When you are running a business, every chance you get to convert a prospect into a customer should be treated like gold, because it literally is gold in your pocket. Nothing is more frustrating than finding out that the time, energy and effort you spent getting leads in the door is being wasted due to not striving hard all the way to the finish line.
Picture this scenario.
Your best client tells their friend they love your business. That person comes into your business standing there waving their hands, ready to buy. Your salespeople are distracted doing other things. Eventually the potential buyer gives up, more than frustrated, rightfully so, and leaves. Later that same dissatisfied customer informs your best client of their poor experience—who is mortally embarrassed—and not only decides then and there not to refer anyone else but questions their own allegiance to your brand. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
This is exactly what happens every time you have leads coming in your door that are not handled in an effective manner; whether it is on your website contact page or a phone call that comes into your voice mail system. Those people took precious time out of their day to reach out to you expecting you to actually want their business, and shockingly a recent study, discussed on Forbes.com, showed that 36% of those leads no one even bother to follow up on those leads.
The Truth Hurts: Lead Conversion Statistics
The fact is, any leads that are not followed up on in a timely manner will be doing business with the company down the street, not yours. If you are the first to respond to someone searching for a product or service then you will close 78% of those sales. When 63% don’t follow up on a lead within the hour and 24% wait an entire day you have a golden opportunity to beat out the competition and grow your business significantly.
Stop the Madness: Lead Timing Data
Leave it to research by an MIT professor and Insidesales.com data to bring out the “sweet spot.” Now it is up to all of us to learn and leverage.
- Contacting a lead in 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes makes the odds of reaching them drop by 100x
- Ability to contact a lead drops 10x after the first hour and qualifying 6x after the first hour
- Wednesdays & Thursdays from 4-5 pm are the best times to contact and qualify
- And if you miss the mark? Keep after the lead by reaching out to them at least 10 times before considering it dead. Most stop after 1.3 attempts. And the average contact reached ratio is 10.5%.
As a marketer of over 2 decades, I can tell you nothing is more frustrating than seeing your lead quality slipping away simply because they are turning to dust in our CRM. Things are hard enough when your return on marketing investment is measurable in only 29% of your campaigns. At the very least, move your response times from 6 days to 1 day and you will double your close rates. Now isn’t that something to rally around. Imagine…
