Speed is the Key to B2B Lead Conversion

It is not always possible to convert leads in the first communication. Any sales leader who has been tasked to nurture leads can attest to this. But this doesn’t mean that you go slow with the entire conversion process. There is beauty in speeding up the entire conversion process. So how is speed important to conversion, and how quickly should you contact your inbound leads? Let’s see why speed is essential in lead conversion.

Customers have little patience

Customers spend time online, accomplishing many things. Hence, to assume leads will stick there waiting for your response is wrong. One minute they might be inquiring about your services or products, the other minute they could be on social media, sharing their best moments, and five minutes later probably watching a movie.

As such, you need to move with speed if you want to convert them into clients. At many companies, the average lead response time is about 47 hours. This response time may have worked for many organizations, but today it may not be as effective as it was to potential clients as they have little patience for waiting.

So, how fast is too fast?

The simplest answer to this is, every minute counts.

Different survey shows that you have a 391% chance of converting leads if you call within a minute of an online inquiry. It drops to 120% if you wait for an additional minute and stands at 36% if you wait for an hour.

This is proof that if you ever need to maximize your lead conversion process, speedy responses are crucial to converting leads to paying customers. 

So, to maximize the short attention spans modern customers exhibit, you want to have a lead nurturing strategy that allows you to respond quickly. Thankfully, today, there are various ways to respond to potential clients’ inquiries. You can follow up with:

• Emails
• Phone calls
• Text messages
• Social media: Facebook, Twitter, and any other channel relevant to you and your leads.
• Live chats

Don’t overwhelm your prospects

It might be tempting to send a message after every minute or even call to increase the conversion rate. This may look attractive at first, but with time it may become less appealing as leads are likely to feel like they aren’t being treated with great respect as they expected. After you have made the first phone call or left a message, wait for a few minutes before doing a follow-up. For example, you can do a follow-up after 10 minutes or 30 minutes. Based on how soon your leads respond, you can develop a time frame that will not hurt your professional image.

The best way to address, the time frame issue is to put yourself in the shoes of your leads. How soon would you like to receive consecutive calls or messages if you didn’t respond to the first one? Your answer to this should help you create a smarter follow-up guide.

The whole idea here is not to stop trying after the first few attempts, but rather to be smarter and more efficient with your follow-up approach.

How to improve your company’s response speed

A lead nurturing strategy makes it possible to improve your response speed while dealing with leads. It helps you qualify them, and most importantly, guides you on how to nurture them to trustworthy and paying customers. 23% nurtured leads experience a shorter sales cycle. A good leadership strategy should guide you on the various resources and tactics to use through the sales funnel.

Does optimizing a lead conversion strategy improve conversion?

There is no one size fits all approach to speeding up lead conversion. An approach that has worked well for other brands may fail to deliver for you. For that reason, the best tactic is to take the experiences of other brands as a benchmark and experiment until that time you are certain of a response time that is working for you.

Some things you can do to improve your strategy include:

• Adjusting response time: For example, pick days to reply a minute and when to do so within five minutes.
• Create templates: Drafting a response from scratch all the time is not effective, and that has an impact on your ability to respond fast. A customized template makes responding to leads fast. 
• Get a software: There are many lead management software and tools out there making lead assignments easier and exciting. LeadAngel’s technologies and tools are designed to make your work easier. They are easy to use, lightweight, and make lead routing a breeze.

Would you love to learn how LeadAngel’s tools and technologies can benefit your business? Click here to book a quick demo meeting.