I just finished a phone conversation with Trish Bertuzzi, the founder of The Bridge Group, one of the leading Inside Sales Consulting firms in the US.
The topic of our original MIT Study with Dr. James Oldroyd came up and the fact that many people have thrown around a lot of numbers since that research was released.
Trish asked a very poignant statement, “All the immediate response data is very important when a person is wanting you to contact them, but what about when they download a white paper, and probably don’t even want you to call them?”
Her question cuts right to the point.
What is more important, making immediate contact with somebody, or waiting and biding your time to engage them into a later opportunity in hopes of higher chances at a sale?
Let’s say somebody goes to your website, downloads a whitepaper, and you call them minutes or seconds later and they haven’t even had a chance to read it yet. How do they feel? Are they turned off or impressed with your immediate follow through?
Is it worth the dramatic increase in the odds of reaching them (100x) and the significant increase in setting an appointment (21x) for the potential chance of appearing too pushy?
Big debate here!
The salespeople say yes, absolutely! The marketers, especially those versed in permission marketing stand back and think twice.
Do you remember when Caller ID first came out? Do you remember the first time somebody answered your phone call and said your name before you had said a word? Didn’t it wig you out? But does it even bother you now? I expect it. Now it is common place.
After two years, the practical use of immediate response techniques and technology still begs the question: “Should you vary your immediate response strategy based on the kind of offer the visitor engaged with on your website?”
So far we have found that offers like Receive a Proposal, Download Pricing, 30 Day Free Trial, Talk to a Consultant, or even See a Demo are prime for immediate response technologies. I also categorize all of these offers as “Buying Signal” offers, and the faster you talk to them the better. But what about “Tire Kicker” offers like White Papers, eBooks, Product Literature, Webinars, or even Research Papers (our favorite)? Should you wait a while and sacrifice the 70% or even 80% chance of reaching them with immediate response by allowing them to read it first and think about it?
Honest answer? We don’t know. And as far as we are aware, nobody does.
Guesses? Well, it makes a strong case to be able to increase the chances of contacting them by 100x, or qualifying them by 21x. But what about making the sale? Will it hurt that?
We hope to get Dr. Oldroyd to help us answer that question soon.
What are your thoughts and experience?
(If you need a refresher summary of the MIT study go to MIT Study to read it, or you can download even more recent research at inside sales research)
CATEGORIES: lead response management
TAGS: Lead Management, lead response, mit study
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I believe reaching out to the prospective customer immediately is the right way to go regardless of the situation. If nothing more than a simple introductory phone call and an offer to send additional information if appropriate. I am in the resort real estate sales business and this is the process we are beginning to use. I will report back after we put it to the test but it’s my guess that the qualification percentage will increase dramatically.
