Harvard Business Review - Leadresponsemgmt Study.pdf

BEST PRACTICES

FOR LEAD RESPONSE MANAGEMENT BASED ON THE RESEARCH OF

As Published in

JAMES OLDROYD, PHD, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY & DAVE ELKINGTON, CEO, INSIDESALES.COM

YEAR

1

2

3

ACROSS MANY COMPANIES THAT RESPONDED TO WEB-GENERATED LEADS

WE EXAMINED THREE YEARS OF DATA

FROM OVER 15,000 UNIQUE LEADS

AND OVER 100,000 CALL ATTEMPTS

WE FOCUSED ON 1 QUESTION FOR THE BEST RESULTS, HOW SHOULD COMPANIES RESPOND TO THEIR LEADS?

THE MISSION: 1. MAXIMIZE RESULTS 2. MINIMIZE EFFORT Many of the results in this study are based on first call attempts, indicating how to get the job done right the first time.

BEST DAYS TO MAKE CALLS TUESDAY vs. THURSDAY BEST DAYS TO MAKE CONTACT

CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS

2.5k

2.0k

MONDAY

DIFFERENCE TUESDAY 1.5k WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

1.0k

FRIDAY 0.5k

According to similar graphs, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to qualify* leads. * QUALIFICATION - the stage in the lead nurturing processwhere the lead is willing to enter the sales process.

TUESDAY

THURSDAY

BEST TIMES TO MAKE CONTACT CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS

3000

QUALIFYING RATES

7:00

EARLY AFTERNOON vs. LATE AFTERNOON

7:00

BEST TIME TO CALL

2ND BEST TIME TO CALL

7:00 2500

7:00

2000

DIFFERENCE

7:00

1500

1000

7:00 7:00

500

1 - 2 PM

8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

1:00

2:00

3:00

4:00

5:00

6:00

According to similar graphs, between 4pm and 5pm is the best time to qualify leads.

4 - 5 PM

RESPONSE TIME GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT!

CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS 10,000

BEST TIME TO RESPOND: WITHIN 5 MINUTES

RESPONSE TIME:

The moment an interested lead completes a web form until a sales representative contacts them.

8,000

10x

6,000

SUBMIT

DECREASE AFTER FIRST 5 MINUTES

4,000

10 MINUTES vs. 5 MINUTES 10,000

2,000

8000

6000

INCREASE IN

0 5 min 10 min RESPONSE TIME

15 min

20 min

25 min

CONTACT RATES

4000

30 min

2000

According to similar graphs, contact and qualification rates also drop dramatically over a span of hours.

10 MINUTES

5 MINUTES

PERSISTENCE

CHANCE OF MAKING CONTACT

AVERAGE CALL ATTEMPTS BY REPS

90%

100%

40%

80% 6th CALL 4th CALL

1 CALL

5th CALL

60%

20%

2nd CALL

40%

PERCENTAGE OF REPS

3rd CALL

CHANCE

MOST REPS GIVE UP ON LEADS TOO SOON

30%

ALWAYS MAKE AT LEAST 6 CALL ATTEMPTS

1 CALL st

20%

2 CALLS 10%

4 CALLS 5 CALLS 6 CALLS 3 CALLS

0

Over 30% of leads are never contacted at all. By just making a few more call attempts, reps will experience 70% more contacts!

RESPONSE AUDIT As part of their ResponseAudit™ service, InsideSales.com has used fictitious leads to fill out web forms for thousands of companies in order to assess response time and quality. Here are some startling trends.

RESPONSEAUDIT™ 2016 A study of 4,723 leads from InsideSales.com shows that companies are slow to respond to leads and are not persistent in following up.

77.17% THE MOST COMMON METHOD FOR FIRST RESPONSE WAS EMAIL

ONLY 28.6% OF LEADS WERE FIRST RESPONDED TO BY PHONE -EVEN THOUGH CALLS HAVE HIGHER RESPONSE RATES AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO TURN INTO A SALE.

OF ALL OF THE LEADS THAT WERE SUBMITTED, 77.17% NEVER RECEIVED A PHONE CALL.

IMMEDIACY IN RESPONSE

AVERAGE PHONE RESPONSE TIME

44 hours 28.4% of first email responses were auto-responses, often with no call-to-action.

OPTIMAL PHONE RESPONSE TIME

5 minutes HOURS

20

10

30

40

50

Only 4.7% of companies achieved the optimal 5-minute window.

PERSISTENCY OF LEAD RESPONSE

AVERAGE PERSISTENCY

4.47 touches 50.0%

RECOMMENDED PERSISTENCY

12 touches 50% of leads were not responded to at all.

TOUCHES

02

04

06

08

10

12

Only 9.4% of leads received the recommended 12 touches.

SOURCES: Response Audit, 2016, InsideSales.com Harvard Business Review, Lead Response Management Best Practices