Yes it's winter

But that is no reason to let your sales leads go cold.

Leads get cold very, very quickly if not contacted at once. Harvard Business Review conducted a

recent study on the importance of timely responses when it comes to following up with leads. The findings are striking:

“Companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later.”

Today’s customers move fast and have a fleeting attention span. It is crucial to return that phone call or respond to that email quickly. An MIT study underscores this point even further: “The odds of qualifying a lead drops by 4 times between 5 and 10 minutes – and drops by 21 times if the callback is in 30 minutes.”
So, you’ve got to respond at once, but how? How you handle that first interaction is critically important. The best point of contact is a personal one. Phoning is often more effective than email, because you are able to initiate a realtime conversation.
Reach out to prospects in a professional way and make sure that the introductory touch point is positive and informed. A rapid call-back without context can be a harsh experience for potential customers.

The best way to make sure that first conversation is successful is to make it relevant. Review the prospect’s message to you first, so you have information on what they may need.

Engagement is a great tool for generating client inquiries, but to make it really effective, it is imperative that you respond quickly and professionally to each inquiry. This Wave Season,
make it a goal to improve your response times—you’ll profit from the improved close rates!

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