When someone starts online marketing, traffic may be the first thing they struggle to understand for the first time… Soon they realize it is not the vehicles we used to see on roads…it is we people who are targeted to the offer or solution…
After traffic, lead generation comes into play…
The difference I see is not clearly understood by many…
Traffic vs Lead
So what is the difference between traffic and lead?
Traffic and lead both refers to people in online marketing…
But they are not the same, have a slight but crucial difference..
Traffic is your target audience…
For example, if you have a diet pill for obese people, then all the obese people online are are your target people aka traffic
Now leads are also traffic but not all the traffic are leads…
Leads are only interested people to your offers…
For example, you put your ads on somewhere your traffic hangs out which says you have got a pill that can help obese man and women lose 10 pounds in 30 days…
And you put the ads in a Weight Loss Facebook group…
That means all the people there are your target audience aka traffic as they joined the group with an intention to lose weight… If the group has 2000 members, all the 2000 people are your traffic…
But you got only 10 people interested in your offer…
So out of all the 2000 people you generated 10 leads who are interested in your offer…
I have written on this topic as I have been asked by many people that how to generate traffic…
The question is wrong in my opinion…
Traffic can’t be generated, it is already there, you just need to found them…
Leads can be generated with proper ads and following proven strategies…
That’s my take from these two terms….
Selling vs Closing
Let’s talk about Sell vs Close…
Primarily I also thought that both terms have the same meaning and can be used interchangeably…and I have seen many people use it interchangeably….
But then I found that they are not the same… Again has a subtle but important distinction in between…
To understand the difference I would like to recall a quote from The wolf of wall street documentary… where you will hear the following Ben Affleck’s quote (which is worth remembering btw):
A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is: Who is gonna close?
This quote should be understood in the context of cold calling…
If you understand the quote you know a sale can be made without paying anything, you can sell a concept, an idea, a promise, a perspective, a logic or a reason as well…and most important aspect here is that – selling is a process.
If selling is a process, then closing is the final destination of the process…if you can sell an idea, a promise etc, you can then close it by offering something irresistible to the lead….this is how you close the sell…
But if you try to sell a big promise but the lead raises a bigger objection not to go for it….you failed to handle the objection in selling process and you failed to close and the deal is closed by the lead instead without any monetary transaction…
Why understanding the differences is crucial?
It is important to understand the differences otherwise you will struggle to prioritize your focus…
If you are just beginning focus on how to find traffic…
When you got a good traffic source just focus on lead generation…
If you become skilled at generating leads then focus more on how to sell your offer to them…
And if you find that your sales process taking too much time and effort and yielding less profits then surely there’s something wrong in your closing part…it is time to become skilled at closing….
So I think the above post was helpful to understand the differences between Traffic vs Leads, Sale vs Close ….
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