Why is Speed to Lead Crucial for Success?
As we float steadily into the digital world, let’s admit, distractions build up.
Adding up the competitive landscape in business and short attention spans, we end up in an environment where buyers want the highest quality deals, fast and efficient.
This is when speed to lead comes into play.
Understanding Speed to Lead
Let’s assume that you are running a B2B business.
This evidently tells us that your ideal buyers are likely to self-educate themselves about the products or services they need on the Internet, and rather proceed to make a deal online without having to interact with a stranger over the phone or in person.
You might say “That’s great, I like inbound leads, and my product is out there online!”
Well… It’s more than likely that your business’ stunt double, aka your competitor, is proudly saying the same thing.
Don’t get defeated because I am here to help you!
Now… You probably heard that infamous 5-minute lead response time and perhaps it’s been daunting you for awhile, correct?
If your answer is YES, bear with me for a little while as I am ready to throw in some research data!
It is proven that if you fail to engage with a potential buyer within 5-minutes upon brand exposure and unless your product or service is absolutely unique, it is likely that you will lose that prospect.
Remember your stunt double from earlier? They will be well equipped to take on that missed opportunity as they spent much more for advertising, and most importantly, for sales automation.
Another study indicated that contacting a lead within the 20-60 minute range has a 14 percent positive response rate. This, after 24 hours, sinks down to 5 percent. On top of that, the average SDR response time seems to be sitting at 38 hours.
Wait, can it get worse than this?
YES.
Evidently, %55 percent of the companies that joined this study took 5+ days to respond to leads, and %12 didn’t respond at all! A study by Forbes has found that only 27 percent of leads are contacted. Shocking, right?
These statistics not only apply to sales but also how you handle your customer facing operations. Don’t underestimate the power of an excellent customer experience.
Acquiring new customers is one thing, retaining the existing ones another!
Your business is your baby, and adopting an effective sales strategy nurtures this baby. Acknowledging your pain points could save your business before it’s too late.
But, how do you measure the lead response time if you are a newbie in the business or simply don’t have a sophisticated CRM tool for an in-depth analysis? It is fairly straightforward.
Adopting a Speed to Lead Strategy
Be a mystery shopper and request a quote/demo on your own website.
Once you repeat the same process with the help of a few friends and family members, you can investigate how long it took your sales team to respond to your inquiry and come up with an average.
This should give you an overall understanding of where you are sitting at with the lead response time.
The picture may seem alarming, but you got a great opportunity here as you are already looking for ways to recuperate from this.
Acknowledge the issue. Start looking deeper into your processes and ask what could be hindering you.
Is this an operational issue? Is your sales team swamped with administrative tasks? Can they efficiently detect when there is a hot lead? Is there a leadership or training gap? And so on…
Be truthful to yourself, and note down your findings with all its bitterness.
Afterall, this could all boil down to a miscommunication issue.
Make sure your sales team is communicating seamlessly with your marketing team. They shouldn’t be spending hours bridging that gap, but rather focus on what matters most, creating meaningful conversations with your leads.
Let me sprinkle this with a personal touch.
Create an empathetic workplace. Your business not only depends on customers but also the employees that will nurture those leads along the way. There is no door that can’t be opened with empathy, respect and listening!
Revolutionize your approach! By restructuring existing habits, and responsibilities of each team member coupled with the help of a cutting-edge sales automation tool, you will start seeing significant changes in no time.
This brings us to my other point. Persistence, an untapped gold mine.
Keeping the Conversation Going
Let’s now assume that you grabbed the attention of a few hot leads before they go cold by following the playbook of lead response time. Voila!
What happens after is highly dependent on the human touch. To ensure that you do not lose prospects, a careful touch of persistence is necessary.
Don’t get yourself worked up too much about this, always respect boundaries and avoid overwhelming the prospects.
Realizing who you are speaking to is important as this will allow you to add variations to your approach and change your tone.
The key remains in working smart and efficient. You should be making your first contact with the lead with a call or email (depending on your processes) within the first minutes of brand exposure.
You may be spending thousands of dollars on PR and marketing, and gladly have a stream of inbound leads you can work with, but those mean nothing if you can’t turn them into customers.
Prioritize your speed to lead & nurturing strategies.
After this point, make sure to follow up with your prospects every few days and provide them solid reasons to engage in a conversation with you. No one likes receiving automated robotic emails.
Tailor and personalize your threads. See The Importance of Personalization in B2B Today, if you are interested knowing more about this.
Choosing a Sales Automation Tool
I may have unintentionally painted a grim picture here.
Let’s pause for a moment and acknowledge that you are already getting ahead of your game by continuing to read.
The good thing is that you don’t have to do all these tasks manually. There are hundreds of tools out there for you to automate a significant portion of prospecting and lead engagement.
Find a technology that suits your budget and operational processes, and a team that understands your pain, hence, works tirelessly to alleviate that. See our article on how Sales Automation tools impact businesses.
At the end of the day, good timing is the key to create a smooth customer journey that will facilitate higher chances of conversion and long-lasting relationships.
Let me show you an example of enforcing speed to lead.
Imagine that a lead fills out a form on your site to request a product demo. The enrichment criteria and information requested from your leads may vary based on how you set up your landing page.
We made this very simple and straightforward at Ubico.
Once the lead submits the form, their profile will automatically be enriched with demographic and company information, including standard work-related data fields of interest to most B2B organizations.
Afterwards, your inbound lead is redirected to your personal or team calendar that you set up, which looks like this:
This is what your business needs, a product demo booked with a hot, interested lead.
Especially, if you have a dedicated budget to bring these inbound leads through marketing and PR, never miss a single opportunity to bad timing.
Final Words of Wisdom
Friends, you made it through!
I already know that you have the right attitude and ambition to skyrocket your business, so do not wait on asking for help.
Always do your research and request a product walk-through. This way, you can test the waters and see if the platform is a good fit for your business needs!
Now, I have the irresistible urge to cross-reference our platform here.
Ubico will not only bring you the speed to lead with your inbound leads but it also enables smart prospecting, setting up outbound/inbound workflows, and engaging with new prospects seamlessly.
We can collectively work towards actualizing your goals.
Bottom line: the more efficient and sustainable your sales processes become, you will drive conversions, save money, and win high-quality customers in no time.
