear them out.

And then I would say as well with that it becomes templates. So I love templates. I have templates for everything. So new inquiries, chases, sustainability, entertainment, Christmas, menu questions, literally everything.

Just so someone asks you can just send the template straight away. And again, that saves you time having to go, oh, actually do you know the answer to that, but let me just spend five minutes typing it up. And then I'd say finally it would be inbox cover, even if you're out the office for half an hour or two hours, just letting people know you are out of office and when you will be back, so it kind of provides them that timeline so that if their client is chasing them for an answer, they can go Okay. Ellie is out of office, but she's gonna reply by two o'clock, for example.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

But I think doing all of that kinda you hold your reputation with the agencies and the clients because they know you will reply, and you're gonna off to them. It's nice to meet you.

Like a fellow organization freak. I have folders.

Some emails are in multiple folders. I'll take them for different things.

Templates templates are just so helpful between the folders, the templates, and the out of office. If you were to just absolutely have to miss a day. Like, just disappear for a day. Somebody else would be able to come in and handle the entire sales process with templates from that initial inquiry all the way to, you know, we're now delivering the event.

So very, very important. And good tips and I think the key takeaway there for the, you know, for the venue side is just quick responses are key. Some people are looking to turn around a booking. Within forty eight hours from, like, inquiry to contract signed.

So if you take a couple days to respond to the initial inquiry, you might be missing out on business. Speaking of keeping things moving along.

Sophie, when a lead comes in, what does your process look like?

Think obviously the most important thing is getting them on the phone straight away.

If you can't do that, obviously follow-up with an email. But for me, I think especially if you can't do that, leave a voicemail. I think there's so much controversy about voicemails in our industry and how they can be perceived or if they're really effective. And I think for me, I genuinely believe that they really are.

I listened to a podcast, I think it was called thirty minutes to president's club, and it was like how to smash cold emails. And there was actually a mention of of voicemails in there and how it's so effective to leave a voicemail because you're sort of it's engaging that little bit of interest. And I don't know about you, but if someone calls me and doesn't leave a voicemail, I'm not really. I'm just I'm like, I don't know who I don't know who that is.

I'm not gonna follow-up, but if there's a voice, I'll go, oh, great. Yeah. I'll get on that. So, yeah, it just just making sure that, you know, you're you're keeping that communication, you're leaving that voicemail, but you're also following up on an email, leaving no stone unturned, and just making sure that you're at the forefront of their mind so that they'll come back to you kind of straight away.

Absolutely. Like a voicemail leaves actionable items, which I know we were discussing before recording just, you know, an email should have actionable items at the end and just how important that is. It puts the ball in their court so to speak to come back to you. It puts the onus on them.

You're making sure you're getting a response. There's clear line items. You're gonna do this. I'm gonna do this.

We're gonna reconvene at this time. So, I'm a fan of voicemails as well. If I if I don't have a voicemail, when I miss a call, chances are I'm not calling that number could be who knows who it could be.

So thank you for that. I mean, moving on to the second biggest reason your customers don't convert is you've not qualified the opportunity. So qualification process, Ellie.

How do you qualify whether an inquiry is a good fit for your venue?

So I think as you said earlier, once you've worked with your restaurant or group of restaurants for a long time, you do develop a six sense. It's like you almost dream about it in your sleep, like you just what's what? Yeah. Which is quite concerning at times.

So yeah, once you know what does and doesn't work, when you do get the inquiries come in, you can kinda from a first glance, you know whether it's gonna work or not.

And if you do have multiple sites, then you know, okay, that might work for that venue, but it might not for so you can kind of distribute the inquiries to where you think would be best fit.

And I think as well, it's some of the inquiries we do get, some of them are like do you have big AV requirements, they wanna bring big stages in and stuff like that. And for some of our restaurants, they have fixed booths. So, you know, I know instantly, Oh, okay. That might not work there because it's fixed boost, but then we've got m Fredneedle Street, which is a huge trend use. You know, we can fit stages in there and whatever they'll save require.

And then I think as well, like knowing your capabilities and what you can and can't do, as I mentioned earlier, because you don't want to sell the dream to like a big client when you know you probably can't deliver it because you don't have the capacity to sit four thousand people. Yeah. It's just not gonna happen.

Hundred percent.

And I think, yeah, once you are honest with him that you can't do that, then you're saving that back and forth time on inquiries, you know, won't convert. And then you can actually spend that on inquiries, which will convert.

Yeah. I mean, we're all so busy.

I've said it already. Like, if it's not gonna work, it's okay to be transparent and say, no.

This doesn't fit our venue.

Not gonna waste your time, not gonna waste my time.

We're all busy enough.

You might as well focus on the things, you know, that you've tracked and you've measured and you know, alright, that one one sounds a good chance of converting being an awesome event and everybody leaving happy, whereas trying to, you know, put a square peg in a round hole. Yeah. Yeah. You know, for the sake of for the sake of one conversion.

So transparency is key when you're when you're you know, talking to prospective clients is this will work. This won't. So thank you. Sophie.

Mhmm. I know, you know, we're same team. So I know we have quite rigorous qualification processes at Headbox. Yep.

Do you mind taking us through them, please?

Yeah. Of course.

I think firstly, it's really important to remember that even though someone has shown interest, even though there's an inquiry that's come through, and a really promising lead, they're showing interest. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy, and there's a whole process in between those two points. And I think for us, we have got so many different acronyms, but it makes our jobs well, it makes our jobs easier. It also makes you know, their lives easy.

We're not wasting their time if if, you know, we can't sort of mesh, I guess, so to speak. So in terms of kind of that initial phone call. We have, what we call, bant and putts, which basically stands for budget. Authority need and time frame and, suppliers, and then process user type of event.

I've already done the s. So yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. But essentially that just means, you know, as I've said, and I'll probably say a million times, no stone left unturned.

We're ticking every box. We're understanding their budget. We're understanding, you know, who's gonna be making that final sign off, decision is them? Is it someone else?

We're really trying to understand the real need of that business. And, you know, if we can sort of match the type of events that they do, And if they're working with any suppliers already, what that relationship's like, what the process has been in terms of signing them up already, And I think just makes it just makes it easier for you to just really understand. Okay. This is a serious person. They seriously wanna move forward with this. And there's no kind of questions left to be asked. And that it kind of as the deal process goes on, we have, what we call wiper.

Yes. Which famous wiper.

Yeah. A big one for her all around in in most teams, but that basically is who, information, process, estimated time frame and results. So we're really understanding who is the person making that decision.

Any extra information you need from me? Kind of, you know, what can I do to help make that decision easier? What can I do to make that conversation easier? We're not wasting time back and forth when just given you kind of a proposal, that's it.

And then you're coming back going, oh, well, if you could really send some case studies, if you could do this, if you do that, we're kind of ironing that all out straight away by going, what is the information that you kind of will expect to to need? So getting that sort of straight away, understanding that process, how long is that process gonna take, and yeah, understanding the time frame. And I think as soon as you've got all of that information, then you, you know, you can feel confident that once you've set up some time for the next meeting, you've got all of that information kind of ready and prepared.

And then just making sure each each touch point to have kinda keep going over that information. So you're not there's no risk of of, oh, actually. Sorry. My my manager actually signs that not me when we have three chats down the line.

That's absolutely it. We I'm always telling my team you you're reaffirming, like, reconfirming the wiper at every touch point. So the who you just touched on it, who is really important. You don't want to get to the point where a customer is saying, alright, let's proceed with X venue. Great. I'll send you the contract. Oh, it's actually going to my director.

Yeah.

They're out of office for the next three weeks. Yeah. It's like, okay, we're at a standstill, then we should know that earlier in the process.

And then information, I mean, a big one for us, we have a lot of our customers now. You know, they're booking specifically events where ESG is at the heart of things. So for me, it's I know I'm sending them a proposal. It should include sustainability initiatives, even if that's a one sheet from the venue, it should have it already.

If not, if I'm not setting that, it's just a bit more back and forth. They're gonna say, okay, great. Like venue, but what about their, you know, food waste management system? And then I'm going back to the venue and then they're coming back to me with this document.

And it's just that can take a day. So just get it all out of the way first, reconfirm that white part every step. I really, really like that. That will be in the sheet at the end of the show.

So let's move on to the final reason that your leads are not converting to bookings.

The follow-up. Very, very important. So Ellie, why don't you talk us through yours?

Of course. So we use a booking system called which is through design my night. So any inquiries I do have, which are hot leads or, like, they wanna go on first hold that's where I put them. And then with that, they have a feature where you can put it as a follow-up.

So you can select the date, which is just genius. Yeah. So, So every day I'll log in to Collins in the morning, and like I look at my follow ups and then make the follow-up, which is always good. Yeah.

Save you happen to remember which is what you want.

And then the second bit would be in my emails, any hot leads or inquiries, which are a suite of hires, love them. I will pin them to the top of my emails so that when I do come in the next day or later that day, I know that they're there, and I do need to follow-up.

And as well, I'd say in busy periods, so especially Christmas, which is just crazy.

Everyone wants first hold, don't they? So, I'll put it on hold for like five days.

And then if it gets to that point, and if they haven't responded, and there's other people interested, I will just deadline them. So normally like twenty four hours to forty eight hours, but sometimes it could be end of day. Yeah. Depending on the level of demand. So with that, it kind of deadlines them. And then if they don't respond then, you know, you can kind of reject the space and then offer it to someone who's then got the time to pay the deposit, sign the contract, and get it booked in.

Yeah.

I think that's really important.

I think and you can kinda marry that with what Sophie was talking about before. Let's use Christmas as an example because it is just Wildly, yeah, wildly crazy. So everybody wants the first Thursday in December, if not second Thursday in December, if not the last Thursday in November. There's three key dates identified there.

Everybody wants it. So as you would be going through this wiper process who's involved. Oh, you know, it's just me making the decision. Great.

You're my you're my person. I'm gonna talk to you only. Oh, it's a social committee. There's twelve of us red flags because everybody has a different opinion.

And you know you might get all the way where it's like you think they're gonna request a contract today. And then it turns out the twelfth person who hasn't shown up to a single meeting says, wonder what? I really think we should look in Wandsworth. And it's like, what?

Where does this come from? So that's why that who is is really important. But then with the dates as well, like you can you can figure out Okay. You're holding December sixth. That was the first Thursday last year, I believe.

So you're holding the sixth.

We were very busy.

So you're holding the sixth and it's it turns out that it's not a short list. You're holding our venue, you're holding that venue, that venue, that venue, that venue, whereas this person's come along and said, man, we really want a book gaucho We want it we want the view of the, you know, tower bridge. We've we've got it all planned out. You're our only short list event.

You're gonna try and prioritize that. Obviously, holds first come first served. But you're absolutely right. It's communicating it.

And then I think talking about follow ups, if I've sent you an email and there's been no response. Okay. That's fine. Everybody's busy.

Booking this event booking this event might not be a top priority. You might actually, you know, sit on a marketing team and you're you're working on a campaign at the moment. That's fine.

Second email, no response. Okay. This is where I tell my team pick up the phone. We really love an email, but pick up the phone to Sophie's point earlier in in the show here. Pick up the phone. No answer.

Okay. My next email is I'm releasing this. Please do come back to me to open it up because we are all very busy, and I sound like a broken record, but not gonna chase everything to the end of the earth.

You know, as you measure things, as you find out who is, you know, who's serious and who's not, you can prioritize.

And I think, yeah, I think I'm follow ups. You raised some good points. And, I mean, just to finish it off, they are really important. And I love that your CRM or or Collins has that automatic follow-up.

Yes.

And that can be the first thing to go.

You you need to set yourself reminders or have, you know, a machine set reminders for you, to ensure you're keeping that agreed timeline on the go. So thank you, Sophie. Anything to add? What are your what are your top tips for following up? Because I know you sit in a slightly different role than ages see?

Well, as much as you said, you sound like a broken record. I probably very much too because timelines, I think my of sales would be, very impressed with me harping on about them because that's literally sort of what we have to keep kind of pushing into into ourselves when we're having these conversations. It's just always having a call to action at every point, just understanding kind of you know, how long a pros how long the process will take to have those conversations. Is it gonna be that Jeff's in on Monday and we could maybe have a chat on Thursday to give you a bit of time to digest that conversation or is it a case that Jeff's on annual leave two weeks and, you know, we may not because so easy to go, I'll just call you next week, but and they can go, yeah, yeah, okay.

But then the person making the decision isn't even there, and they haven't even spoken to them yet. So always making sure there's a timeline and always making sure there is that call to action and also just working with them, you know, what what what can we do to make this decision you know, easier for you. What can we do to work together to make sure that that conversation is gonna be as swift and easy as possible? What do you need from me?

I'm, you know, I'm trying to help you here.

Yeah, I love that. This is our agreed outcome. Help me help you get there.

Yeah. It's so easy to think of like them versus you and and and it being like that, but it's, you know, it's a collaborative thing. You know, you know, you've got something I want. I've got something you want. Let's work together. What can we do here to to just make those conversations easier and just making sure that, yeah, stick to the timelines people every every point, we wanna make sure that there's always gonna be, you know, call to action, you know, at the end of conversation. And then, yeah, just a time in the diary.

No. Absolutely. I and I agree, like, timeline goes hand in hand with clear actions at the end of a voicemail phone call email, whatever it might be. There's nothing worse than ending an email with.

I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know because it's if I'm busy, if, you know, let me let you know. Alright. That goes That goes to the bottom of my to do list because I've got things here that are clearly actionable.

This is due now. This is due in a couple hours. This is due by tomorrow. I need to work on this.

Let me know. Yeah. Fine.

I will.

Whenever.

So clear actionable goals for you at home. That's a clear takeaway from this. So I mean, I told you I love talking about sales. We could probably go on, but, I think it's time to wrap this up.

So the team have just dropped our sales conversion cheat sheet into the chat for you to download, with all of the tips we covered today. So thank you very much to Ellie. Sophie, for joining me today. I love that.

So I hope everyone at home enjoyed watching that as much as we enjoyed being a part of we will share the recording of this webinar with you this afternoon. So please share it with your colleagues, the rest of your team, and we look forward to seeing you and maybe them next month, where we will be taking you through filling your venue at Quiet Times. Hello, Monday night.

Thank you all very much. Hope you have a lovely rest of your week. Bye bye.

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