What do I do? I’m afraid to filter the tire kickers coming into my business because they are the only leads I have.

This was asked by someone who’s on my email list, which by the way I love interacting with folks there. So many amazing conversations are sparked by it.

This person admits that SEO works well, and is in their words “very targeted” but they are often leads with low budgets.

Here's the thing, the tire-kickers aren't good leads and that don't pan out to become clients are a complete drain on the business.

It’s critical to have the leads understand the full picture before you push them into your pipeline. That means budget needs to be addressed further up the chain.

Optimization of the top of the funnel

Assuming that SEO is working for inbound, and you are collecting names and emails as a request for your services, put a few more fields on that form. Budget is one of them.

Obviously, SEO is working to bring folks in. So for your business inbound strategy works. Next is to optimize your content accordingly to bring in the better, non-tire kicker leads.

Josh Doody on Live In The Feast does an amazing job in regards to optimization of his content. He talks a lot on listening and adjusting his content based on the feedback he gets.

Now you need to plug the leak that's causing other leads to fall through the cracks. If it’s just budget related, aside from adding in the field to the contact form, a sentence or 2 within the content around budget may do the trick.

Another option is to write an article on why you are not the best option for them. It may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but best to share that information in black and white, rather than during a call or follow-up email.

Have them disqualify themselves

If it's any consolation, this isn't the first time I've heard this.

Getting any leads is a false positive for your business. In fact, it's a drain on the business.

It’s awesome to be able to notice why leads aren’t a fit, budget and timeline is often the easiest. Other aspects come later and through experience.

As soon as you realize how a lead isn’t a fit, and then it happens again, then it’s time to plug up that leak and move that criteria up the chain. Get it in front of the lead sooner so that they can disqualify themselves.

They don’t want to waste time either. So if you don’t take projects for anything less than $5,000, put that in front of those that only have $1500 so that they can then adjust their expectations if they really want to work with you, or move on to someone else.