Your online reputation is key to closing more sales leads. It does not matter what industry you are in or if the leads you are working were not even generated via the Internet. When the prospect you are working on gets off the phone with you they are going to “Google” you.

What your prospect finds online is going to drastically affect your closing ratios. Companies with a bad online reputation may have negative blog post, a Rip off Report or a negative local news report. These items need to be dealt with and your online reputation needs to be very clean.

Many companies make the mistake of assuming since they are not generating leads online then their online image is not an issue. Bottom line is most consumers use the Internet to research a company before making a purchase. Consumers are very weary of the finance industry and most take their time to look online for potential scams or fraud.

A cool tool that Google provides to monitor your reputation is Google Alerts. You can type in any search term and get an alert sent to your email anytime that search term is posted online. You can use Google Alerts to track your company or personal name online. Anytime something new is posted online you will be notified.

Creating a good online reputation starts with content. Content can be online profiles, social websites, blogs, websites, articles and press releases. Keep this content fresh and optimize it for search engines so it outranks any negative results online.

Look out for our next post regarding Reputation Management and Building an Online Reputation.