50% of sales go to the company that just happened to get there first. It’s hard to ignore this statistic.  There are some very simple things you can do to make sure you are the first person to make contact with a new sales lead.

Call your sales lead within 5 minutes of receiving the web enquiry

Studies show that if you call your sales lead within 5 mins of enquiry, your chances of making contact are 100 times higher than if you wait for 30 mins, so call straight away. Salesman myth. Countless times I’ve heard. “I’ll wait a bit of time, they’ll think I’m stalking them or something”. This is not true, your sales lead has requested information, they are waiting to hear from you, make the most of the opportunity whilst your organization is still fresh in their mind. Just pick up the phone.

Set up an automated personal email for web enquiries

I have an automated (and nicely written email) that every web enquiry receives from me as soon as they’ve requested more information. 50% of my inbound sales leads book an appointment with me straight away with zero phone call. Salesman myth, “Automated emails aren’t personal”. The email I use is addressed to them, it has a picture of me on the signature, I use friendly language and it’s fairly short so gives the impression it was written as soon as the enquiry came in. It’s personal enough and the results are good.

Don’t waste time, cut out the back and forth

Such a huge amount of time is spent trying to make contact, the goal has to be to eliminate that time so we spend more time selling. There are some great sales tools available that give your sales prospect access to your calendar so they can schedule their own appointment. Check out timetrade or Assistant.to as great examples. Salesman myth, “My sales prospect won’t use a tool like that to book meetings”. The data says differently and sales teams that use a scheduling tool see an increase of 30% on booked appointments on average.

Have a follow-up strategy

It takes on average eight calls to make contact with your sales leads and yet the average sales person only makes two. This drives me crazy, just two attempts to your hottest and most valuable leads, really? Have a follow-up plan which concentrates a heavy amount of activity in the first 24 hours of receiving the web enquiry. Try calling a minimum of five times and don’t forget email and LinkedIn if its right for your business. Salesman Myth, “I don’t want to appear to be harassing my sales leads“.  Putting it bluntly, they have no idea how hard you’re trying to make contact, 95% of your activity will go completely un-noticed by your lead which is why it’s so hard to get in touch. Remember they reached out to you first, don’t let them slip away. The clocks ticking.

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