The Mystery of the Missing Leads

Do you have a lead management mystery that needs to be solved?

If you've tried every lead generation strategy you can think of but still can’t seem to retain high-quality leads, you’ve sought out the right detectives. After looking over your case, we've found some clues that will help you get to the bottom of this quandary.

Clue #1: Lost Email 

Are your leads getting lost in your inbox? Once a prospect fills out an online inquiry form on your site and an auto-generated email notification arrives in your inbox, the clock starts ticking. Keeping track of those leads can be difficult, but it’s important, because the longer a prospect waits to hear back from a sales rep (if they ever do), the more likely they are to take their business elsewhere.

Clue #2: Lack of Lead Delegation

It's possible that if your leads are not getting hung up in your inbox, they're getting overlooked by your sales team. Many times there is miscommunication as to whose responsibility it is to call leads, resulting in nobody taking action. In fact, a study conducted by InsideSales.com showed that 40 percent of companies never respond to their web leads. (What a waste!)

Clue #3: Slow Response Time

One of the most important factors in capturing leads is how long it takes you to contact them. In fact, if you reach out to leads within five minutes versus 30 minutes of them filling out an online form, you're 21 times more likely to capture their business!

Don't make the mistake of wasting valuable time reading and filtering through email notifications while your prospects are passing the time by filling out inquiry forms on your competitors' sites. If the competition calls them first, that lead will slip through the cracks.

The Solution

We've cracked your case!

Now that we've put all the clues together, it's our professional opinion that a lead management software such as Lead Chaser would help you retain your leads.

Here’s how it works: The moment an online prospect submits a form on your website, Lead Chaser calls your predefined number. If we can’t get a hold of someone the first time, our round-robin routing capability allows us to route the call to the next agent on your specified rotation until an available agent is reached. When the system reaches a live agent, Lead Chaser uses text-to-speech technology to convert the contents of the form to a recording. Your agent then has the option to immediately call the prospect without even checking their email first!

Want more details? We've laid out our case findings in our SlideShare. Check it out to learn more about how to upgrade your lead management strategy.

The Benefits of Using Toll-Free Numbers on Promo Items

As marketers, we love promotional items. Whether they're pens, mugs, notepads or foreheads, we'll use the ad space. But we can't just blindly throw money at them — we have to know our investments are going to pay off.

So which items are the most popular? It turns out that the pen is mightier than the mug, according to Executive Marketing Consultants (EMC). Pens are the most cost effective promo items and have the biggest reach. Check out this infographic to see the other four winners.

Pens might work best broadly speaking, but how can you be sure that they're the most effective promotional gift for your business?

By using toll-free numbers (TFNs), of course! By placing a unique TFN on each promotional item, you can track which ones generate the most leads. This information can help in the following three ways.

Comparing Promotional Items

By placing TFNs on each item, you'll be able to figure out what compelled a lead to call you. Items that don't generate calls can be cut out of the lineup or given less ephasis, which will ultimately free up space in the budget for items that capture your audience's attention.

Evaluating Marketing Efforts

TFNs can also be used in other marketing activities such as advertisements or contests. This will let you compare the cost-per-lead between promotional items and other forms of marketing. Again, this will help you figure out where to allocate your budget to get the most ROI.

Identifying Increases and Drops in Performance

Don't just guess that pens are most effective for your business because a few people mentioned how much they liked them. Take facts and numbers to your boss to prove ROI.

TFNs give you monetary proof over the entire lifespan of a promotional item, so you'll be able to track how well an item performs as long as you use it. Once performance starts to drop, it might be time to reevaluate those psychedelic koozies.

Which promotional item is most popular with your customers? Let us know in the comments below!

BIA/Kelsey Report: Phone Calls Are the New Click

BIA/Kelsey recently published a report that explains how awesome phone calls are for generating and converting leads, and we're going on record to say we totally agree! The report has some great research, so we're going to give you the lowdown and give you some tips on how to stay ahead of the game with your leads.

They're Coming Fast

Nearly 55 percent of purchase-related conversions happen within one hour of initial mobile search, which means this is the prime time to contact them. To make that happen, you have to be prepared for leads every second of every day. Well that might be an exaggeration, but you do need to respond to them within this one-hour window.

The best way to do this is with a feature that will notify you as soon as a lead fills out a contact form on your website. You can call them immediately, maybe even before they're off your website! This will nudge them closer to doing business with you and will show them that you value their business.

They Love Calling

Over 66 percent of businesses rate their phone leads as "good" or "excellent," so be sure your staff's call handling skills are also "good" or "excellent!" There are a few ways you can do this, depending on how much time you have and how closely you want to monitor phone calls.

If you have a little more time on your hands and like to personally evaluate phone calls, call recording is perfect for you. You can record all inbound and outbound phone calls and review them in real-time or after the fact to make sure your staff is handling calls up to your standards.

If you're too busy to even eat lunch, then you need call scanning. Voice-recognition technology will scan your calls automatically to make sure your staff members are remembering to schedule appointments, say "thank you" and ask for a callback number. There's nothing better than letting robots do all the work, right?

If you agree with BIA/Kelsey and us, check out some of our other products to see how they can help you manage your phone leads.

[INFOGRAPHIC] Offline vs. Online Leads

When you think about the different ways lead can convert, it all boils down to two channels: offline (e.g., phone calls and walk-ins) and online (e.g., website and email). So what are the differences between these two channels when it comes to cost, efficiency and response rates? Check out this infographic from SalesForce to get the lowdown on online and offline lead conversion.

The Differences Between Online, Offline Leads and How Each Impacts Lead Conversions via SalesForce

Undoubtedly, you'll have leads from both channels, so you have to be prepared to manage them. An inbound lead tracker can help you manage your offline leads, while a product such as Lead Chaser can help you respond immediately to online leads (sometimes even before they've even finished browsing your site!).