Have you ever found yourself saying “We’re getting so many leads… but conversions are still low.” Well, this small statement actually depicts a much bigger problem.
Each day, you sit down, review the leads in hand, and allocate them to your team: a ritual that might make you feel productive. But take a moment to step back and reflect: your team is now pursuing leads who requested to be called “day before yesterday,” filled out forms three days prior, and leads that have already gone cold.
Plus you can build all the Google Sheets in the world, with perfect columns and data checks but it won’t fix manual errors. And then you’re left wondering why your lead-to-conversion rate is stuck at 1–2%.
The system is not broken. It was never constructed correctly to start with.
What surprises the most?
Even after investing a huge amount in marketing, and digital tools and with endless efforts from the team, most businesses are only able to convert 10% or less of their leads.
Still, somehow, it is considered normal.
We have started accepting that the “low rate of conversion from bulk leads is just part of the travel industry”. But why is it happening? Why have businesses been investing huge amounts of money to generate leads, but still walking away with a small fraction of returns?
Let’s unwrap this together and in the end, your travel business might be able to 2X the conversion rate.
Why is a minimal conversion from bulk leads normalized in the travel industry?
Most businesses invest heavily in marketing and lead generation and yes, they do get results. Bulk of leads for their sales team but still the conversion rate remains the same or increases by a minimal amount. Yet businesses do nothing for it as it is normalized in the travel industry to convert 2 leads out of 10.
Now let’s think about this situation from a different perspective:
Imagine you started a restaurant but every day you have to throw out 90% of the food you produce and only earn money from 10% of the production. Sounds absurd, right? But In sales, when only 10% of leads convert, you somehow accept it.
What travel businesses are losing due to this ignorance?
Have you ever thought of it this way, by ignoring the 70-80 per cent of leads that don’t get converted you are ignoring the capital you invested in generating those leads through marketing campaigns, advertisements, and whatnot?
If you once map your Sales and Marketing Funnel you will notice that normalizing less conversion over bulk leads is slowing down your growth and profit. Behind these normal statistics, you lose a lot.
Here is the root cause of this Sales and Marketing funnel hole
Now is high time to stop normalizing this leakage and start working on lead management.
A proper lead management process is very important for travel business but it is often neglected or poorly executed. Why this happens:
No process for follow-up
A business does not have proper methods to follow up on the inquiries due to which– when a person deals with a bulk of leads they often forget to keep a check on the inquiry cycle and lose the potential warm lead.
No visibility of lead journey
For most travel businesses, this is the silent killer: nearly 80 to 90% of leads go cold simply because there’s no real-time visibility as to where each lead stands. Is it reverted, cold, pending, or even converted? Nobody really knows.
Lack of lead nurturing
When employees are buried under a repetitive cycle of manual work, there is barely time for them to engage genuinely with leads. Result? Potential customers don’t receive timely follow-ups, personalized responses, or the guidance they need and in the end, they quietly drop off.
Poor priority set-up
There is no clear system in the travel business to decide what needs attention first and this creates chaos. Without defined priorities, tasks slip through the cracks and client experience takes the hit.
Manual errors
When leads are assigned manually, there are high chances of error. If the employee responsible is caught up in something or is unavailable, even a high-potential lead might sit unattended. In fast-moving travel sales, that delay is all it takes to lose a booking.
Did you relate to any of the problems well, you are not alone. Many travel businesses face the same problem in lead management.
What is your travel business actually losing in this ignorance?
Sure, we all know that low conversions mean missed business opportunities and lost profits. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What really happens to your travel business behind the scenes is much worse; your entire business suffers from hidden long-term damages.
And while you’re stuck chasing leads that barely convert, your progress quietly takes the backseat.
Resources- Why does no one highlight it?
It’s not just your time being wasted on lead generation. You’re unknowingly draining your financial, intellectual, and physical resources too.
Think about it this way:
- You invest a huge amount of capital to generate leads- Financial resources
- You use tools and tech to capture those leads- Physical resources
- And your team: They’re burning out every day to manage it all manually- Human resource
- Leads once lost, are lost forever along with the word of mouth bad publicity – Marketing Disaster
All of the resources are wasted, and for what? A tiny fraction of actual conversions
Now does it feel like a big problem but what if you could stop this drain?
What is the solution?
The only solution to this is C2- Centralization and Control
It is important that your post-lead generation process has Centralization and Control. You need to develop a process that gives you:
- Real-time visibility to the journey of each lead: At what stage of conversion is it standing
- Automated system for Follow-Up & Reminders: So you never miss any potential lead
- Smart Lead Distribution & Prioritization: So your team puts their efforts in the right direction
- Performance Analytics & Reports: So you can make a proactive strategy and efficient decision-making before losing growth and profit
Once you get these the gap between leads generated and leads converted will eventually vanish.
How SEMBARK has already resolved this gap for 810+ global DMCs & Travel Business
SEMBARK founders decoded this gap in lead generation and lead conversion way before while handling a travel business by themselves. Being from a tech background: IIT Kanpur alumni could not sit behind and watch too many resources being wasted.
So, they built smart, scalable solutions rooted in real industry challenges to transform how travel businesses manage leads and grow.
SEMBARK’s lead management system works 360 degrees to solve the problem of lead management for the travel business. Let’s understand how:
- Lead API integration: whether your business uses Google Forms, Landing Pages, Websites, or Meta Ads, for lead generation our software captures them all in one dashboard for your business.
- Auto Lead Distribution: As soon as the leads are captured in the system by the Round Robin Method they are automatically distributed to your team. Or you can customize the distribution according to the Area of Expertise in your team.
- Lead journey visibility: Auto segmentation of leads according to their life cycle. New-Query, In-progress, converted and more– so your team has full clarity and proper priority to work on.
- Real-time Lead Notifications: A proactive system that works responsibly to help you keep up with each inquiry in real-time without any delay.
- Get Follow-up Reminder: Three Stage Reminder is provided by the system: On-Mobile, On-Email and On-System. So you do not miss potential conversion leads. Features like status tagging and auto-filtration support easy management.
All of your travel problems of lead management get solved: Under One-System– SEMBARK
- Less manual work
- Centralized system of lead management
- Control over a lead journey with full visibility
- Shorter Sales Cycle
- Higher Conversion Rate
- Stronger Team Collaboration
- No Task Duplication
- Smooth organizational communication
Conclusion
It is very important to understand the root cause of any problem impacting your business. Initially, it might seem to be a small or a problem normalized by the industry. But in the current highly competitive market, businesses are not waiting, they are moving fast with the speed of a bullet train.
The more time you take to make the decision the more of your precious resources get wasted.
It’s not time to think anymore, it’s about taking action to get C2 in your lead management process.
Book a Demo today with SEMBARK and how it can increase your conversion rates.
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