Sales pro Colleen Francis says around 30% of all sales leads go to complete waste.

Ouch!

If you could close 30% more prospects, how much in revenue would that be for your business?

What could your business do with that additional capital?

Got a mental picture of that?

Good. Now learn what you can do to reduce lead waste:

1. Be Persistent and Fast

Sales thought leader Ken Krogue says on Forbes that most companies take 46 hours and 53 minutes to talk to leads. And they only make 1.3 phone calls to follow up with each one.

The faster you follow up, the better your close rate. Aim to follow up within seconds of receiving a contact. Definitely return all contacts within 30 minutes when you’re talking about web leads.

And try to contact them by phone or e-mail 6-8 times before giving up.

2. Contact Leads at the Best Time

Ken Krogue contacted a professional friend of his, Dr. James Oldroyd. Krogue and his team found 100,000 data points that could be analyzed through another professional friend, Dave Elkington.

Oldroyd found Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to call. 4-6 PM is the best time to call to contact a lead.

Ahh, statistically reliable data sure simplifies things, doesn’t it?

3. Measure Effectiveness And Hold Your Staff Accountable

You need to measure each step in your marketing and sales processes. You must hold the department leadership accountable.

Your organization knows sales calls should be made within seconds of receiving a contact. But do they actually do it?

Measurement will tell you. And if they’re not doing it, why does it happen?

And what can you do to get that response time to minutes instead of hours or days?

That’s why you measure – even if you know best practices.

4. Keep Your Leads Warm

Most leads, in any industry, won’t be ready to buy now or anytime soon. So, you must have a process in place for staying in touch.

Whatever that process is, you must make sure you somehow add value to your prospect’s business with each interaction.

You could:

  • Mention somewhere you saw them online
  • Send information relevant to their business, like a blog post discussing a hot industry topic
  • Give free tips for small and simple ways they can solve business problems right now
  •  Ask them something about their personal lives (How’re your children doing?)

Be as creative as you want. But do let your prospect know your relationship is more important than money.

A simple “just following up” message falls on deaf ears.

You Will Improve Your Close Rate When You Do These Things!

This isn’t an “if” statement. You’re guaranteed to improve your sales by following these tactics.

How much that improves depends on how thoroughly you implement these tactics and others you may create on your own.

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