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In today’s fast-paced business landscape, every second counts. A recent study reveals that 78% of new business goes to the first company to respond to a lead. This underscores the critical importance of rapid response times in converting inquiries and leads into loyal customers.
The faster you are to a lead or a response, the more likely you are to qualify that lead.
Now, this is not just about the lead, it can also be about an existing client inquiry too.
Sounds logical, sounds obvious, right?
Was this Email Forwarded to You?
Here’s Why Promptness is Paramount
Here are the numbers for you:
Studies show businesses that respond within 5 minutes are 100 times more likely to qualify a lead compared to those who wait 30 minutes
Less than 1% of businesses contact inbound leads within 5 minutes.
Responding within 5 minutes is 21x more effective than 30 minutes later
1 in 5 companies didn’t respond to email altogether.
Leads & Existing Inquiries
You are always looking to drive new business, but you also want to maintain your existing accounts as well.
You should have an account manager (or Program/Project Manager). However, the client might just go to your website, or social media page to inquire on something instead of reaching out to their main POC.
Making sure they get the proper attention quickly, and alerting the Account Manager/Program/Project Manager is needed, but sometimes not everyone…well follows directions. So we all need to be able to pivot as quickly as possible.
If you are a large company with multiple business units across the country, with different reporting structures, how you do make sure that people get to the right person, regardless of where they are?
Let’s make it simple for everyone.
Improve Your Effectiveness in 5 Steps
Your Landing Pages for Interactive Engagement
Make your website as easy to use as possible. Include everything from:
Live chat and chatbots
Demo requests
Booking a call
Popup calls to action
Save Your Team Time with Effective Forms
Generic forms aren’t helping with communication. The right questions help get to the right information. This can be from company size, budget, needs, etc.
Keep it high and tight. Don’t overly exhaust the user at first
Route Your Leads and Inquiries
Is marketing or sales taking in all requests that come in? CRM automation can help properly define where your leads go as long as you set rules and criteria for follow-up
AI is your Friend
Streamline your interactions and sometimes AI can solve a majority of the requests
Have AI setup to handle specific instant support engagements
What the Response Time Targets
Multi-Channel Approach: Your business is readily reachable via phone, email, website chat, and social media
Automated Acknowledgements: Set up instant automated replies acknowledging receipt of inquiries and outlining expected response times
Clearly Defined Roles: Designate a specific team or individual responsible for timely lead follow-up
Prioritization System: Prioritize inquiries based on urgency and potential value
Training & Communication: Your sales team with effective communication skills and clear response templates to ensure consistent and professional interactions
*Check your project bid or existing contract(s). If you are required to respond within a certain time parameter, make sure that you are doing so.
Give it a Test Run
Test this out on your own company, and see how effective you are.
Test your own company across email, phone, web chat, and social media channels (i.e., LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
You know the right person an inquiry is supposed to go to. But see how long it would take for your company to route a fresh lead or inquiry, to the right person.
The customer doesn’t know your internal ways of working, they just need something from you. They reached out, so the sooner the better to get back to them.
It’s a reflection of the overall effectiveness of your company.
Record the different ways you heard back from your company. What was the fastest and most effective? What was the worst and…maybe you never heard back?
Now put yourself in the shoes of a customer (or potential customer).
Bonus – Let Me Run Your Test
Think you’re company will find out it’s you inquiring? Let me run a test run for you (for free!) I’ll reach out across every channel for you so we can where you can improve. Will be tailored to your specific needs.
Reach out to me directly here and I can set up a quick call to discuss in more detail.
Don’t let valuable leads and existing account inquiries slip through the cracks. Implement some of these tactics today and I guarantee more promptness in conversions, leads appreciating you getting back to them quickly, and propelling your business towards unprecedented success.
Remember, in today’s dynamic market, the first-mover advantage is real, and the time to act is now.
That’s all for today. See you next week.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
Build your Sales CRM – Download our free Sales eBook on How Your Sales Team Can Maximize Your CRM Tool. Whether it’s Hubspot, Salesforce, or another CRM tool, make sure you leverage it to your advantage.
Awesome Sales Resources – Transform your sales engagement across Social Selling, CRM, Lead Generation, Enablement, and more.
