DMN3 Blog

Your website design should include lead generation offers. The way you respond to web-generated leads makes a big difference in your ability to contact, qualify and close. How do you measure up?

It’s no secret that online marketing efforts are growing significantly. With the billions of dollars being invested in digital marketing, you would think that companies would also be using marketing research data to improve their handling of the leads generated through those resources.

Companies don’t know when or how to follow up on web-generated leads, based on their responses to a 2007 survey by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. They often rely on intuition or anecdotal evidence to determine how and when to respond to leads generated by their online marketing efforts. That’s if they have a plan at all.

Recent marketing research demonstrates significant correlations between how you respond to and manage leads to your qualification and closing rates. It also suggests that many companies are actually hurting their chances of contacting and qualifying leads.

I’m a big believer in using marketing research to improve your marketing ROI. The following studies on Lead Response Management have important implications for you:

• Dr. James Oldroyd’s Lead Response Management Survey performed under the auspices of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (2007)
• Dr. James Oldroyd’s and Inside Sales.com’s collaborative Lead Response Management Study performed while Dr. Oldroyd was at MIT.

While I urge you to read both studies, this blog post is about the second, MIT study which attempted to answer the following question:

When should companies call web-generated leads for optimal contact and qualification ratios?

The MIT study was much narrower in focus than Dr. Oldroyd’s Lead Response Management Survey at Northwestern. It used three years of quantitative data from six companies linked directly with qualitative lead process and flow information. The results are also far more statistically significant.

The MIT study disclosed individual differences among the companies studied. After all, the kinds of offers on company websites varied. When the data from different companies is combined, clear patterns emerge.

The Study uncovered the following regarding when online leads should be called for optimal contact and qualification ratios:

1. Time of day and day of week each have significant impact, with time of day being the greater of the two.
2. Immediacy of response far overshadows both time of day and day of week in its effect.
3. Waiting too long to respond and continuing to unsuccessfully push for contact actually hurts your ability to ever make contact and qualify a lead.

While you should read the study to get the facts, here’s a brief overview:

Day of Week: Wednesday and Thursday are the two best days to call to make contact and qualify a lead. Merely by choosing one day versus another can show a 50 percent greater chance of contacting a lead!

Time of Day: The best time to call to make a contact or qualify a lead is either at the beginning or end of the business day. Research shows that 8 to 9 and 4 to 5 are the overall best times for these functions. Based on the time you call, there is a 161 percent higher chance of qualifying a lead!

Response Time: Response time trumps by far the day of week and time of day variables. The Study showed that the best time to call to make contact or qualify a lead is within FIVE MINUTES of the submission of the web-generated lead. The chances of contacting a lead decreases by over 10 times in the first hour and the chances of qualifying a lead decreases by six times in the first hour.

The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.

This bears repeating…if you consider a 100 fold increase in contact ratios significant and if you think a 21 fold increase in qualifying leads could help your company achieve a better ROI on its marketing efforts, then YOU NEED TO CONTACT THE PERSON SUBMITTING THE ONLINE LEAD WITHIN FIVE MINUTES!

Conversely, the study shows that after 20 hours, every failed attempt to reach the lead actually decreases the chances of eventually qualifying that lead. Considering that most businesses don’t even start calling leads until after 20 hours. How much more effective would they be if they called within five minutes of the lead submission?

Why is response time so important? We really don’t know but the study authors speculate as to three possible reasons:

1. Calling within 5 minutes is likely to find them at the computer desk and near their phone. The longer you wait the more likely they are off to another activity and away from their phone.
2. Calling within 5 minutes reaches them when they are at the highest point of interest in your products or services. The interest can fade quickly, depending on the nature of the offer.
3. Calling within 5 minutes impresses the person being called. They are more likely to feel that this is the kind of responsive company with which they want to do business. The authors call it the “WOW” factor.

Whatever the reasons, you can improve the ROI of your online marketing efforts by responding quickly to the leads you generate.

These studies would support that it is well worth the effort to have a Lead Response Management System in place at your organization.