A recent post to the LinkedIn Lead Generation and Nurturing group by Beau Bratton raised the question “How do you think your contact rates would differ, if you called a lead in 15 seconds instead of 5 minutes? What about after the first hour?”
This is a question that I often get asked by customers. The eTrigue real-time lead alerts that come via email when a prospective customer is on your web site open a whole new dimension to the sales process. It’s more than just will I connect? It’s also should I connect and if so how far should I go?
For Beau’s question, how would contact rates differ; there have been multiple studies that find you are typically ten times more likely to contact a prospect or customer in the first half hour of their engagement of your website. This is one of the primary reasons that Intelligent Demand Generation or Marketing Automation solutions like eTrigue make sales teams so successful. A real time email lead alert with the visitors contact information, history of their overall engagement with your company, as well as the current visit details including all of the pages visited today will arm your sales team with the information to have an informed call.
Given that your company will be top of mind with a visitor; your sales team is also much more likely to have a positive engagement which will improve the likely hood that your rep can effective qualify each visitor.
To the second question, should I make contact, how quickly and how far should I go? it depends? I know I know… that’s a big help. This question was recently addressed in a recent blog by Mike Damphousse on his Smashmouth Marketing blog: Web Leads – Pounce, Pause, Nurture or Wait? http://ww2.etrigue.com/lp/BLOG/B2damphousse.html
You can read more there, but I think that the one thing that is often overlooked… The relationship with a new prospect is a delicate dance. Typically, a series of interactions that build the relationship by continually offering value combined with additional qualifying works best. Having the opportunity to interact with highly successful sales teams on a daily basis, my suggestion is to POUNCE! But Pounce lightly. If you make the call, you have started the relationship. You have a 10X better connect rate so that saves precious sales time and reduces overall cost of sales. In addition if that call is an introduction, a quick question to see your offering is in their sightline and finally a close with a promise to follow up with some quality information to help them make a better decision regarding your product you have had a successful call.
They know who you are, you have given them something the helps them to build a relationship, and finally you understand their timing. This is the most important aspect. How aggressive you are all depends on timing. If they were looking at you to justify the purchase of another product, you had better get in there. If they are three months out, put them on a moderate drip program, and if they are way out, nurture slowly and follow up with a periodic qualification call.
Here is a link to an eTrigue lead alert. Are you arming your sales team with the tools they need to be successful?
http://ww2.etrigue.com/lp/BLOG/b2alerts.html
Tags: Cold Calling, Real-Time Lead Alert, Sales Alert, Website Visits
February 16th, 2010 at 7:45 am
[...] you should be with a prospect always depends on where they are in the buying cycle. We said it before: If they are looking at you to justify the purchase of another product, you had better get in there [...]
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:14 am
[...] can quickly glance at the prospect’s web activity history and scoring and, where appropriate, immediately follow up with [...]