In my last blog post Increase your Sales Pipeline in 5 Minutes, I highlighted how connecting with a prospect quickly will increase your odds of entering the lead into your sales cycle. Now you have the capability and capacity to get to those prospects within 5 minutes.
What if they don’t answer within 5 minutes?
Did you know that on average, 30% of leads are never called and the average number of calls made on a lead is 1.5 times?
Your sales reps are always wanting more leads, but adding more leads doesn’t always garner more revenue. So how do you create more opportunities with the leads you have?
Call Fast, Call Often
In fact, 80% of connects happen between 6 and 12 attempts. Set your minimum to at least 6 call attempts to significantly increase your chances to connect with the prospect and increase your pipeline. Remember, your competitors are only making 1.5 attempts.
How does this work exactly? Follow a call, email and voicemail cadence. Leverage your call attempts with email and voicemail messaging. Engage your prospect and influence the receptiveness when you make a contact.
By making a few more call attempts, sales reps can experience up to a 70% increase in contact rates.
– The Best Practices for Lead Response Management Study,
Harvard Business Review
I am an advocate of calling rather than sending emails, especially when there are anti-spam laws in place in certain countries. Your ability to qualify a prospect through a conversation is exponentially better than an email, however emails can reinforce messaging.
Call fast, call often and remember the Persistence Payoff will increase your pipeline and lead to revenue.
Related links:
- The Best Practices for Lead Response Management Study original and updated versions from InsideSales.com, as published in the Harvard Business Review
Are there better times of day and days of the week to call? Watch for my final blog post of this series:
Timing IS Everything! Improve your Sales Cycle
This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.