‘’Only 2% of sales happen at the first meeting.’’
If this is what you experience, this isn’t normal and since you’ve entered the 2021 environment this can pull down your lead conversion rates. Culprit, decrease Lead Response Time
The most common issue for the above problem to increase is the simple fact that as sales reps, you have taken a much longer time to engage with the leads that have requested your attention, ‘’Only 7% responded in the first five minutes after a form submission. More than half didn’t respond within five business days.’’
You do realize that in 2021 where the online world is the hub for buying and selling and digitalization is going to skyrocket higher, your potential prospects are not going to wait longer to get a response from you.
It is also clear that prospects approaching you is a golden opportunity you cannot miss, ‘’Sales reps can spend up to 40% of their time looking for somebody to call.’’
In such a scenario, would you still miss out on such potential leads?
The ultimate solution is to decrease lead response time and in turn, focus on the real game which is making sales.
Luckily for you, this article will guide you through achieving both.
There are two parts to this article, one which will help you understand how your engagement with leads will be shortened. Another part will guide you on the best solution to increase your sales simultaneously.
Let’s start.
There could be multiple reasons why a decrease in lead response time could take place, we have covered the common reasons for the same.
You are a well-established brand. It is clear that with your social media presence and highly descriptive website, you could have a great number of potential leads coming to your website.
While the traffic increases in such a manner there can be instances where you fail to engage with one or two of those leads.
Let’s understand this better with an example:
Say that Adam has visited your website and is eager to learn more about your brand. He fills in the form so that you can engage with him and waits for an hour which then converts into two to three days. Not finding any response from your end makes Adam move away from your competitors.
On the other side, you would have seen Adam’s name but suddenly the rush in multiple leads, made you forget him for the moment and that carried you away to engage with other leads.
Adam could have been your ultimate lead but receiving leads from multiple sources led you away.
A sales team is the backbone of any brand. Being an inside sales rep, the pressure is high to get more leads, but when the sales team falls back in its skills or lead management practices, it will affect or rather impact the brand in a negative way.
The sales team could have flaws that need better training to improve such as poor communication with leads, not being able to capture leads better, failing to manage multiple leads, and more.
A sales team can only prospect when they have good training and knowledge in what they do.
As stated earlier, the world is going digital and with the years to come, it will continue to evolve and grow for the better. Hence if you haven’t invested in the solutions it offers such as great sales tools that can make an impact in your business, you’re clearly missing out on expected sales opportunities.
When you invest in efficient sales tools, you’re making it easy to engage with your leads.
It is understood by you that leads are going to come your way in bigger numbers hence it is also clear that right now you’re facing the problem of how you can at the least explain to them that you will get back to them.
The simple method is to keep the prospects informed about when they can expect a call from you, sadly this process is also ignored or not conducted.
If you are a brand that does well, getting leads might not be a problem, but the real problem arises when you don’t have enough sales members to cater to those leads. At times we believe that the smaller the team the better leads can be catered but we tend to forget that as a brand grows, so do the lead numbers as well.
This is a reminder that hiring enough and efficient sales members are important as well.
Another reason why there is a failure in not decreasing lead response time is because sales teams are restricting their actions in just one manner.
Let’s understand this with an example:
Say that Paul who is the sales manager understands that leads are coming via multiple sources, what he does every day is going through all such sources and collecting the leads. If Paul sees closely, he can try to use tools that can help him capture the lead information in one place without much effort.
But Paul is used to how the sales are being conducted that he is not going the extra mile to cater to leads quicker.
These reasons are all the minor and major reasons why a decrease in lead response time wasn’t happening for you.
But since for every problem, there is a solution, this applies here as well. We have covered the top ones for you.
Also Read- Top 10 Sales Management Softwares and CRMs Used By Sales Teams
These solutions will help you understand better how to decrease lead response time in a way that is convenient and easy for your sales actions to be conducted.
Lead Response Management conducted a study which was also sponsored by insidesales.com stated, ‘’when B2B sales teams respond to leads in under 5 minutes, their chances of engagement and conversion of leads into pipeline skyrocket.’’
Qualified even shared this information along with the stats to help sales reps like you understand better,
The theory is simple, engage with your potential prospects in 5 minutes or less and watch your sales and lead conversion rates skyrocket better. 5 minutes is the basic waiting time anyone would conduct when wanting to grasp information, anytime longer can result in interest fading away or an angry emotion.
The second important technique you need to conduct to decrease lead response time is keeping your prospects aware of when you will contact them.
It is human nature to get angry for having to wait for long hours to hear just one response but it is also human nature to keep calm when they have been informed that they can expect a call from you in the next 5 to 10 minutes.
By conducting the latter you are saving your prospects time and retaining their attention. You are also ensuring that potential prospects are not walking away from you.
The best ways to do this is the following:
Your prospects need to have the clarity that you have acknowledged them and that you too wish to cater to them to hear them out. When such a message reaches your prospects, a decrease in lead response time takes place.
‘’In 2008, only 12% of businesses used cloud-based CRM – This figure has now increased to 87%!’’
The number kept increasing because CRM is the ultimate solution to successful lead management.
CRM stands for customer relationship management. It is an efficient tool that takes care of your lead actions all in one place.
You don’t require small papers, notes, or even diaries as all your lead information is fed and stored in one place. You can even go on to conduct multiple actions in the CRM with just one click.
Let’s understand this better with an example:
Our solution Limecall offers an inbuilt CRM which can help multiple brands like yours to conduct several efficient sales actions such as:
A CRM is a great solution when it comes to successful brands like yours to manage leads in a hassle-free manner.
Reports are a great way to understand how you’re performing.
If your lead response time is not decreasing it will impact your lead conversion rates which will affect your sales numbers and hence this will be evident in the reports you generate.
Hence it is important that you conduct or make use of tools that can help you understand the right reports so that you can get started on the right route and eliminate any room for mistakes.
For instance, with Limecall, our reporting feature gives you the inputs you require to achieve successful sales actions such as reports on:
‘’80% of marketers report an increase in leads due to automation’’
The simple reason being automation makes the lives of sales reps like you easier.
Let’s understand this better with an example:
You have to engage with cold leads and you are aware that this isn’t easy because each day you need to convince such hard leads to invest in your solution. Now as a sales rep just convincing sich leads isn’t your only job, you do have meetings to conduct, more calls to be done, more follow-ups to be done, and more.
In such cases how can you manage such repetitive work?
Here is when automation helps. With automation, you can let the repetitive tasks such as following up with cold leads take place with you being there. The emails will be sent to the prospects on time and regular follow up will take place.
Imagine this taking place regularly while you conduct your other work, won’t you believe that lead responses are bound to be better?
This is exactly what automation aims to help you in. The process is simpler. If your leads want to engage with you, use automation to schedule quicker meetings and retain their attention for long.
— Mary Clare Novak, Sales Content Writer at G2
This is what conversational marketing is all about.
This is a conversation that almost all of you would have experienced or engaged with. An easier way to engage with leads and reduce the lead response rate as you can see what the leads want is being catered to accordingly.
In the image, the questions are framed as per the prospect’s last response which curates the communication to the point and answers the lead’s questions on point. This is a method that can work in your favour when it comes to decreasing the lead response time.
Also Read : Make Conversational Marketing work for your business: Here’s how?
The last factor here to decrease lead response time is to make the right investment in tools that can help you engage with your prospects better. There are multiple tools that are much more efficient than just making use of form submissions.
Form submissions are great to place on your website and are being used by multiple brands to engage with leads but the question here is it fast enough to communicate with leads?
There are other unique solutions that have the possibility to engage with prospects in a much quicker manner, which is what you need to draw your attention towards.
Also Read- 13 Experts Reveal their Lead Generation Strategies in 2021
Callback solutions are softwares that works just like a form submission but only faster.
They are a great technology miracle and the best suited when it comes to managing and catering leads especially in 2021.
Let’s understand this better with an example of how a callback solution is and should be:
Our solution Limecall specializes in such a unique solution.
To make conversations easy with leads, we offer two types of communication options:
We have designed our callback solution to make lead generation take place efficiently and conveniently for your prospects.
There are multiple features that we offer that plays a role in:
To name a few are:
Investing in a good lead generation platform is exactly why you need to first understand how it works. We also need to understand the achievement it can help you witness. This is exactly what you need to do right now, why don’t you head to Limecall for a quick demo?
Also Read : How Trustworthy Callback Softwares Help Your Business Capture Customers Effectively
‘’Research shows that 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.’’
You now have all the information you require to be that vendor.
Sales in 2021 and the years to come will demand instant attention from your end towards your prospects. This is exactly why this article is curated.
When you believe that you’re falling back in such cases, use this article as a guide to kick start your sales actions.
So tell us, what did you think of this article? Was it helpful? Which information captured your attention?
We would love to hear your opinion, do share with us via your tweets.
, January 8, 2021, LimeCall Team
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