Need to Enhance Marketing Results? Remember These 4 Words: Follow Up with Prospects.
Not too long ago, I met a friend for dinner at a fairly upscale restaurant. I’d just spent nearly two hours on the freeway and we were both content to sip our drinks and wind down a little before ordering our food. The server brought our drinks, asked if we were ready to order and upon hearing “not yet” disappeared from our lives forever. Really. We never saw him again. And there’s a message here for you – even if you don’t manage a restaurant.
Most purchases today – especially business-to-business – are really a series of decisions and (this is important) research shows us that about 75% of your prospects are not yet ready to buy when they first make contact with you. They’ve come into the restaurant but they don’t want to eat yet.
These prospects need to be nurtured and they can’t be rushed. They want to gather and absorb more information about you and your product. They want their questions answered. Frankly, they want to be convinced that you can solve their problem. They want to do this at their own speed, but they don’t want you to forget about them.
When prospects express interest in your product, say by downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar or requesting additional information, they are essentially opening the door for you to market your product to them. It’s important to follow up very quickly on this initial interest. (After all, even if you’re not ready to order, who wants to sit at a restaurant table for 20 minutes before the server even acknowledges you)?
So, how should you follow up and how quickly should you do it? The short answer is “immediately by phone”.
A 3-year study conducted by KnowledgeStorm and the Artemis Group has found that leads – especially those generated online – get cold very quickly and that prompt follow-up is critical. They offer the following best practices for pursuing leads:
1.Follow up with a phone call, and do it as quickly as possible. 88% of leads were happy to be personally contacted on the same day they request additional information.
2.After the first day, lead responsiveness drops off very quickly (see chart below). Call every lead within a maximum of four days. After seven days lead responsiveness drops to 20%.
3.Don’t be too quick to judge the quality of a lead. Four out of ten buyers start the process without knowing budget, time, or authority to purchase – or knowing only one of these. Also don’t judge the lead by its title. While C-level participants may own the budget, they aren’t doing the research.
I’ll add a 4th “best practice” to this list:
If the prospect seems uninterested – or even refuses to take your calls – don’t give up. It takes time to nurture a good lead. Stay in touch a minimum of once a month with even your “coldest” prospects. This is where an e-newsletter fits into the marketing program. It gives you a perfect no-pressure avenue to maintain a connection.
One of the best – and most common — ways to waste a lot of money on marketing, is to fail to follow-up on leads. According to a 2006 Gartner study, “up to 70% of sales leads are not properly leveraged or are completely ignored, thus wasting marketing program dollars.” I’ve seen other studies that put this lack of follow-up as high as 80%. This is as prevalent as it is incredible. I hate to have to ask this, but: are you one of those?
Think about it. You could increase marketing effectiveness 70 to 80% just by following up on leads. When those 75% of your prospects finally get ready to buy, you’ll be there for them. Now, where’s that server?
This article was first published April 17, 2007 on the Tatum Marketing blog
Not too long ago, I met a friend for dinner at a fairly upscale restaurant. I’d just spent nearly two hours on the freeway and we were both content to sip our drinks and wind down a little before ordering our food. The server brought our drinks, asked if we were ready to order and upon hearing “not yet” disappeared from our lives forever. Really. We never saw him again. And there’s a message here for you – even if you don’t manage a restaurant.
Most purchases today – especially business-to-business – are really a series of decisions and (this is important) research shows us that about 75% of your prospects are not yet ready to buy when they first make contact with you. They’ve come into the restaurant but they don’t want to eat yet.
These prospects need to be nurtured and they can’t be rushed. They want to gather and absorb more information about you and your product. They want their questions answered. Frankly, they want to be convinced that you can solve their problem. They want to do this at their own speed, but they don’t want you to forget about them.
When prospects express interest in your product, say by downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar or requesting additional information, they are essentially opening the door for you to market your product to them. It’s important to follow up very quickly on this initial interest. (After all, even if you’re not ready to order, who wants to sit at a restaurant table for 20 minutes before the server even acknowledges you)?
So, how should you follow up and how quickly should you do it? The short answer is “immediately by phone”.
A 3-year study conducted by KnowledgeStorm and the Artemis Group has found that leads – especially those generated online – get cold very quickly and that prompt follow-up is critical. They offer the following best practices for pursuing leads:
- Follow up with a phone call, and do it as quickly as possible. 88% of leads were happy to be personally contacted on the same day they request additional information.
- After the first day, lead responsiveness drops off very quickly (see chart below). Call every lead within a maximum of four days. After seven days lead responsiveness drops to 20%.
- Don’t be too quick to judge the quality of a lead. Four out of ten buyers start the process without knowing budget, time, or authority to purchase – or knowing only one of these. Also don’t judge the lead by its title. While C-level participants may own the budget, they aren’t doing the research.
I’ll add a 4th “best practice” to this list:
If the prospect seems uninterested – or even refuses to take your calls – don’t give up. It takes time to nurture a good lead. Stay in touch a minimum of once a month with even your “coldest” prospects. This is where an e-newsletter fits into the marketing program. It gives you a perfect no-pressure avenue to maintain a connection.
One of the best – and most common — ways to waste a lot of money on marketing, is to fail to follow-up on leads. According to a 2006 Gartner study, “up to 70% of sales leads are not properly leveraged or are completely ignored, thus wasting marketing program dollars.” I’ve seen other studies that put this lack of follow-up as high as 80%. This is as prevalent as it is incredible. I hate to have to ask this, but: are you one of those?
Think about it. You could increase marketing effectiveness 70 to 80% just by following up on leads. When those 75% of your prospects finally get ready to buy, you’ll be there for them. Now, where’s that server?
Thu, Nov 5, 2009
Conversion Rates, Strategy, Traffic
Written by: Susan Tatum