2. A Familiar Story?
“Imagine walking into Nordstrom's to look at shoes, only to be shoved
out the door, and told you‟ll be contacted in 24 to 48 hours”
“Now, imagine this happens to all Nordstrom's customers, 50% of
whom will NEVER be contacted”
Prospects have filled your online web-form and shown similar intent
How are YOU treating your online leads?
3. “Lead conversion is determined
57% by lead quality, and 43% by
sales process”
- Leads360 Research
So, you‟ve got a great lead-gen program generating quality leads
Is your sales process ready?
4. BEST PRACTICE # 1
IT‟S ALL ABOUT SPEED
Lead Response Management
Strategy and tactics for your sales process to scale conversions
5. Best Practice # 1
• Attempt to contact the lead right away
– Measure your response time in minutes and seconds, not hours
or days
• Integrate real-time lead-gen within your CRM system
– Get notified instantly when a lead is captured
– Instant visibility within your call center will ensure your inside
sales team can act on it within 5 minutes
• Appoint an „off-hours‟ lead owner
– If a lead arrives off-hours, you probably cannot call up right
away
– Immediately acknowledge the lead with a personalized email.
Let them know you‟ll call first thing during business hours. But
acknowledge within 5 minutes
– Enable SMS alerts as a backup to your email alerts. If you are
like most, you will respond to an SMS faster than to an email!
Odds of contacting
a lead increase by
100x if attempted
within 5 min v/s 30
min
Odds of converting
a lead increase by
21x if attempted
within 5 minv/s 30
min
Contact your leads immediately. First-
attempt-to-contact should be within 5
minutes
The SmartTargeting
system integrates
with leading CRM
systems like
SalesForce, Sugar
CRM, Marketo, and
Leads360
6. Effectiveness of Lead Response Times
• MIT/Kellogstudy conducted in 2007 to answer this very question
• Based on lead response data of 24 B2C and 14 B2B remote sales companies
• 1,060,913 B2C and 126,695 B2B observations, totaling N = 1,187,608, over a
12 month period
“How does lead response time affect ability to
contact, and convert an online lead?”
7. Contact/Qualify by Response Time (Minutes)
• Odds of contacting a
lead increase by 100x if
attempted within 5 min
v/s 30 min
• Odds of converting a
lead increase by 21x if
attempted within 5 minv/s
30 min
Response times to new sales leads should be measured in
minutes and seconds, not hours or days
- 2007 MIT/Kellog Study
8. Response Time and Conversion
Why is response time highly correlated with contact and lead
conversion?
• You Know Where They Are
– At their computer desk, probably right near their phone!
– If you call them immediately, they answer. If you wait, they move on to something else,
often away from their phone
• You Contact them at the Highest Point of Interest or Need
– People search the Internet because they want things now. Interest and need wane quickly.
– A few days later they often don‟t even remember they submitted a lead.
– Immediacy of response hits the respondent at their highest point of interest or need
• The “Wow Effect”
– The first impression of “Wow, that was fast! That‟s impressive.”First impressions continue to
have a strong influence on trust and relationships
– Customers feel that the sales representative must be really on top of things, and that is the
kind of person and company they want servicing their account
9. Food For Thought
• “How significant is a 100x increase in
contact ratios on the value of those leads?”
• “How much effect would a 21x increase in
qualification have on the overall sales
revenue of your company?”
Your lead-gen program has generated 500 leads
Leads will convert. The only question is – with whom.
Don‟t let your marketing $$ line your competitor‟s coffers
There is NO excuse. Implement the „5 min rule‟
10. BEST PRACTICE # 2
BE PERSISTENT IN FOLLOW-UP
Lead Response Management
Strategy and tactics for your sales process to scale conversions
11. Best Practice # 2
• Establish a disciplined phone follow-up schedule
– The reality is, you will never be able to contact all leads
in 5 minutes
– On average, it takes 7 dials before a successful connect
– Define a schedule over 2 weeks, with a plan to dial at
least 7 times
• Time of day, and day of week matter
– Ensure your calling schedule aligns with the best time of
day, and best days of the week
– Both have significant impact, with time of day having
greater impact of the two
• Place leads in a nurture flow after 7 attempts
– Do not discard leads, but nurture them for at least 6
months
Time of Day
Contact
Besttime: 4-6 PM
Worsttime: 11AM - 12PM
Qualify
Besttime: 8-9 AM, 4-5 PM
Worsttime: 1-2 PM
Follow-up at least 7 times before
giving up on contacting that lead
Day of Week
Bestdays - Wednesday
and Thursday
Worstday - Tuesday
An agent has a 95%
chance of making
contact after 7
attempts
12. Sample Follow-up Schedule
CONTACT WEEK 1 WEEK 2
M Tu W Th F M Tu W Th F
8.00 AM
9.00 AM
Ph Ph
4.00 PM
5.00 PM
Ph Ph
5.00 PM
6.00 PM
@ Ph Ph Ph
QUALIFY WEEK 1 WEEK 2
M Tu W Th F M Tu W Th F
8.00 AM
9.00 AM
Ph Ph Ph Ph
4.00 PM
5.00 PM
@ Ph Ph
7 follow-up attempts
Focus on Wed, Th, Fri,
alternating between
best time slots
13. Contact/Qualify by Time of Day
• Contact
– Besttime: 4-6 PM
– Worsttime: 11AM - 12PM
• Qualify
– Besttime: 8-9 AM, 4-5 PM
– Worsttime: 1-2 PM
A rep has a 164% better chance qualifying a lead at the best time, over the
worst
A rep has a 114% greater chance of making contact at the best time, over
the worst
- 2007 MIT/Kellog Study
14. Contact/Qualify by Day of the Week
• Bestdays - Wednesday and
Thursday
• Worstday - Tuesday
• Fridayis great for contacting,
but worstfor
qualifying/converting
You are 50% more likely to contact and qualify on Wednesday
(best) than on Tuesday (worst)
- 2007 MIT/Kellog Study
15. Don‟t Give Up too Early
For contactable
leads, an agent has
a 95% chance of
making contact after
7 attempts, v/s only
39% on the first
attempt
-- Leads360 Research
Diminishing returns after 7th attempt-to-contact
16. BEST PRACTICE # 3
TRACK TO A FAULT
Lead Response Management
Strategy and tactics for your sales process to scale conversions
17. Best Practice #3
• Tracking: Thoroughly track contact
attempts, or you won't know how long it's
taking to make the first one
– If you don't know your average speed, be
sure it's not within 5 minutes
• Discipline: Diligently monitor and manage
against key metrics
– Hold your sales people accountable if they
don‟t track against the 5 min rule
– Build a trend line for each key metric and
track daily
Track thoroughly. You can‟t improve
what you don‟t measure
Key metrics
• speed-to-first-
contact attempt
• speed-to-contact
• number of
contact attempts
• speed-to-qualify
18. Tracking Tips – Key Metrics
• Speed-to-first-contact-attempt V/S
contact ratio
• Speed-to-first-contact-attempt V/S
conversion ratio
• Speed-to-contact V/S conversion
ratio
• Speed-to-conversion V/s conversion
ratio
Build a trend line for each metric and chart against
contact and conversion ratios
As key-metrics trend lower, you should see improvements in
contact and conversion ratios
Key charts
• How many leads you receive each
week?
• How long it takes you to respond to
each lead?
• What percentage of your inbound
leads are converted into qualified
prospects?
• What percentage of your inbound
leads are converted into customers?
Do you know
19. Tracking Tips – Useful Funnel States
States Meaning
New New lead has arrived
Contact Attempt 1 1st attempt made
Contact Attempt 2 2nd attempt made
Contact Attempt 3 3rd attempt made
Contact Attempt 4 4th attempt made
Contact Attempt 5 5th attempt made
Contact Attempt 6 6th attempt made
Contact Attempt 7 7th attempt made
Nurture Couldn‟t make contact, added to nurture flow
Contacted – Requested Callback Contacted the customer, has scheduled a callback
Qualified-Appointment Set Qualified lead - Appointment set
Qualified-Appointment Confirmed Qualified lead- Appointment confirmed for next day
Qualified-Appointment Cancelled Qualified lead - Appointment canceled
Closed-Sold Successful close
Closed-Disqualified Disqualified (define reason codes)
Closed-Not Interested Not viable – Explicitly stated no interest
Closed-Do Not Call Not viable – Requested to never be called
Closed-Other Not viable – For various reasons (define reason codes)
Closed-Canceled Not viable - Canceled before system could be installed
The following state definitions are a great starting point to improve tracking and
reporting within you sales funnel
20. BEST PRACTICE # 4
NURTURE, NURTURE, NURTURE!
Lead Response Management
Strategy and tactics for your sales process to scale conversions
21. Best Practice # 4
What it is
• Lead nurturing is about communicating with your
prospects to build relationshipsand trustin a way that
is both consistentand relevant
What it is not
• Sending out an e-newsletter on a semi-regular basis
• Randomly calling leads every six weeks to see if they
are ready to buy
• Blasting your entire database with a new case study
• Offering content that promotes your company‟s
products and services and does not take into account
your prospects‟ interests or needs at their stage of
buying
Up to 95% of
qualified prospects
on your web site may
not be ready yet to
talk with a sales rep,
but as many as 70%
of them will
eventually buy a
product from you -
or your competitors
--Lead Gen for the
Complex Sale
Most new leads are not yet ready to buy. Make
sure you‟re there when they are
22. Nurture Tips
• Nurture all leads who visit your website
• Your nurture plan should touch the lead multiple times over the
duration of the buying cycle
• Email can be your primary nurture media, but don‟t just rely on email
and phone
• Use multiple media including online advertising, postcards, etc.
• Be sensitive to your prospect‟s schedule and attention span
• Make your content easy to digest
• Make content valuable, not self-promotional
• Put your audience‟s interests ahead of your own
• Use sales and marketing emails as a chance to get personal -- not
pushy
– You can use HTML emails to nurture leads
– Follow up corporate emails should be more personal, such as text-only emails
from an actual sales rep
23. Nurture Tips – Content Development
• Content that someone finds relevant changes as they
move through the process
• Classify leads as Cold, Warm and Hot, depending on
where they are in the buying cycle
• Define content based on this classification
• COLD (not yet ready): Use educational pieces & best
practices during the early awareness
• WARM (considering): Use industry-oriented pieces
(trends & reports, guides, etc.) as prospects start looking
for a solution
• HOT (in-market): Use solution-oriented and company-
focused materials for those in an active buying cycle
24. Nurture Tips - Timing
• Get the frequency of communication right
• As a general guideline, contacting prospects more than once a week is
too much and less than once a month is not enough
Day 1- Follow-up with introductory email
Day 10 - Email offering new content related to first web site activity
Day 15 - Personal email from sales rep
Day 30 - Email best practices whitepaper, augment with a postcard offer
Day 45 - Call from sales rep to „check in‟
Day 60 - Email promoting webinar series, augment with a postcard offer
Day 75 - Personal email from sales rep offering a product/service demo
Day 85 - Call from sales rep to schedule in-person meeting
Day 90 – Successful close
Day 1 to 90 - Targeted online advertising for the entire duration
Example: A lead nurture plan for a 3 month buying cycle may look like this:
25. The Cost of Poor Nurture
Bottom-line: Nurture is crucial to increasing
conversion
918% ROI with a
nurture plan in
place, v/s 270%
without lead nurture
-- Leads360 Research
26. BEST PRACTICE # 5
NO LEAD LEFT BEHIND
Lead Response Management
Strategy and tactics for your sales process to scale conversions
27. Best Practice # 5
• Leads generated through a predictive marketing
system inherently are early in the buying process
• Through advanced algorithms, they have been
identified as having a high propensity to buy – they
are extremely high quality
– Give these leads a higher lead score, relative to other
leads in the same class
• Use field sales to build a relationship with these
targets to gain mind-share before your competitors
– You have a significant advantage over your competition
-- you have identified leads they don‟t yet know exist
– Drive home the advantage
Don‟t ignore a predictive lead
because it doesn‟t „look‟ in-market
Predictive marketing
A combination of
statistics, advanced
math, and big data to
identify targets with a
high propensity to buy
your product
Leads generated via
SmartTargetinghave a
200%-300% higher
probability to buy in
the next 6-12 months
v/s leads generated
from standard lead
gen programs
28. Predictive Target Follow-up Tips
SmartTargeting lead capture flow generates 5 types of inbound leads
• Predicted target – in top 20%, all with addresses
• Web
– Target has shown intent, provided address (no phone/email)
– Target has shown intent, provided phone/email
– Target has shown intent, provided phone/email, and requested a consult (in-market)
• Direct Dial
– Target calls hotline without coming to the site – direct dial to call center
Type Nurture Category Customer Actions
Predicted Target Cold Canvass via door hangers, collateral drop-off
No Phone/Email Luke-warm Canvass via door hangers, collateral drop-off
Phone/Email Warm Real-time call center response
Canvass via door hangers, collateral drop-off
Personal email from sales rep
Start nurture flow
Direct Dial Hot Ensure call center pick-up
Request Consult Hot Real-time call center response
Canvass via door hangers, collateral drop-off
Personal email from sales rep
30. You‟re Not Alone!
• 55.3% of the 159 companies never
responded
• Of companies that responded:
– 40.4 hour average to initial response time!
– Only 2.6average response attempts
• Of companies that responded by phone:
– 65.4 hour average initial phone response
time
– 31.0% responded by phone within 24 hours
– Only 1.4% responded by phone within 5
minutes!
• Of companies that responded by email:
– 40.1% responded by email within 24 hours
– Only 2.8% responded by email within 5
minutes!
AA-ISP Response Audit (Jun „11) - 55.3% of the 159 companies never
responded to leads
31. BOTTOM-LINE
“Lead conversion is determined
57% by lead quality, and 43% by
sales process”
- Leads360 Research
You‟ve got a great lead-gen program generating quality leads.
Ensure your sales process is ready!
32. Best Practices Summary
1. IT‟S ALL ABOUT SPEED
– Contact your leads immediately. First-attempt-to-contact should be
within 5 minutes
2. BE PERSISTENT IN FOLLOW-UP
– Follow-up at least 7 times before giving up on contacting that lead
3. TRACK TO A FAULT
– Track thoroughly. You can‟t improve what you don‟t measure
4. NURTURE, NURTURE, NURTURE!
– Most new leads are not yet ready to buy. Make sure to be there when
they are
5. NO LEAD LEFT BEHIND
– Don‟t ignore a predictive lead because it doesn‟t „look‟ in-market
34. Sales Process Checklist
• I have lead-source integration with my CRM
system
• My call center team gets notified as soon as a
lead is captured
• Someone in my team is responsible for sales
process tracking and monitoring
– ____________ manages my lead response process
• Someone responds immediately when a lead
comes in after-hours
– ____________ manages my off-hours lead response
• I get SMS notifications for all leads as a backup to
email
35. Sales Process Checklist
• I respond to every lead immediately
– My response time is within __
• I have a disciplined follow up process
– Average # follow up calls is ___
• I track my leads diligently
– How many leads do you receive each week ____
– How long does it takes you to respond to each lead ____
– % of your leads converted into qualified prospects ____
– % of your leads converted into customers ____
• I track first-attempt-to-contact
– My avg. FATC is ___
– My avg. FATC-to-contact ratio is ___
– My avg. FATC-to-qualify ratio is ___
36. Sales Process Checklist
• I have a nurture process
– My product‟s buy cycle is ___ months
– Average # emails sent per lead ___
• My nurture process is more than a monthly
email
• I classify my leads based on where they are in
the buying cycle
• My nurture content is unique to each
classification
• I rate my predictive leads higher than other
leads
• I canvass my predictive leads when I don‟t have
an email/phone
37. Research and References
• The Short Life of Online Sales Leads
– James Oldroyd, Harvard Business Review, Mar 2011
• How Much Time Do You Have Before Web‐Generated Leads Go Cold
– MarketingSherpa’s Business‐to‐Business Demand Generation 4th Annual Summit 2007
• Multimedia Response Study
– David Elkington, James Oldroyd, , Mar 2010
• The Lead Response Management Study
– Insidesales.com, Mar 2011
• Response Audit of American Association of Inside Sales Professionals
– AA-ISP Leadership Summit, June 2011
• What Planet are you on – How B2B and B2C Sales and Marketing Differ
– Jeff Solomon, Founder and SVP Leads360
• The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
– A Marketo Workbook
38. Contact/Qualify by Response Time (Hours)
• The odds of contacting a
lead decrease by 10xin the
1st hour
• Odds of qualifying that lead
decrease by 6xafter the first
hour
- 2007 MIT/Kellog Study
- 2007 MIT/Kellog Study
39. Multimedia Response Effectiveness
• 90% of lead conversions via
phone first/email second
• In B2B, respond first by
phone, second by email for
best results
• Respond as fast as possible –
media used is about the same
• In B2C, it‟s all about speed.
The faster you contact the
consumer after they show
interest, better your chances
B2B - first 16 minutes B2C – first 16 minutes
