Category: Lead Response
Never Making Contact is a Bad Lead Response Strategy
As shocking as it seems, too many companies ruin their marketing campaign with a lackluster response to leads. Imagine spending time and money—often a great deal of it—to create the ideal promotional piece and form the perfect delivery strategy only to fumble on the one-yard line.
“Much of that creative effort falls far short, producing only a fraction of the sales it could have generated with a timely, professional lead-response protocol,” says Adam Berkson, president of LiveVoice, an omnichannel 24/7 customer support company, which has made a name for itself with its lightning-fast lead response service. Even worse is leads squandered due to no response whatsoever. “There’s no excuse for not even trying to contact a prospect, but it happens too often.”
Consider these three findings, which we’ll label as epic fails:
INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE
According to the Harvard Business Review, a stunning 23 percent of the companies studied never responded to their leads at all. “That’s almost one quarter of companies that completely drop the ball,” Berkson says. This isn’t the fault of one negligent salesperson or a careless sales manager but the result of a corporate-wide failure, a culture of not caring. “Not contacting leads at all is even worse than waiting too long. If you never call, your close rate will be zero.”
SALESPERSON FAILURE
Another analysis, this one reported by Insidesales.com, discovered that half (50 percent) of internet leads are never followed up on. This implicates individual sales reps. “Though the failure to follow up could be systemic, it’s more likely caused by rogue salespeople who make a deliberate decision to simply not follow up on leads,” says Mike Novak, chief technology officer at TeleServices Direct, a worldwide provider of outsource call center services. Though the reasons for this significant shortcoming weren’t studied, possible explanations include: being too busy, holding the assumption that the leads won’t convert, having enough prospects from other sources, and not caring.
SECOND CHANCE FAILURE
In comparison to these dismal findings, Hubspot reports a marginally better result, albeit still completely unacceptable. They found that 48 percent of leads never get a second call if they aren’t reached on the first attempt. “This means half of all salespeople cease future contact efforts if they don’t connect on their first call,” says Berkson, whose lead response specialists have found success even after as many as a dozen contact attempts. “Giving up after one call is like a football team punting on second down. The team would receive a well-deserved boo—and so should salespeople who give up after one call attempt.
For marketing teams not receiving the expected RIO (return on investment) from their marketing campaigns, the fault may not be with the creative or the execution but in poor follow-up from sales. To bypass this weak link, marketing can outsource the follow-up function to a lead response service. A professional lead response operation will contact every lead and they won’t give up too soon. Lead response is what they do, and they’ll give it the 100 percent it deserves.
LiveVoice understands how important every call is to your business. Contact them about customizing their flexible, premium phone support service so you can turn opportunity into profit.
Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a freelance writer, call center authority, and publisher of Connections Magazine, which covers the call center industry.