Make more calls. Send more emails. Use LinkedIn more.
Salespeople today are all too familiar with guilt. And often we do need to be kickstarted. Take this tip from a recent post by Colleen Francis:
“The best companies are using an approach that many other companies are not willing to implement. At least six attempts are required before you ever give up on a lead. These attempts should be a combination of making phone calls, emailing, and leveraging LinkedIn … I recommend you send a LinkedIn connection request after your first or second attempt via a phone call or email. By connecting on LinkedIn, you increase the likelihood that your prospect will respond to a later follow up.”
This is great advice. But does the problem of wasted leads really come down to a lack of get-up-and-go from Sales? Is widespread laziness really to blame for 30% of leads not getting follow-up (a stat from InsideSales.com)?
Or is there another factor at play here that causes leads to go un-acknowledged? Research suggests that wasted leads come from a lack of speed in response times, not so much from not enough volume of responses. Follow up faster.
Studies have found that prospects want to be contacted sooner after filling out a form than they typically are. Research has also uncovered that if you contact a lead within 30-60 minutes of them showing interest, you are much more likely to reach them than if you wait 24 hours or more to make contact. Again, follow up faster.
Slow response is what’s killing leads, not volume.
If, on the other hand, sales teams can shorten the speed at which they receive leads and then reach out to the leads—preferably to within an hour—they find their numbers of wasted leads dropping dramatically.
To learn how Consensus helps sales teams follow up faster with leads, click on the orange “Watch Demo” button below.
Read the source article at Engage Selling
