Forbes Article: When It Comes to Inbound Marketing – Time is Definitely of the Essence

A new article featuring XANT landmark research highlights the importance of responding quickly to hot Inbound Marketing leads

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In Summary …

Companies like Hubspot are leading the way with Inbound Marketing and the sales industry is catching the vision of how to integrate with the new high velocity marketing. In 2007, Dave Elkington, CEO of XANT, and Ken Krogue, president and co-founder, contacted Dr. James B. Oldroyd to conduct a research study highlighting the best practices for contacting and qualifying leads. Their findings are revolutionizing sales and aligning high velocity sales teams with their counterparts in marketing.

From the 2007 study, it was revealed that the odds of making contact with a new lead were significantly higher if a rep initiated contact within the first 5 minutes of submission. The odds of contacting the lead dropped significantly after waiting only 30 minutes. A rep is 100 times less likely to contact the lead after 30 minutes of submission and 3000 times less likely after only five hours. Additionally, the study found that the odds of qualifying a lead drop 21 times if the rep waits 30 minutes before making first contact.

Since the study was originally published, it has been downloaded over 100,000 times yet still companies are not responding fast enough or persistent enough to hot Inbound Marketing leads. XANT regularly tests companies on their ability to respond to leads. This testing, known as ResponseAudit, highlights the disconnect between marketing objectives to drive valuable inbound leads to a sales team, and the sales team ability to respond to those leads. It is not uncommon for companies to not respond to a lead for up to 6 days!

If a company is spending significant money generating inbound leads though marketing efforts (sometimes as high as $200/lead) imagine how much money they are throwing down the drain by not making contact while the lead is hot. The research proves it – why not work smarter, not harder.

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