"Lead" Story

"Step up the stairs or stare at the steps" - Ralph Nichols

Leads are indisputably, the Holy Grail of all sales endeavors.

They are generated, qualified, pursued, distributed, tracked, nurtured, managed and converted...yet the way leads are approached in most day to day sales activities are often random rather than calculated.

What if I told you that there is well documented research, based on hundreds of hours of analyzing over a million cold calls, that successful lead conversion is largely driven by your response time?

Makes sense doesn't it?

Recently, I came across an article from an excerpted interview conducted by Geoffrey James of BNET.* Geoffrey had an opportunity to speak with one of the world’s most recognized authorities on cold call measurement, Dr. James Oldroyd, now with the Korean Business School SKK GSB.

Dr. Oldroyd’s research has revealed unequivocally, that there are indeed specific “days and times that are most effective for qualifying a lead and converting it into a real prospect.”

Response time (as we know) is critical and of course, the more time that is allowed to lapse, the more likely prospect interest dissipates. For example—Dr. Oldroyd points out that “you are 21 times more likely to qualify a lead if you call within 5 minutes than if you wait for 30 minutes.”

Response time also differs, according to Dr. Oldroyd with B2C leads vs. B2B; and between industries and product categories.

This highly regarded research casts an important light on how sales Reps (and Managers) can best invest their time and professional effort to work leads more advantageously, efficiently and for maximum pay off.

You can check out the details of the full study at: http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/research

*(Source: Geoffrey James-BNET)