The Importance of Lead Response Time

• Sales teams are using more sophisticated methods like call tracking to follow up on leads. Call tracking enables sales teams to know each and every activity performed by prospective prospects so that they can adjust their selling approach and make personalized calls to increase conversion rates. In the past, sales teams used to send out mass mailings to their prospect lists to increase their sales. These days, the need for tangible information has grown along with the competition.

To give you a clearer picture, here is an example. If a prospect just called to make a purchase inquiry, then the salesperson could just return the call and say "Thanks for your inquiry. Will you send me a brochure in five minutes?" Now if this prospect hangs up on the phone, then it becomes a waste of time and money. In addition, if you do not follow up on leads immediately after the sale has been made, you will never know whether the person was satisfied with the product or services that you provided.

To give you a clearer picture, here is an example. If a prospect just called to make a purchase inquiry, then the salesperson could just return the call and say "Thanks for your inquiry. Will you send me a brochure in five minutes?" Now if this prospect hangs up on the phone, then it becomes a waste of time and money. In addition, if you do not follow up on leads immediately after the sale has been made, you will never know whether the person was satisfied with the product or services that you provided.

• With the advent of the Internet and technology, sales teams have realized the importance of knowing how to respond quickly to leads. They track the leads within minutes and follow-up on the same basis as if they were conducting a personal meeting. This enables the sales team to create an appropriate offer and close more deals in a shorter period of time.

• Lead generation has improved significantly over the past few years with advancements in technology, but quality of the leads has not been able to keep up. Many companies are still using outdated methods of lead generation and there is proof to this. Some of the newer methods are taking too long to reach qualified prospects. You want to have a system in place that is effective, yet timely - lead response times.

• Leads should be contacted within the first twenty-four hours of contact if they are trying to buy a product from you. Most companies will tell you that this is too long, but the sales team needs to understand that lead generation is a critical part of the business and they must be able to prioritize their time.

• Many companies are turning to social media marketing as a way to drive qualified leads to their websites. Social media marketing works best when your target market is local, but there are some cases where the targeted audience is not local. The number of prospects that you can generate depends largely on the leads that you generate within your company. To achieve the goal of generating enough leads for your sales team to count hits to your site, you need to understand the traffic that is coming to your website.