Outstanding job! You’ve reached your prospects with data-finder solutions. You have a highly engaging content strategy that encourages inbound leads. That is an accomplishment, but actually, that’s just the first step of B2B leads generation.
What’s happening in your conversion funnel after someone has filled the subscription form on your website?
Take a close look at the conversion path of your leads management system. Responding and nurturing leads is the most important step of turning your leads into paying customers. If your goal is to increase your sales or marketing conversion rates, start by implementing the 5 essential follow-up tips.
Lead Response Time for Sales and B2B Marketing Leads
Time plays the most important role when it comes to lead follow-up. Whether you are managing a marketing automation plan or scalable infrastructure that supports sales, the follow-up process should be defined with logic. Even before the leads start to come in, plan the following:
- Timing of response
- Define the best respondent: for example, a local sales rep or CMO
- Message and channel of the response
- The sequence of responses
- Follow-up content
Quick response time is extremely important for successful communication. The sooner the better – studies have shown the most optimal response time should be 5 minutes or less. Based on data analysis, you are 100 times more likely to connect with your prospects if you have responded to your lead in 5 minutes versus half an hour. Your company’s ROI depends on the quick response.
B2B marketing companies spend a fortune on digital campaigns, SEO, content and inbound marketing efforts. Sadly, many businesses respond within a 24 or 48 hours time frame. Collaboration between marketing and sales comes in handy. As a manager, dedicate a decent portion of the budget for your sales follow-up operations. Successful marketing operations and a quick response plan will increase the return on investment.
Define Response Reps
With the development of email and messaging automation technologies, your audience may be tired of talking to robots. Automation is the basis for follow-ups, but the conversation should take a personal approach. Start by training your sales team to be helpful and informative as much as possible about your service or product. People don’t appreciate hard sales anymore. Being helpful enhances the value proposition and increases the opportunity to develop a conversation. Location may also be a factor in choosing the best rep. For certain businesses, a locally knowledgeable and experienced rep will perform the most, while for other products globality will play a bigger role.
Contextual Content
Responding to inbound leads is easier than to outbound leads. First of all, the automotive sales response should be super relevant and set the ground for the rep’s valuable call. The rep should also have access to the prospect’s information, including address, email, phone number and the specific interest in your product or service. Data management plays a huge role here in granting the sales reps specific information targeted towards sales. Please, don’t let your sales team search for business numbers on the web. That should be included in your data solutions.
Channel of Communication
Being in more than one place increases the chance of communication with your prospects. Respond to your lead from 2 channels or more. If the lead arrived from the web, the most personal way to connect is to follow up with a phone call. An email will be the second method of response. If the prospect contacted you via phone call, text message, chatbox, or email, reply on that channel. In any case, for the maximal results follow-up as quickly as possible.
Consistent and Compelling Message
Regardless of the channel of communication, email, phone call, or SMS, a consistent message is a key to success. Start with a certain pitch and improve it over time. Similar to digital marketing campaigns, you should also apply A/B testing to the response message.
We said that many times, but just in case, know your audience. The better you know your prospects’ personality and interests, the more likely you will make the impression that connects. With our data enrichment and sentiment analysis, businesses get access to emails, phone numbers, addresses, social profiles, demographics and intentions of the target audience.
Now that you’ve increased your leads, it’s time to turn them into real conversions and long-term clients. Outlasted Data can help you grow your B2B business using real-time data to achieve measurable results. Reach out to get the conversation started.
