Speed is Key When Converting Leads

Lead response time can make or break your business. That’s a fact!

Lead response time is the amount of time you or your sales team takes to follow up on a lead that has contacted your business. Various studies prove that immediate or close to immediate response time is the primary contributing factor to your business’ success.

Don’t believe me? Believe the data, as data does not lie.

What does the data tell us?

Leads convert 22 times more when you contact them within the first five minutes of their query submission, according to an MIT study.

(Leads Convert 22 times more when contacted in 5 minutes or less)

An interesting stat out of Harvard Business Review (HBR) purports that companies that respond to their leads within an hour of receiving leads are 7 times more likely to earn significant conversions.

(1-hour response time equals 7X conversion rate)

Businesses can easily boost their sales by 20% just by focusing on speeding up their lead response time and conversion rate.

(Fast lead response rate = 20% increases sales)

By moving your lead response time from 6 days to 1 day, your close rates may rise from 3.2% to 7.5%.

(1-day response rate = 3.2% to 7.5% increased close rate)

As you see, just a slight improvement in your lead response rate can give you a massive boost to sales.

But, the dilemma is even after knowing the importance of speed and timeliness for lead handling, only 27% of leads ever get contacted.

(Only 27% of leads ever get contacted)

An HBR’s study and article “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” surveyed 2,241 U.S. companies and revealed that:

• 37% responded within an hour
• 16% answered within 1-24 hours
• 24% took more than 24 hours
• 23% never responded at all

That’s disturbing, because…

78% of Customers Buy From the First Responder. So, if you’re not the first responder, you are simply losing a potential customer to your competitors. Businesses with the same minute or one minute response time are enjoying a 391% increase in their sales conversions. Yes, such companies exist.

On top of that, response time longer than 5 minutes equals an 80% decrease in lead conversion.

So, how can you let even a single lead sit for an entire week, or even an hour, or worse, slip away entirely?

Quick takeaway – Strive for instantaneous response time!

By combining awareness, best practices and technology, companies can reach out to 92% of leads, boost their sales by 314%. That’s huge!

Just stay active, and respond quickly and continuously to make money from your leads.

Best time to contact your leads

Wednesday and Thursdays are the best, and Tuesdays are the worst days to contact and qualify your leads. Moreover, 4-6 pm is the best time to reach the lead, between 8-9 am and 4-5 pm to qualify it.

Bets Day – Wednesday and Thursdays

Worst Day – Tuesdays

Best Time – 4-6 pm, 8-9 am and 4-5 pm

But, your prospective clients can call you anytime. So, you should put emphasis on the time between obtaining the lead and following up, even if it’s a Tuesday.

The sooner, the better!

Businesses that contact their leads within an hour are 21 times more likely to qualify the lead than those who were contacted after an hour or longer.

Even if your business is doing well, but taking leads for granted, you’re losing up to 95% of your sales opportunities and pouring millions of dollars down the drain. Just a little attention to your leads and your sales will skyrocket.

(Poor response rate means you’re losing 95% of sales)

Every sales lead is a scratch-off lottery ticket; you should treat it the same way!