In today’s digital world, so much time (and money) is spent on creating ways for customers to get in touch with businesses. However, many times the importance of lead response time is ignored.

Lead response time began gaining popularity following the release of a Harvard Business Review study concluding that sales teams were 60 times more likely to get in touch with and qualify a lead when responding within the first hour compared to waiting 24 hours for the first communication to take place. 

According to a study conducted by Drift, only 42% of companies respond to leads within five days of receiving their information. 

While it might be easy to say that sales teams are busy working with their current leads, it’s no excuse to allow 58% of leads go untouched after a consumer has determined they want to give you business. These are consumers who are interested in your business after all. 

The general rule of thumb when contacting new leads is that you have five minutes or less to get in touch with them. Once the five-minute cutoff period is reached, the odds of qualifying your lead decreases by 80%, according to recent data.

This not only proves that you want to be communicating with your leads as soon as possible after receiving their information, but also that your chances of earning their business is much higher than you may think. 

This is especially true when you are the first to respond to a consumer’s request. In fact, 78% of consumers end up purchasing from the company they hear from first. 

When it comes to responding to inbound leads within five minutes, many businesses are not equipped to handle high lead volumes. Unfortunately, this ultimately leads to losing business from potential clients who have researched your business and want to learn more. 

There are several options to better connect with inbound leads, however many of them require either part-time or full-time supervision. 

At Venator Performance Marketing, we are all about client insight, balancing customer interaction with lead conversion and using state-of-the-art technology to continually strive for a higher book, attend and purchase rate for your business. 

Learn more about Venator Performance Marketing and our dedicated lead generation and response center services on our website, or get in touch with lead generation expert today.