Only 37% companies respond to their lead within an hour – HBR

Research shows that chances of qualifying a lead decrease drastically with time. Longer wait times means sales lost. Based on Lead360 Research, lead conversion is determined 57% by the lead quality and 43% by lead response time. Reducing latency and improving lead response time can help dealerships improve lead qualification rate and thus boost revenue.

 Timing Is The Key

Based on research from insidesales.com, adds of contacting and qualifying a lead drops 100 times if the response is within 5 minutes vs 30 minutes. The clock starts as soon as a customer contacts dealership or fills a web form. Dealerships are required to have robust technology and process to be able to assign and notify sales rep(s) who are available and can respond back to the lead quickly.

First To Respond

Based on research from insidesales.com, 50% of sales go to the first sales person that contacts a lead. By adopting technologies and process that can help you reach customer faster, dealerships can significantly improve conversion rates.

Personalized Response

Timeliness is important, however, the quality of response still plays a pivotal role in lead conversion. With sales scripts and similar responses from dealerships, customers often feel disconnected. According to a Research by BCG, brands can boost revenue by 6% to 10% by integrating technologies and data to create a personalized experience. Customer segmentation can help dealerships create a more personalized experience for customer, in turn increasing lead qualification rate

Lead Quality

Not all leads are sales-ready. Trying to respond back to each lead as soon as possible might lead to canned and scripted responses without any personal touch. A better strategy would be to quickly analyze and segment cold vs warm lead and set response time targets accordingly.

Contact All Leads

Studies show that only 70% of internet leads are actually contacted. Cold leads might have lower conversion ratio or longer sales cycle but not contacting them means leaving money on the table. A good way to contact these customers can be via personalized text which takes much less time vs a call and at the same time has much higher open (98%) rates vs email (21%)    

Timely Follow Up

By now, everyone has heard of 6 follow up rule. However, don’t assume that a lead is been contacted by sending an email which has a good chance to end up in spam or promotion folder. Actively engage and follow up with a lead on the modes he/she prefer. A good strategy can be to have a multi-channel lead follow up strategy based on lead type and lead preference.