By Danielle Whetstone
We’re wrapping up our blog series of tips and tricks for How to Work Your Leads with our final tip #5: Be Persistent. Not Annoying. True enough, digital leads can be hard to track down, but let’s dive into how to encourage engagement without turning off your lead for good.
Offer Value with Every Contact
According to Benjamin Franklin, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” That may be true, but there is a fine line between being persistent in your lead generation and annoying your prospect with clearly unwanted contact. As fine as that line may be, determining where it is could be the difference between being ghosted and closing that deal.
One of the critical elements your lead will pick up on is your motivation; are you more interested in making the sale or providing them with something they actually need. We’ve all been on the receiving end of an enthusiastic salesperson desperate to meet their sales quota or pocket that extra commission.
If you believe in your product or service and how it will benefit your lead, make sure that every touchpoint reflects that and offers something of value. Don’t just leave a voicemail saying you’re following up on the last four voicemails, emails, and texts you’ve sent. Direct them to information or resources that are applicable to them. Show that you respect their time, understand their challenges, and that you’re confident what you have can solve their problem.
Build a Connection
Leverage what you know about your lead to build a connection. Granted, if you’re still trying to establish initial contact, your information will be limited but do some digging. Are they marketing in a particular city? Do a little research and give some insight to that specific market. Is their industry experiencing a downturn? Demonstrate how you understand the complexities of their business, and you have some tools you know will help. Being on the same side of the table as your lead creates a sense of collaboration and goes a long way toward closing a deal.
What’s the Best Contact Strategy?
You’ve heard the numbers:
- Email: Over 45% of all emails are spam, 18% open rate, 5% response rate.
- Calls: About 40% of all calls are spam, 77% of people avoid sales calls
- Voice mail: About 70% of calls go to voicemail, 90% of first-time voicemails are never returned, 4.8% response rate.
- Texting: 98% open rate and 45% response rate.
Obviously, texting is the clear winner, and while this quick, short-form is becoming the preferred method of communication by many, you might not be able to do all your communication via text. The best course of action is to mix up your medium. Send an initial text, followed by a phone call (from the stats above, you’ll be leaving a voicemail), mention that you’ll be sending some additional info via email and will follow up in a couple of days. Repeat.
Our internal sales team says they typically send 4-6 text messages (not counting emails and calls) before they get a response. Sometimes it’s “not interested,” but other times, their lead is finally ready to get on a call and talk details. If your typical nurture pattern consists of a couple of calls and texts, you’re likely not persistent enough to get results.
This is where automated drip campaigns can save the day. Look for a service – like our affordable C2RM – that can schedule follow-up texts and emails so you can skip the hassle of keeping track of where your leads are in the nurturing process and which ones still need follow-up. Focus on your higher quality, “hotter” leads but don’t toss out those colder ones. For those that are unresponsive, keep your communication short, friendly, and informative and leave the door open for them to engage when they’re ready. If a lead has never responded after 6 months, it’s fair to consider them truly dead – go ahead and pull the plug.
Lead nurturing is a painstaking art form. However, starting off with quality leads from the get-go can keep you out of the weeds and into generating sales. At C Squared Social, our proprietary targeting methods are the key to how we help our clients reach their business goals and see real growth. Ready to start reimagining your marketing together? Let’s talk!
