Imagine you’re shopping for tires online. You’re looking at several different options on several different websites ranging from big box stores to your local tire dealerships. You’ve settled on the type of tire that works for your vehicle, and you’re ready to make the next step. You fill out four request-a-quote forms on four different websites. You grab your phone and head outside to mow your grass.
You barely make it to your garage when you hear your phone ring.
You pick up, “Hello.”
“Hi, I’m calling from your local tire store. I saw you requested a quote for tires, and I wanted to get back to you as soon as I could. I see you are looking at…”
You look at your watch and realize it’s only been 5 minutes since you submitted the quote request. These guys are fast.
“How did you call me so fast?” you ask.
“My website is connected to my phone, and it notifies me if someone asks a question. How does tomorrow at one work for you?”
Well, that works.
You have your new tires before anyone else could respond to your quote requests.
The online world is competitive, and the sale often goes to the store that responds first. How quickly do you respond to your customers’ questions? To grow your business and to keep your online leads from going cold, you need to respond to them quickly because…
- Companies that contacted a potential customer within one hour were seven times more likely to qualify the lead compared to those that called after an hour (Harvard Business Review).
- AND they were more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer (Harvard Business Review).
- The odds of making contact increased 100 fold if the lead was called within five minutes, versus 30 (Kellogg School of Management and MIT).
In your store, you know and can see your potential leads. It’s more difficult on your website. You have to dig a little deeper to find the really rich sources of leads, and once you’ve found them, you need to figure out a way to respond to them quickly.
Your Website’s Lead Gathering Hot Spots
Contact Us Form – The Contact Us form connects you and your customers. It’s a place for customers to ask questions about your business, products, and services.
Customer Survey – The customer survey form allows your customer to give you feedback. Add a personal touch and contact them to ask about their answers.
Product-Specific Questions – Before a purchase, customers may need a little more information and may email you a product-specific question.
Request for Quote – Like the story above, when your customer finds the product or service they want, they may want a quote. People requesting quotes are typically close to buying, so treat these leads with care, and respond to them quickly.
Send to a Friend – According to a Nielson study, 90% of internet customers trust recommendations from people they know. Your customers can send product-specific pages to their friends.
Strike While the Leads Are Hot
4 Steps to Quickly Respond to Leads
- Corral leads into one email - Take all the forms and emails your customers use to contact you and push them all into one email address. It’s easier to keep your leads organized if you keep them all in one place. You can either set it up so that all your form submissions and question-related emails go to the same place, or you can forward them all to a salesperson designated to handle your website’s leads.
- Designate a salesperson to handle online leads – This cuts down on confusion and keeps customers from falling through the cracks. For bigger stores, you may need to designate one person to dole out the leads to the salespeople. This salesperson is not just in charge of checking your online leads, but needs to be constantly connected to your online lead stream. How can he stay constantly connected?
- Connect your online-lead email to your smartphone – Like the story at the beginning of the article, the best way to have real-time response is to connect your lead email to a smartphone. You can make it a little more fun and exciting by setting your notification sound as a Star Wars blaster or “La Cucaracha.” When you or your salesperson hears the smartphone notification, you’ll know the clock is ticking. With the smartphone, you can see your potential customer’s information, prepare for the call, and even call or email the person at that moment. With everything, it takes practice to get good, so you’ll need to practice.
- Run website lead drills – The numbers speak for themselves, the faster you contact a lead, the more likely you’ll get a hold of them and the more likely they’ll become customers. You need to get your times down, so run drills. Every few weeks, submit a request a quote form, or fill out a contact us form. Hit submit and then start the timer. Set your goals for a quicker-than-fifteen-minute response time, and practice until you get there. You perform how you practice, so take this exercise seriously.
The Clock is Ticking
You will contact your leads more often, and you will qualify more leads if you respond to them quickly. If you follow these four steps, you should see less of your online leads growing cold, and hearing more, “You guys are fast.” And “I’ll take it.”
How do you respond to your leads? Have you been impressed by a company that responded quickly to your questions? Tell us about it in the comments.
Website Lead Generation
A 50 Below website provides many pathways for your browsers to turn into leads. It lets your customers contact you with Contact Us forms, Customer Survey forms, Request a Quote forms, product-specific question forms, and many other ways for your customers to communicate with you. If you’re ready to start pulling in more online leads, let us know. Call or email us today. We’re here to help.