Want to Successfully Capture Leads? You’ve Got 5 Minutes.

by Erica Hawkins  May 7, 2014

Phone calls are a valuable lead source, but a ringing phone isn’t valuable on its own – it’s what you do with it. To maximize the value of phone leads it’s important to act quickly. The value of an inbound lead decays rapidly with every passing minute, so to get the most value from your marketing you need to be following up with leads, quickly and reliably.

Short Lead Response Time is Critical

According to a study conducted by Prof. James B. Oldroyd at MIT , you’re 100 times more likely to reach your prospect if you call within 5 minutes of their inquiry vs 30 minutes and 21 times more likely to qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes. That’s why it’s important to make sure the gap between receiving a lead and responding to that lead is as short as possible to increase your chances of capturing qualified leads.

Shorten Your Response Time

  1. **Answer The Phone **
    Make sure you or someone on your team is available to receive and screen phone leads.
  2. If You Can’t Answer The Phone, Call Back Quickly
    Implement a process for successfully following up with leads and keep the process as concise as possible.
  3. Use Tools to Help Your Process
    Call tracking can help expedite the process of following up with leads. You can configure CallRail to send an email every time your business receives a call. The email not only alerts you of a call even if you’re away from you phone, but also includes data on how the caller found your business, giving you context when returning the call. You can also use CallRail’s voicemail feature to receive a transcription of each voicemail which makes it even easier to follow up quickly and knowledgeably.