When your company gets a sales lead, how soon does your sales team make a first attempt to contact? Within 24 hours? Okay. Within eight hours? Better. Within one hour? Fantastic … right?
A survey conducted by Professor James B. Oldroyd, from MIT, in conjunction with lead management company InsideSales.com found that the chances of qualifying a lead were 21 times better if the lead was called within 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes. I’d say that’s a valuable 25 minutes!
The study also found that the odds of simply making contact with that lead were 100 times better within 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes.
While it might not be practical (or even possible) to contact every lead within 5 minutes of receipt, the survey results clearly show that sales effectiveness drops off precipitously as the clock ticks away.
So, what to do? You should at least commit to shortened response times. Figure out how quickly your sales team is following up on leads. Then, set goals to shorten this timeframe. The closer they can get to the 5-minute mark, the more likely they are to make contact, qualify and eventually convert that lead to a sale.
Paul Salotto
Publisher
ElectronicsCooling Business Bulletin
psalotto@electronics-cooling.com
