Finding #2: Companies Struggle to Establish Fast Initial Contact with Leads

Research shows that 24/7 speed of response to a lead inquiry is critical for improving conversion. 41% of companies feel following up with leads quickly is a challenge, especially given that a significant number of leads come in after regular business hours.

There are three reasons Inside Sales cited why speed-to-lead is so vital:

1. Presence detection – if a lead puts their information in on a website or fills out some sort of online inquiry form, the lead is likely still next to their phone or computer. Contacting a lead immediately provides the best odds by far for getting a lead to engage quickly.
2. Top-of-mind-awareness – this concept of calling or contacting a lead immediately equates to staying on their mind. The average callback time is nearly 48 hours after a lead submits an inquiry — if you can’t outperform that significantly, the consumer will likely have forgotten about your business. (InsideSales.Com)
3. The “Wow” effect – people seem to be impressed rather than concerned when a company follows up within minutes of inquiring! This “wow” factor creates a response from consumers that establishes immediate trust. Prospects likely correlate the promptness of response and assume that their business was prioritized and valued.

The speed-to-lead mission is non-negotiable for sales teams to capitalize on their leads. According to LeadSimple, you’re 21X more likely to convert a lead if you respond within the first 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.

Finding #3: Communication Capabilities Matter

The vast majority of marketing and sales teams are utilizing more manual and time-consuming methods of attempting contact with inbound leads. Over two-thirds of those surveyed say email (37%) and phone calls (36%) are the communication channels used most often to follow up with inbound leads. Only 6% of those surveyed take advantage of text/SMS to follow up with leads.

A Closer Look: Do you use text to follow-up with leads? 89% of consumers prefer to communicate with businesses via SMS. With an opportunity as clearly defined as this, now may be the time to re-examine your communication strategy and ask the question, are phone and email still the best option?

Finding #4: The State of Marketing Automation

Nearly half (44%) of those surveyed have email marketing automation and 39% use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. Interestingly, only 25% of marketing and sales professionals have an automation software specific to lead conversion.

Did you know? There are 8,000+ MarTech solutions and the number continues to grow. There is plenty of technology available but expensive and complex tech stacks aren’t cutting it, especially at the bottom of the funnel. Smart integration between systems is critical to success. For example, software that integrates with any CRM solution, meaning you do not have to invest tons of time and money creating and maintaining additional software for the sake of a contact center. This simple solution is one more step to closing the lead conversion gap.

Bonus Finding: Sequencing Matters

According to 43% of marketing and sales professionals, the first attempt to contact a lead is made by phone call, followed by email for 40%. By the third follow-up attempt, those surveyed begin to utilize text (21%) and live chat (11%) more frequently.

The most common follow-up sequence is: ❶ Phone → ❷ Email → ❸ Phone

Lead Conversion Follow Up Sequence by Channel

While phone calls remain the communication channel of choice, 87% of people don’t answer phone calls from numbers they don’t know. And according to Gartner, SMS/text is much more effective than email – 98% of text messages are read, compared to just 22% of emails.

Final Thoughts

How are you closing the lead conversion gap? Please contact with us and share what is working for you. How are you improving data, sequencing your follow-up, securing and speeding up the first contact, and using technology to optimize the process? Help the community by sharing what works for you.

How would your life benefit if you had a system that consistently delivered leads to you or your sales reps’ every single day?

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