When it comes to a company’s sales engine, leads are like gasoline: they are the fuel that keeps the entire machine running.
Of course, with sales, it gets a bit more complicated. It’s not enough to just pour fuel into the tank. You have to have a spark, a catalyst, to turn the fuel into power – and turn the leads into actual sales.
According to one landmark study conducted just a few years ago, there is one major thing companies simply aren’t doing with their leads that could dramatically increase their chances of getting new business.
Converting Leads Means Responding to Them Quickly
According to the study, most companies simply do not respond quickly or persistently enough to generated sales leads.
Their research shows that a company’s chances of getting in contact with a lead are 100 times higher if the company responds within five minutes versus 30 minutes. After the first hour, your chances of talking to someone drop by 10 times; your chances of qualifying that lead drop by six times.
And yet, the average response time to a fresh new sales lead was only 42 hours by phone and 19 hours by email.
Even more startlingly, over half – 51.4 percent – of all companies never responded to a lead.
Clearly, the data shows that contacting a decision-maker from a sales lead, qualifying the lead, and then moving forward with converting a lead to a sale has a much higher chance of success if the response is prompt.
How You Can Take Advantage
Part of being able to respond so quickly and confidently to a sales lead after someone downloads a white paper, clicks on a link, fills out a form, or places a phone call is what the Boy Scouts preach: be prepared.
Having your collateral all in one place, easily accessible, and ready to go at a moment’s notice is a terrific way to augment your conversion process. After quickly making contact with a phone call or email, you can follow up immediately with supporting collateral that your lead will need to make a decision – a decision that hopefully will be in your favor.
Learn more about how web-to-print systems can help you with your sales leads – and commit to being prompt with every lead that comes your way.