Someone has just visited your website, loves your product or service and would like to get in touch with you. They put their details into your contact form which you receive in your inbox. You try and get in contact with that customer but reach a voicemail – what’s next? Seems trivial right? Give them another call.
As simple as this process sounds, many companies are missing key opportunities by not following a structured follow up process. In fact, recent industry research shows 40-50% of all inbound sales leads are never followed up.
Let’s put that into perspective.
If your company receives on average 20 enquiries a month through your website. Based on the industry research, you only follow up with 10 of them which with an average conversion rate of 33%, you complete 3 orders. If you had followed up with ALL 20 enquiries, using the example conversion of 33% you would close 6 orders.
Still with me? Well lets put it this way – for arguments sake, imagine each order equates to £1,500. With the example above that’s £4,500 of extra revenue missed each month or £54,000 a year. Just for not having a structured follow up process.
So how do you turn the 40-50% into 0%? By following the guide below and improve your follow up process (trust me, it’s worth it!)
Keep the details safe.
First things first, add your inbound sales leads to your CRM software. The last thing you want to do is lose it, and nothing is more embarrassing than asking for the details again because you lost the piece of paper you wrote it down on. Having an active and up to date CRM will not only make your life easier, but will better help you structure your follow up process.
Be responsive.
If you walked into a store and had to wait over an hour to get served, would you stay in the store, or would you walk to the next store offering a similar product?
To maximise your results, call your lead within 30 minutes. This way your lead is more than likely to be thinking about your service and product and has not moved on to another task.
Time is most certainly of the essence. As soon as your customer puts an enquiry through, their likely next step is to carry on their online research, which is likely to land them on your competitors websites.
Speak to your customers before they speak to your competitors.
Structure your follow ups.
Set key milestones for you or your sales person to complete in order to determine the status of the lead. As mentioned above – 40-50% of all inbound sales leads are never followed up.
Milestone 1: Call
Milestone 2: Follow up email
Milestone: 3 Call
Milestone 4: Follow up email
Milestone 5: Put on mailing list
Milestone 6: Call
I would recommend you complete milestones 1 and 2 within an hour of receiving the lead. Milestone 3 should be completed within 72 hours of receiving the lead with 4, 5 and 6 being completed within 1-2 weeks of receiving the lead. Of course, if you have no response from the customer by Milestone 6, don’t get rid of this data – keep it! Add it to your CRM, but move on to the next lead.
Your process may change depending on your industry, but I have found this a common structure that I have stuck to, with great success.
Don’t give up.
You’ve called your lead, you’ve emailed your lead…radio silence. Don’t be disheartened, apply a different approach.
Try putting them on a mailing list. Sometimes customers want to know more about your service or product, but are not yet ready to commit to the order. By putting the customer on a mailing list you’re able to keep them updated with your latest news, trends, giveaways and more whilst reinforcing your brand. This can sometimes spark their interest again to get back in contact with you.
Putting in a structured follow-up process can really help your business to close more sales, increase revenue and thus grow their businesses.
If you want to increase traffic and the number of leads you get through your website, get in touch to find out more about how our SEO and marketing services can help you to grow your business.
