Whether you are a new or seasoned agent, you understand a lead is not a guaranteed sale, it’s a potential sale. If you want to maximize any lead’s potential, there are specific actions you can take, many of them related to timing. Since every sales process differs, we wanted to identify how agents can apply best lead response management practices into their sales strategy – ultimately increasing their chances of contacting and qualifying new leads.
An article published in the Harvard Business Review called “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” identifies four important considerations for those working with online leads.
Act Now
It’s best to strike when the iron is hot—the sooner you contact the lead, the greater chance you have of making a sale. How soon should you call? Ideally, within the first five minutes after you receive the lead. This gives you the best chance of reaching the prospect while they are engaged.
If that’s not possible, your secondary goal should be within the first 10 minutes. Just be aware that the difference between contacts made on the first dial decreases 10 times in the short period between five and 10 minutes. And after that, contact and qualification rates continue to go down over the next several hours. According to InsideSales.com, you are 100 times more likely to contact a lead and 21 times more likely to qualify (where the lead is willing to enter the sales process) that same lead if you call them within five minutes compared to 30 minutes.
What if you can’t reach out within five minutes?
Consider Time of Day
Your leads still have value, but you will have more success if you are intentional about how and when you work them. Part of the reason the within-five-minutes advice works is you are catching the consumer when they are engaged. Therefore, the consumer is more likely to answer their phone immediately, since they are expecting to be contacted. It won’t be long, though, before they’ll have moved on to another task or activity.
The “Short Life” study found that customers are most likely to be reached on the first dial between 4-5 p.m. on weekdays. It makes sense. This is the hour when many people are wrapping up their work; they are still task-oriented but may feel it’s more acceptable to answer a personal call after working a full day. There is a 164% difference in qualifying rates when calls are made between 4-5 p.m. compared to 1-2 p.m.
Also consider the time of day regarding HOW you reach out to an interested prospect. People shop for insurance at all kinds of weird hours depending on their profession. Sometimes a text at 7 am is better received than a phone call.
The good news for early birds is that the second-best time to reach prospects is right around 8:00am. In this case, they may still be settling into their day’s work, checking email over a cup of coffee.
Consider Day of Week
In addition to calling at particular times of the day, you can also improve your odds of success by calling on specific days of the week. According the Lead Response Management Study, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to call to make initial contact with a lead, with Thursday being 49% better compared to Tuesday.
Wednesday and Thursday are also the best day to call to qualify leads, illustrating Wednesday as the top day to qualify (up 24.9%) compared to calling on a Friday. If you want to contact a qualified lead, the best day to contact is Thursday, showing a 19% increase, compared to trying to make contact on a Friday. Monday is a consistently poor day whether you are calling to make initial contact, qualify, or contact previously qualified leads.
Persistence Pays Off
But what if your lead works graveyards and sleeps all day until 6 p.m.? This is where patience can help you win business. The study found that many sales reps quit trying after two or three attempts to reach a prospect, and more than 30% of leads are never contacted at all.
Thirty percent! That’s a lot of potential sales that aren’t being made by someone with a lead in hand.
In the case of sales leads, persistence really can translate into a payoff. After all, you can only make a sale if you first make contact. In fact, sales representatives who made at least six call attempts in the study reached a 90% contact rate. Compare this to a contact rate of less than 70% for those who only tried three times.
To summarize, the bottom line is that fresh leads are best worked within five minutes. If that’s not possible, try to reach them within 10 minutes, or at 8 a.m. or between 4-5 p.m. If you still have no luck, keep calling, texting, emailing—try Thursdays and Wednesdays first—and vary the time of day that you call. Your diligence in working the lead will ultimately be the best predictor of your success.
“The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” was authored by James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington and may be found here. Read more on the topic of lead management from InsideSales.com here. Read more on the Lead Response Management Study here.
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