A 2007 study on the value of lead response time from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has proven a godsend for lead technology firms.
The study, “How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold?” by James Oldroyd of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, was cited as supporting evidence by several panelists at LeadsCon East, a prospecting conference.
According to the MIT study, the odds of contacting a lead captured by an inbound contact center drop by 80% after a five-minute threshold. After half an hour, the odds fall by 99%, the study found.
Lead management software firms are all-too-eager to cite this study in support of their own findings. Nick Hedges, SVP of sales at lead management software firm Leads360, said his company had looked at its clients’ follow-up on five million leads.
Hand-raisers contacted within the first minute saw a 391% boost in conversion rates above overall levels, Hedges said. Two minutes after a contact, that figure drops to 160%. “After that, it degrades quickly,” he added.
Leads360’s figures don’t include hot transfers – prospects who are shifted to an appropriate sales representative during the initial contact. The follow-up and drop-off numbers he cited are only among efforts which require a marketer to make a follow-up contact.
What else did Leads360’s own research find? Multiple attempts at reaching a prospect pay off, right up to the sixth attempt. The average follow-up involves 1.2 attempts, including those where –if the follow-up is via the telephone – a message isn’t left. Which means, of course, that many marketers quit after one try.
That’s a mistake. Making the second effort improves contact rates by 55%, and on average success rates rose up to the sixth contact, when they topped out at 88%.
That said, some science has to go into the follow-up strategy. Six attempts ten minutes after the first inbound call aren’t going to be very effective, Hedges said. Nor are six efforts spread out over a week after the contact. The sweet spot varies from marketer to marketer, and in some cases from campaign to campaign.
Hedges also suggested that marketers not be afraid to return contacts outside of normal working hours. Even if a contact comes in to an inbound center during the wee hours of the night, it should be returned within the hour to maximize the likelihood, he said.
So does calling an inbound center late at night give permission for a phone to ring off the hook at 1am? Hedges didn’t offer a concrete answer to that, but according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, telemarketing calls cannot be made between 8am and 9pm.
That said, not all contacts have to be phone calls: E-mail is a 24-hour medium – and after-hours follow-up through e-mail may be fair game – and, Hedges suggested, may offer a greater likelihood of reaching an interested prospect.
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