Getting the Best Prospects: Quicker Connect, Quicker Close
The common goal for Sales and Marketing is to identify the best prospects and then connect quickly. A recent MIT study shows that if you can catch someone within 5 minutes after they fill out a web-to-lead form, you are 80% more likely to connect with them. If you wait 30 minutes, that likelihood drops to 10%. Below is a summary of results from a survey by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a study by Dr. James Oldroyd of MIT, on the topic of Lead Response Management.Kellogg Lead Response Management Survey OverviewOver the course of four months, Dr. Oldroyd surveyed hundreds of companies that drive web leads to their web sites. The survey represented a broad distribution of company size (ranging from “under $10 million in annual revenue” to over “$1 billion in annual revenue.”) 22 survey questions focused on identifying WHEN the best time was to efficiently contact web generated leads, and HOW to generate web leads that qualify and close at optimal rates.
Kellogg Lead Response Management Survey Conclusion
1‐ Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact and qualify leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead.
2‐ 4 to 6pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead. 8-9am and 4-5pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead. 4-5pm is the best time to contact a lead to qualify.
3‐ The odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour. The odds of calling to qualify a lead decrease by over 6 times in the 1st hour. After 20 hours every additional dial your salespeople make actually hurts your ability to make contact to qualify a lead.
4‐ The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.
The MIT Study revealed the following:
1‐ Time of day and day of week each have significant impact, with time of day being the greater of the two.
2‐ Immediacy of response far overshadows both time of day and day of week in its effect on contact and qualification ratios.
3‐ Waiting too long and continuing to push for contact unsuccessfully actually hurts your ability to ever make contact and qualify a lead.
1. You Know Where They Are
When a person submits a lead in a web form, you know where they are at that exact moment: they are at their computer desk, probably right near their phone. We call this “presence”.
2. You Contact them at the Highest Point of Interest or Need
People search the Internet because they want things now. Interest and need wane quickly. A few days later they often don’t even remember they submitted a lead.
3. The “Wow Effect”
Our sales representatives often experience the “Wow effect” when our web‐form call back technology contacts a person who submitted a lead in less than 5 minutes. They feel that the sales representative must be really on top of things, and that is the kind of person and company they want servicing their account.
To view the entire article, please visit: http://www.genius.com/lp/response/mitStudy.pdf