Believe it or not, speed-to-lead is the biggest driver of lead conversion after a lead is generated. Yet, 1 in 2 businesses still fail to respond to their leads in 24 hours, despite the fact a prospect is 21x more likely to purchase when contacted in the first five minutes. Even knowing those statistics, many companies have no idea how to solve this problem and may spend more time and money trying to make it to the “golden window” every time.
Even in their best efforts, many teams are still missing that window. No one could expect a sales team to be available on weekends, holidays, or even in the middle of the night when a lead fills out an inquiry. It’s unrealistic and unmanageable.
There are many misconceptions revolving around speed-to-lead and despite all of them, there are solutions and answers as to how speed-to-lead not only works, but why it is an essential piece to a business’ sales funnel.
“It’s weird and invasive to contact leads that quickly.”
This is a commonly heard phrase from any B2C sales teams. While you might wait to call after the first date, the rules for business are different. Think of it like this: if you aren’t contacting your lead first, don’t you think your competition might beat you to it? The reality is 50% of leads go to the business who responds first.
According to InsideSales Lead Management Study, there are three main reasons why it’s actually beneficial to contact a lead immediately upon filling out an inquiry:
- Top-of-mind awareness — if a lead has just filled out an inquiry, contacting them immediately ensures that your company is still at the forefront of their thoughts. A consumer will be much more likely to forget about a company the longer time goes on.
- “Wow!” factor — While you might think it’s strange or invasive to contact a lead so quickly, most consumers are like any of us– they love instant gratification. A consumer’s needs being met so quickly by a sales team isn’t a “weird” response, it’s a “wow!” result.
- Presence detection — Should a lead fill out an inquiry, they are more than likely to be sitting next to their laptop or phone. If you miss the five minute window, the chances of catching them at an available or attainable time decreases dramatically.
“We should just hire more salespeople to handle speed-to-lead.”
While it seems like a simple-enough solution, this idea still falls short. No matter how many you hire, humans are human and the bandwidth they must have in order to be available 24/7 is unrealistic and unattainable.
Not to mention, it’s expensive. Salaries seem like an easy way to fulfill needed roles or unresolved problems, but it actually may be a “work smarter, not harder” solution that will ultimately save your business time and money.
Hiring a lead conversion company, like Verse, can be a more cost-effective solution than just regular ISAs. Verse stands as a 24/7 modern contact center, where your leads get contacted immediately, before being qualified and converted to appointments for your sales team. This ultimately lets sales focus on the closing of deals instead of chasing down the leads themselves. And, the bonus is sales will only get qualified leads from Verse. That’s a lot less time and money spent on salaries and sifting through leads that will never buy.
Need help converting more of your leads into appointments?
Talk to a Verse Lead Conversion Specialist to see how we can help.
“I try calling right away, but most of the calls still go to voicemail.”
Just less than a couple decades ago, calling was the preferred method of communication. In fact, if you were to text someone, they used to get super offended and some still even got charged 10c per text.
The world has changed significantly as social media and texting provided consumers with instant gratification through quick and convenient communication. And as text took the front seat, calling now has a much bigger problem attached to it with the high volumes of Robocalls and spam coming through nearly everyone’s telephones. No wonder most people got rid of landlines– the constant ringing became annoying!
This shift in consumers behavior has required businesses to adapt to the needs and schedules of the consumers. While it might seem a little unconventional to text a lead, Verse knows there are still people who would prefer to talk on the phone, which is why we created an omnichannel approach to cater to all kinds of consumers. We start with a text message in the first five minutes, asking them how they would prefer to communicate:
“Hi, this is Alex from Capital Mortgage. I saw you just filled out an inquiry online and had a few questions to ask you about your inquiry. Would you like me to call you or would you prefer to text?”
The consumer is immediately made more comfortable because they now know they can communicate on their own terms and timeline. With 89% of consumers preferring text communication, Verse can capitalize on all of your leads and make sure every one of them gets the buying experience they desire.
