Does this sound familiar? A lead comes through your email with a name, contact information, and little bit about the service the lead is requesting. You give them a call. No one picks up. You leave a voicemail. You wait. And wait some more. Nothing ever comes of it and you find yourself looking at a less than friendly bottom line in your marketing budget at the end of the year.
That is, unfortunately, what we like to call a losing strategy. It's not enough to get someone interested and reaching out, you need to meet them where they are and, be persistent. So, here is our winning strategy for how to make sure you're not leaving runners on base when it comes to closing leads:
Day 1
- Call back within 5 minutes: As soon as you see the lead has come in, you should be calling the customer. ASAP. Don't think there's a rush? By waiting even just 10 minutes to call after the lead comes in your chances of converting them drop by 400%. Wait another 30 and your chances of converting them have withered a good 2100%.
- Leave an informative and compelling voicemail: There's a good chance you'll get their voicemail when you call back. That's hardly a bad thing. You've got a chance to get a ton of information to them and make yourself stand out. Be friendly, compel them to call back, and give more contact info than you think they need
- Immediately follow up by email: Don't put all your eggs in the voicemail basket. Send them an email to let them know you called and reiterate the information you gave them in the voicemail.
- Call again after 5 minutes: After you've sent them a follow-up email, give their phone another ring to see if you catch them. If you don't get through this time don't leave a second voicemail.
- Call another 2-3 times throughout the day: After that give it some time but make sure to get 2-3 more call attempts in the day, spaced out evenly. It's possible they have a busy day and you keep missing them, it's possible they're also fielding calls from your competition. Be persistent.
Days 2-5
- Follow-up 2-3 times a day: If the first day has gone without more contact, continue your follow-up calls evenly spaced throughout the day.
- Send follow-up emails on the 2nd and 5th day since the initial email. Don't bombard or spam them though. Be courteous, but be persistent. And make sure to always give them contact information and your business hours.
Day 6+
- Continue to call high value prospects 1-2 times per week: If a lead is worth it, keep at it. You don't have to hit them multiple times a day or even once a day, but call them back periodically throughout the week to see if they still need your services.
- Automate email campaigns to contact prospects: More than a week out the likelihood of conversion is low but it's worth pinging them now and again. They messaged you once, they may need your services in the future.
The fact of the matter is 80% of businesses won't go through this follow-up schedule and those 80% will lose business because of it. You could have a massive lead over your competition by being persistent in your follow-up and committed to turning your prospects into customers.
