The InsideSales.com software provides users two separate ways to immediately respond to leads over the phone. They are:

1. ResponsePop - Utilizes the inbound ACD portion of InsideSales.com.
2. Call Now - Utilizes the outbound dialer portion of InsideSales.com

Each of these two options operates very differently. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The number of customers we have using either option is split about evenly between the two. I will discuss these  methods below.

ResponsePop
This option utilizes the inbound ACD portion of InsideSales.com to facilitate an immediate response. It works like this:

1. Lead information is submitted electronically to InsideSales.com.
2. In this "post" there are instructions to perform a ResponsePop.
3. A sales rep is logged into the InsideSales.com inbound ACD for the ResponsePop leads
4. Less than one second after the lead is posted to InsideSales.com, the sales rep's phone will ring and screen will pop with the lead information
5. Upon answering the phone, the sales rep will hear the phone ringing out to the lead.

This form of immediate response is the most intrusive for the sales rep. It is the best way to ensure the quickest response when seconds matter the most. It is also the best option for companies with three or less sales reps.

Call Now
This option utilizes the outbound dialer portion of InsideSales.com to facilitate an immediate response. This option is simpler than the ResponsePop option. Here's how it works:

1. Lead information is submitted electronically to InsideSales.com
2. In the "post" there are instructions to perform a ResponsePop
3. The lead is inserted into the outbound dialer as the very next lead to be called
4. A sales rep is actively making calls in the InsideSales.com outbound dialer
5. As a sales rep goes through calls, they will automatically call new leads as they are added to InsideSales.com

The drawbacks to this option are that it can take longer to respond to leads. If your organization has only one or two people making calls, they could both possibly get caught on the phone with another lead and not get to the new lead for a long time. The other drawback is that an outbound call is regulated by the sales rep. If he or she simply decides they do not want to talk to the person, they could simply skip right through the new lead. The advantage to this method is it is much less intrusive to the sales rep. If your organization makes a significant number of outbound calls this may be a better option.

Both options can provide the same end. The only difference is what means is best for you to get there.

Keeping the interest of a lead after conversion is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome for any business. There is a balance between providing leads with enough information to make an educated choice, and just annoying the heck out of someone. The goal is to find the middle ground.

The first idea to keep in mind is the person who just converted from your website did so for a specific reason. They wanted to download a case study, they want a free trial, or they wanted to see how much your product costs. In each of these situations they are willing to give you their contact information for something of value. This means their information should hold value to you as well. So the real question is, how do I configure my e mail and phone response to this lead to get the most value out of it, every time?

Through practice and experience I have found the answer to that question. There is little variation to when and how often you should be contacting new web leads, regadless of the industry or business you are in.

First Contact

Your first contact should be no longer than five minutes after conversion, and by phone. This means you need to require a phone field on your web form. Do not respond by e mail first, unless you do not plan on responding by phone at all. Most companies have automatic e mail responders. A recent study of the Alexa top 250 shows 47% of companies responded to web inquiries through e mail. 7.5% responded by phone. Only 0.6% of those that responded by phone did so within five minutes. By being the first to contact a lead, while your company is still on their mind, you are positioning your company with a true competitive advantage. The same study showed the odds of qualifying a lead increase by 21x if attempted within five minutes versus 30 minutes.

Succeeding Contacts

After the first contact you should have a standard strategy for contacting leads. Don't be too overbearing by attempting to contact them every day for three months. Don't be bashful and only attempt one call and give up. There should be balance. I've found the following strategy to work the best.

Calls

Your calling strategy will depend on your bandwidth. The more resources you have available for lead generation, the more success you will see down the pipeline. The first day you should attempt to contact a lead through calls up to four times the first day, leaving one voice message. The next four days you should attempt to contact through calls a maximum of twice per day, leaving one voice message per day. After the first week, you should attempt contact once every other day by phone, until the lead is a month old. At a month old, it should then be moved into a never contacted status, attempt contact once per month by phone. Keep in mind these limits are for leads that you have not yet been able to contact. Once contacted and dispositioned, the strategy changes.

E Mail

In today's world E mail contact is just as important as giving someone a call. After the first e mail response you should be e mailing less than calling. People can keep track of your e mail trail much better than a missed call trail. Don't become spam.

E mail two should happen on day two, right after the call and voice message. E mail three should come on day three, right after the call and voice message. E mail four should come on day five. E mail five should come just after one week, so day eight. You should then be e mailing a maximum of once per week until the lead is a month old. After a month old, you should e mail a maximum of once per week.

To sumarize, you should send at least four e mails in the first week, with one e mail per week in each successive week. At a month old you should e mail a maximum of one per month, into perpetuity.

Again, keep in mind this assumes the lead is dispositioned as never contacted. Once this status changes these strategies change.

The overall goal is to get the most out of your leads. Be plesantly persistent. Don't be overbearing. Don't be shy. But attempt contact enough to give yourself a fighting chance.

I've read many articles about how to do this or that to get more out of your marketing or sales efforts. There are a host of sources available if you want to pay someone to learn how to do either of those. In my searches I've found that services offered in this realm are fairly segmented. In other words, there is no one place I've found that will outline the entire lead lifecycle, and how to get more value out of each step.

All leads start with some sort of impression. These days impressions are all over. By the time you get to work in the morning you may not have realized you have already been exposed to hundreds of impressions. Billboards, logos on shirts, clothing brands, computer brands, drink labels, and so on. The point is a person is exposed to thousands upon thousands of impressions per day. In the business world, how does one stand out and take advantage? The best place to start, depending on your industry, is to do some sort of web marketing. SEO, PPC, etc... Google is a good place to look for driving both SEO and PPC tools.

In terms of web marketing an impression, hopefully, becomes a click. Clicks aren't free. Everyone listed on the first search page in Google has paid some price to be there. All of the time or money spent to get there is simply in an effort to drive traffic to their web site. As a business owner I would want as much traffic as possible. I would seek ways to drive my site listing to the top of search listings as fast as I can.

Once people are visiting my website, I will somehow want to get information from that visitor. When a website visitor fills our a form on my website to get more information, it's called a conversion. Driving conversions is one of the most misunderstood sciences in web marketing. Just like other areas of web marketing, there are rules to the game. Probably the biggest mistake by most web marketers is not properly aligning offers with requiring visitors to fill out their information, or convert. This is a transaction of value. The website visitor wants something of value, and you want your information to try and sell to them. These two aspects must be properly aligned. Companies like Omniture can help drive more conversions.

Once you have converted leads is when the sales process really begins. It is the role of the sales team to then qualify and close the lead. Again, there are many sources of information on how to do this better. InsideSales.com provides tools for automating this process and making sales people more efficient.

With all the information on the web about marketing and selling I've found this outline to be the simplist way to understand the true life of a lead. Hopefully it helps you.

In the business of helping people get through their leads faster we commonly run into this question. We've created a gatlin gun for calling through leads. Most companies are used to using a musket, with manual reloading and all. Handing someone these tools, especiall to someone who is unprepared to grow, can be shocking.

What typically happens is companies turn on the high powered gatlin gun to go through their leads and soon find thier lead database is running low. They are used to getting through their leads rather slowly. I inevtibly hear the question "how do I get more leads?"

I offer three simple ways:
1. Go to current customers for refferals. This is your always warm list.
2. Charge up your Web PPC & SEO efforts. There are hosts of outsource companies and sites devoted to helping companies get more from both PPC & SEO.
3. Create lists. The best list is one nobody else has. Don't always settle for buying lists. That's what everyone else is doing. Get creative and find your group of buyers and market directly to them. Who has a need for your product. Don't stop until you get that list of leads. It's more work, but will always pay off. That's the exact reason nobody else has that list, it's work. If you're having trouble creating custom lists lookup a company called Incoho. They specalize in custom list building.