Five Lies From Experts on Lead Follow-Up (and Three Truths)
Five minutes is the ideal timeframe for responding to a lead.
50% of leads go with the vendor that responds first.
30% of your leads will choose one of your competitors if you don’t respond.
The best time to call a lead is between 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
For the best lead response times, contact leads on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Statistics like the above have been around for years. As a matter of fact, a large percentage of these statistics came out in a 2011 Harvard Business Review report. The stats are not very credible 10 years later.
Like many lies, the five points above are intuitively believable. Let’s go through these so-called best practices one-by-one:
1. Five minutes is the ideal timeframe for responding to a lead
False: If you call back within five minutes you are showing more interest than a slower competitor, right? Wrong. Unless you are talking about a relatively low-priced commodity, buyers will be more impressed if you have done some research and know something about them, their company, and the product and/or solution they are selling rather than simply being a first responder.
2. Do you really believe that 50% of leads go with the vendor that responds first?
False: Maybe If they are buying office supplies that will be the case (though I doubt it).
3. And my favorite. 30% of your leads will chose one of your competitors if you don’t respond.
False: What? As funny as it sounds, there is some truth to this. A large percentage of leads generated by marketing are either not followed up by sales or what I call lightly followed up (one voicemail, they don’t respond … so therefore they must not really have been an interested lead).
4 & 5. The best time to call a lead is between 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the best days are Wednesday and Thursday.
False: If you believe these final two “lies” (and many do), you will need to staff up on Wednesday and Thursday between 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. With three time zones in the US that gives you 12 hours of calling per week to reach prospects. Just slide the SDRs in the freezer the other 28 hours per week. No sense in having them call when the conditions are not ideal. Just kidding (not).
Too frequently, leads go into a dark hole called CRM never to see the light of day again. I’d wager that 75% plus of the leads generated for sales are either not followed up or lightly followed up. If you don’t believe me invest in a small test. Follow leads from creation through final disposition and you will find that for the majority of leads marketing generates, there was zero or close to zero follow-up by sales.
Now for the three truths:
You are sending leads to sales that should not be sent.
That is watering down sales responsiveness on all leads they get from marketing. Sending leads to sales that are not ready perpetuates the timeline battle between sales and marketing over lead quality and lead follow-up.
The total addressable universe for your product and/or solutions is likely much smaller than the universe you are marketing to.
Start right now making environment fields mandatory in CRM. It is unforgivable to be selling to a company and not understand their technical environment as it relates to your solution. It is maddening as a consultant to see the poor state databases are in while marketers talk about their stack, intent marketing, and AI. Basics have to be covered first.
Use multi-touch, media and cycle processes to maximize results.
The table in this blog demonstrates how effective nurturing triples the return on your marketing investments.
As Mike Weinberg, consultant, coach, speaker, and bestselling author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers says:
"Despite all the noise and nonsense you read online about sales tools, tech stacks, and toys, the most effective sales effectiveness initiatives are built on the solid foundation of ‘old school’ timeless principles."
Best practices are called that because they’re proven. Use them to maximize your investment in marketing, and to reap from deals from sales.