Most of us are consistently missing the online lead follow-up window

More than a decade after the Internet hit prime time and stayed there, marketing and sales organisations are consistently missing the boat when it comes to web-to-lead response times.

A recent research study by InsideSales.com shows that the average response times to website leads sits at 40 hours and 56 minutes

And though some companies are doing better than before, it is at the expense of their  slower competitors.

Too few companies appear to act on the reality that there is a direct correlation between lead response times and lead close rates.

Unfortunately, whilst the need for speed is widely acknowledged, few are geared to react in the almost instant –on timeframe.

What’s the value in a web presence if you are not equipped to engage with those who do visit your site and request contact?

This year’s Insidesales.com report involved 5257 companies.

Their sites were visited by “secret shoppers” who located a web form and asked for follow up in some form.

The clock then started ticking as Inside Sales counted down how long it would take for responses to flow and how were they managed:

  • 1811 (34%) companies were eliminated from further analysis because they did not have a website which contained a functioning Web form.
  • 3446 companies received a Web form submission.
  • 1368 companies (40%) did not respond to the lead we submitted.
  • The average response time by phone was 40 hours and 56 minutes.
  • The median response time by phone was 4 hours and 8 minutes.

The average response times have not improved since the first year this research was conducted in 2008 and time of 44 hours, 31 minutes and 8 second was recorded.

1368 companies of the 3446 in the study did not make a single phone call to follow up on people coming to their website and asking for contact.

214 companies made 6 or more phone calls to follow up on web-based inquiries.

The report also found that 65 percent of companies make their initial response through email.

The remaining 35 percent use phone calls to respond — 23 percent called and left a voicemail, and 12 percent called and did not leave a voicemail.

7 years ago