THE UGLY TRUTH BEHIND CALL, VOIC , AND PRACTICES

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1 SALES LEAD RESPONSE: THE UGLY TRUTH BEHIND CALL, VOIC , AND PRACTICES Research Report Written & Researched by Velocify.com

2 Executive Summary How Are Your Reps Actually Responding to Inbound Leads? Every sales leader wants to create a contact strategy that delivers the best results. They visualize the perfect transaction one that delivers the optimal customer experience and shortens the distance from lead to conversion. Rep activity is built around facilitating this process. Leaders consider how reps should respond to inbound inquiries and map out subsequent steps accordingly. There are four considerations that are factored into their follow-up strategy: Communication Channel 1 If a lead submits an online inquiry, should your reps follow-up via phone or ? Should reps blend the channels of communication they use? If so, what does the ideal mix look like? Is voic necessary? Communication Timing 2 Do certain times of day yield better results? Does speed matter when it comes to responding? How long should they wait between each call, voic , and ? Communication Persistence 3 How many calls should reps make? How many s should they send? Is there an ideal cadence for sending s or making calls? Communication Quality 4 What does the ideal look like? What are the characteristics of voic messages that yield better results? Once leaders take these considerations and build them into their process, reps are trained and sent off into the world to close deals. You may continue to offer training or coach reps, but are they really sticking to your ideal process? Are they even following up at all? The findings in this report show there are some surprising differences between how sales teams are actually responding and response best practices. 2

3 Methodology Velocify has access to data on the sales process progression of millions of leads. This data includes all interactions between interested buyers and sales representatives, including response tactics, speed-to-contact attempts, contact persistence, and conversion rates. With this data, there is significant insight that can be gleaned to determine best phone, voic , and practices when responding to leads. In addition to analyzing lead progression data, Velocify has put many companies to the test by conducting lead response assessments to understand the current practices of sales teams. This involves submitting virtual leads through company websites and tracking how sales teams respond via phone and for 22 days. This study analyzed the inbound lead response practices of 20 companies that buy leads to see if they are taking advantage of their most valuable (and technically free) lead source inbound leads. Five leads were submitted per company for a total of 100 leads. Industries represented include mortgage, education, insurance, and business services. As reflected in the Lead Trends Report, nearly half of a company s total lead volume is split between two sources: purchased and website-generated. Both sources provide high quality leads, but it s the steps that companies take once the lead is generated that determine conversion success. 3

4 Sales leads are slipping through the cracks because reps are not even trying or giving up too soon. 33% Leads that never received a call 91% Leads that didn t receive an optimal number of calls 95% Leads that didn t receive an optimal number of voic s 4

5 Make Your Calls Count How Quickly Should You Call? Fact: Calling a lead within one minute of an inquiry more than doubles conversion rates. Reality: Only 7% of prospects received a call within one minute. Thirty-three percent of leads didn t even receive a call. It s important to call leads sooner rather than later to yield the best results. When a lead submits an inquiry, take advantage of that moment when you have their attention by calling them within seconds. Don t give them the opportunity to leave your website and discover your competitors. Initial Call Response Time Percentage of Prospects 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0 Seconds Minutes Hours Days Weeks No Calls Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate 5

6 Make Your Calls Count How Many Times Should You Call? Fact: 95% of converted leads are contacted by the sixth call attempt, but only half are contacted on the first attempt. Reality: Fewer than 10% of prospects received the optimal number of calls (between five and seven). If you re unable to establish initial contact immediately after a lead has expressed interest, it is important not to give up too soon but also not to waste valuable resources calling too much. Sixty percent of assessed companies failed to call at least one of the five prospects submitted, resulting in 33% of prospects not receiving a single call. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one prospect in our study received 48 calls over the 22-day period of this study! Strike the right balance by optimizing your call strategy around proven conversion rates. The Ultimate Guide to Inquiry Response suggests making six call attempts before moving leads to a nurture path. Number of Calls Percentage of Prospects 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate 6

7 The Method Behind Effective Voic s How Many Voic s Should You Leave? Fact: Leads who are left two voic s on six missed calls are 34% more likely to convert than leads who don t receive any voic s at all. Reality: Only 15% of prospects received two voic s. Almost half of prospects didn t even receive a voic . Of those who did, 40% received only one voic and 34% received too many. One prospect even received ten voic s! It s important to weave voic s into your call strategy because missed calls can go unnoticed, and a voic is a good way to get a prospect s attention. However, make sure to strike the right balance because research shows leaving too many voic s before contact, as many as five or more, can actually be worse than not leaving any voic s. If you are following a six-call strategy, research from the Ultimate Guide to Inquiry Response suggests leaving a voic on your second and fourth call attempt. Leaving your first voic on your second call has a 31% higher conversion rate than leaving that voic on any other call. Number of Voic s Percentage of Prospects 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate 7

8 Voic frequency can increase the chance of conversion, but reps need to leave quality messages to maximize callbacks. 80% Calls that go to voic * 90% First-time voic s that are never returned* 82% Voic s that need improvement *Source: RingLead blog.hubspot.com/sales 8

9 Quality Control What Makes a Good Voic ? In order to get prospects to respond, you ll want to get creative and leverage voic as part of a broader contact strategy. Knowing when to leave voic s is only half the battle. Voic is an opportunity to connect other parts of your outreach, like , to create a more engaging dialogue. To do this, it s important to set a solid foundation. Here are five basic criteria for leaving a quality voic . Context Provide a reason for the call. Are you following up to an online form submission the lead filled out? It s likely the prospect filled out several forms, so be sure to provide some context to help jog the prospect s memory. 1 Clarity You only have a short window of time to capture your prospect s attention. If they have trouble understanding your message, they might just move on. Make it as easy as possible for prospects to respond by clearly communicating and enunciating your message (including your callback number), so they don t have to replay the message. 2 Length Make sure your message is to the point. The voic is not a platform for a pitch. Keep it concise and under 30 seconds. 3 Personal It s important to establish a personal connection, even on a voic . Be sure to include the prospect s name in your message. 2 Tone Have you ever received a voic that sounded scripted? The ideal voic should come across more naturally, with an energetic, friendly tone Powerful Voic Strategies That Will Help You Sell More (RingDNA, 2016) 2. The 8 C's to Conquering Sales Voic s (Salesforce, 2014) 3. 9 Tips to Leave the Perfect Sales Voic (Hubspot, 2016) 9

10 82% of Voic s Need Improvement Only 18% of prospects received good voic s. That is, they included all five components of a quality voic . Almost half (46%) of all voic s were scored bad to terrible, meeting three of the five criteria or fewer. Eight percent of the voic s received didn t even meet one of the five criteria! Percentage of Voic s per Score Category 18% Good 36% Satisfactory 46% Bad to Terrible Quick Fix Tips: Improve tone and personalize. The biggest deficiency in voic quality was tone, with more than half of voic s lacking good tone. Improve tone by making sure reps don t sound like they are reading from a script or like they hate their jobs. More than 33% of voic s didn t include the prospect s name. This is a simple improvement that makes the message more personal. We are all trained to listen when we hear our own name, so be sure to state the prospect s name when leaving a voic . Percentage of Voic s Failing to Meet Criteria 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0 Context Clarity Length Personal Tone 10

11 Most follow-up is too quick, too slow, or not frequent enough. 35% Leads that received an in less than one minute 20 Number of minutes for ideal response time 95% Leads that didn t receive an optimal number of s 11

12 The Importance of Speed and Persistence How Quickly Should You ? Fact: The correlation between speed and conversion rate is not as strong for as it is for phone, but important nonetheless. Reality: More than 25% of prospects received their first weeks after initial submission, or did not receive any s at all. More than 35% of prospects received an in less than one minute. This is largely due to the wide adoption of marketing automation and other automated technologies. To improve the effectiveness of your first , research actually shows it is best to wait about 20 minutes before responding. Responding too quickly can come across as less personal because people are very familiar with auto-responders. Delay to provide a more thoughtful response and one that is more likely to be perceived as personal, even if it s not but don t wait too long either! Initial Response Time Percentage of Prospects 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0 Seconds Minutes Hours Days Weeks No s Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate 12

13 The Importance of Speed and Persistence How Many s Should You Send? Fact: For higher conversion, the optimal number of s is between four and six. Reality: Only 5% of prospects received the optimal number of s. Almost 25% of prospects did not receive any s, and 45% only received one . To improve your response rate, don t give up too soon. Sometimes the first couple of s and calls can be inadvertently overlooked. Following up with several quality s can serve as a helpful reminder. Continue to try and establish contact by sending between four and six s before sending the lead to a nurture path. Number of s Percentage of Prospects 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate 13

14 speed is not as influential as quality. 13% Open rate increase when subject line is less than 50 characters* 50% s that lacked a clear CTA 92% s that need improvement *Source: RingLead blog.hubspot.com/sales 14

15 Quality Control What Makes a Good ? Engaging with prospects via is an opportunity to develop a personal connection that leads to a great customer relationship. But before this can happen, the goal of your initial outreach is to elicit a response. To open that door, consider these five criteria that are essential to a good . Context Be clear in your reason for ing. Provide context in the subject line of your , but keep it concise (less than 50 characters) and make sure it piques interest. 1 Clarity Avoid typos, formatting issues, and grammar mistakes. Make sure your message is very clear and easy to read. 2 Personal Be sure to include the prospect s name in the body of the to personalize your communication. 3 Length Be concise, but provide enough information for your prospect to act. Keep length between 50 and 125 words. 4 Clear CTA Avoid multiple calls-to-action (CTA) that might confuse your prospect. When a prospect inquires about your product, there should only be a single, clear CTA that helps move them along the sales pipeline Tips & Best Practices for Writing Catchy Subject Lines (Hubspot, 2016) 2. How to Write the Perfect Sales (Sales Hacker, 2017) 3. Sales Template: How to Write s People Want to Respond To (Hubspot, 2017) 4. 7 Tips for Getting More Responses to Your s (Boomerang, 2016) 15

16 92% of s Need Improvement Only 8% of prospects received good s. That is, they included all five components of a good . Almost 50% of all prospects received bad to terrible s that included three or fewer of the five criteria. Percentage of s per Score Category 8% Good 44% Satisfactory 48% Bad to Terrible Quick Fix Tips: Include a clear CTA and be concise. Half of all s received lacked a clear CTA. Most had too many CTAs but some failed to include even one CTA. The second biggest deficiency in quality was length. Improve s by simplifying the message. If you focus on what your primary CTA is, it may help shorten the overall message and make it easier for prospects to understand what the next step should be. Thirty-nine percent of s lacked the prospect s name. With the automation functionalities of today, it's easy to include the elemental personal touch of the prospect's name in the body of your outreach s. Percentage of s Failing to Meet Criteria 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0 Clarity Context Personal Length Clear CTA 16

17 Conclusion Inspect What You Expect! When you receive an online inquiry from a lead, they have explicitly expressed interest. Take advantage of this opportunity and prioritize these leads! Research from The Ultimate Guide to Inquiry Response found conversion rates increase by 2.14x when a buyer is called within one minute of their submitted inquiry. The impact of speed-to-conversion is real! And with 93% of inquiries not being optimized around this best practice, testing your process regularly is critical. Here are the three phases for testing lead performance that you can get started on today. 1 Phase One: Submit an online inquiry. Remember to use a personal or newly generated address and phone number that is unfamiliar to your sales team. And of course, don t use your real name. Submit the response during normal business hours and watch what happens over the next two weeks. Your goal will be to just track time stamps. Do not engage or respond to phone calls or s. Create a timeline and record the times that you received a call, voic , or . When you open an , you ll also want to track when you opened the to see if you get a phone call soon after because that is a best practice. Of course, also note the quality of the communications you receive: length, tone, context, clarity, etc. 2 3 Phase Two: Map the customer experience. Now that you have the insight from phase one, determine if this is the experience you want your customers to have when they engage on your website. Compare it to your current strategy and best practices and make improvements accordingly. Phase Three: Run different test campaigns. With your updated strategy in place, you can branch out and run different lead performance campaigns. Try submitting a lead late at night or on the weekend. Leverage the same monitoring practice in phase one and track your experience on a timeline. Compare it to your current strategy and determine if it aligns with the ideal experience for your customers. Adjust accordingly. More complex campaigns to test might include tracking a longer timeframe with different test lead variations: a lead that does not engage at all; a lead that expresses interest in the beginning, but on day 18 tells the rep they are no longer interested. See if you get put into a nurture strategy, and from there, you can monitor the nurture experience. 17

18 Get Started Today! Do you have the technologies in place to help your sales team respond optimally to sales leads? Learn how the latest technologies can help you close more sales and rise above the competition. Get Demo Like this study? Share it. Velocify is the leading sales acceleration platform. The company helps more than 1,500 sales teams sell more by bringing speed and control to the entire sales process. Velocify helps sales teams prospect with more precision, accelerate lead engagement, and implement optimized workflows, ultimately helping sales teams find and convert more leads. Velocify has recently been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte and Inc. and a Best Place to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal. For more information, please visit velocify.com or follow the company on Call: sales@velocify.com Web: velocify.com Blog: velocify.com/blog VELOCIFY.COM