Have you been receiving more leads than you can handle? For starters, this is a great sign that your marketing strategy is paying off. However, without proper lead response management, turning these leads into sales and seeing a return on your investment becomes challenging.
Leads are potential customers that require encouragement to make a purchase and are typically generated when consumers use contact forms, phone calls and emails to get in touch with your business.
Leads are potential customers who show interest in your business by getting in touch through contact forms, phone calls, or emails, and often need encouragement from your sales team to complete a purchase.
While managing leads can be overwhelming, learning the best practices for response management can set you on the path to making as many sales as possible!
Identifying Qualified Leads
Distinguishing between leads who show inadequate interest for your company and leads who are ready to make a purchase is the first step to prioritising those that are worth your time and effort and creating an effective lead response management system.
Unqualified Leads: These leads make contact after first discovering your brand and are likely to be researching competitors before deciding who to pursue. Typically, they show inadequate interest in making a purchase.
Marketing-Qualified Leads: Leads who are aware of your brand and have shown engagement, but have yet to make a purchase, are more likely to move through the sales process and warrant higher priority than unqualified leads.
Sales-Qualified Leads: Leads who have previously made a purchase from your business often return after a good experience and are likely to make another purchase. These leads should be given priority.
When to Follow up on Your Leads
When it comes to business, time is money – prioritising qualified leads is a grounding step, but the time frame of your outreach can be the determining factor of your sale.
Getting in contact with leads isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. Consumers’ unavailability and avoidance of calls during work hours can interfere with your efforts to reach their end of the line.
The Harvard Business Review’s study into best practices for lead response management summarises data into an infographic. Here are the main insights:
- Best days to contact leads: Thursdays and Fridays.
- Best times to contact leads: between 4:00-5:00 pm and 8:00-9:00 am, typically outside of work hours.
- Best period to contact leads: Within the first 5 minutes of initial contact – the chances of them replying after the first 5 minutes decreases by 400%.
- Number of calls made to leads: Sales reps are unlikely to contact their leads again after one failed call attempt. However, the chances of a lead answering a call increase by 90% after 6 call attempts.
Combining these insights, it’s imperative to ensure at least 6 call attempts within the suggested response times to maximise your chances for making a sale.
Tracking Your Leads
The work doesn’t stop there – tracking each step in converting leads allows you to evaluate what did and didn’t work, making improvements to your lead response system where there’s room for them.
Tracking is typically automated in CRM (customer relationship management) systems, most of which generate reports that provide primary metrics. You also have the option to generate more complex reports and track particular metrics that are important to your business operations.
From initial contact to conversion, data on how leads engage with businesses is captured, such as website visits, email opens and content downloads.
Similarly, a LMS (lead management system) uses software that integrates AI-powered lead scoring, qualifying leads based on their product interest, demographics and buyer journey.
These efficient tools make time and lead response management an easier process, allowing businesses to prioritise sales-qualified leads and develop their sales and marketing strategies.
How can we Help?
Site Clicks is a digital marketing agency with a passion for boosting the online presence of businesses and optimising their system operations. We are driven by a personalised approach that aligns with organisation objectives for a strategy that is guaranteed to show results.
Our CRM software management systems guide businesses through their digital transformation journey by enhancing their lead response systems for agility, resilience and ability to adapt to the future.
