In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, efficient and effective lead follow-up is critical for success. With a robust marketing strategy and a steady stream of inbound leads, sales agents and managers need to prioritize, personalize, and persistently follow up with leads to convert them into customers.
In this article, we’ll provide you with the ultimate guide to lead follow-up best practices. We’ll cover everything from setting up a lead follow-up process to choosing the right communication channels and automating your lead follow-up to make it more efficient and effective. We’ll also discuss the essential lead follow-up metrics to track and analyze for optimal performance. Let’s get started!
Prioritizing Leads
The first step in effective lead follow-up is prioritizing leads based on their potential to convert. Not all leads are created equal, so it’s essential to focus on the leads that are most likely to result in a sale. To prioritize leads, sales agents and managers can use lead scoring and qualification techniques. Lead scoring assigns a point value to each lead based on their behavior and characteristics, such as job title, industry, and engagement with marketing content. Lead qualification involves asking questions to determine the lead’s needs, pain points, and budget. Often, marketing and sales will work together to qualify leads based on criteria that are relevant to your business.
Sales engagement software can help sales teams follow up with cold, warm, and hot leads by providing a variety of tools and features that make the process more efficient and effective. For cold leads, sales engagement software can automate outreach efforts, such as sending personalized emails, to help move the lead through the sales funnel. This can save sales reps time and allow them to focus on warmer leads that require more personalized attention.
For warmer leads, sales engagement software can provide scheduled auto-calls and auto-SMS messages to respond to form submissions or other interactions with sales materials. By integrating with your CRM, sales engagement software can trigger actions based on the lead’s engagement with marketing content and previous interactions with the sales team.
Speedy Follow-Up
The second key to successful lead follow-up is speedy response time. Research shows that 78% of B2B customers purchase from the vendor that responds first, and lead conversion increase by 391% when responding within the first minute.
Therefore, it’s essential to respond to leads promptly, ideally within minutes of receiving their inquiry. Sales agents and managers can use automation and templates to respond quickly to leads. Automated follow-up can include phone calls, text messages, and emails.
Kixie’s event-based automation features, such as speed to lead and auto-SMS, can help sales agents and managers respond promptly to leads by automating follow-up tasks such as sending text messages and leaving voicemails. These automation features also enable sales agents and managers to customize messages based on the lead’s behavior and interests.
Communication Channels for Speedy Follow Up
Choosing the right communication channels for lead follow-up is critical for the success of your B2B sales efforts. Each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the key is to understand your audience and their preferences. Here are some tips to help you choose the right communication channels for lead follow-up:
- Know your audience: Understanding your audience is the first step to choosing the right communication channel. Ask yourself questions such as, what is their preferred mode of communication? Are they active on social media or more likely to respond to emails? Knowing your audience’s preferences will help you tailor your approach to their needs.
- Consider the nature of your message: Different communication channels are more suited for different types of messages. For example, if you need to send a detailed proposal, email might be the best channel as it allows for attachments and a longer message. On the other hand, if you want to quickly check in with a prospect, a phone call or text message might be more appropriate.
- Use a mix of channels: It’s important not to rely on just one communication channel. A mix of channels can help you reach your prospects more effectively and increase your chances of a response. For example, if you’ve sent an email and haven’t heard back, you could try following up with a phone call or LinkedIn message.
- Test and track: It’s important to test and track the effectiveness of your communication channels. Use tools such as email tracking and call analytics to understand which channels are working best for you. You can then use this information to optimize your approach over time.
Personalization
The third key to successful lead follow-up is personalization. Personalization involves tailoring communication to the lead’s needs, interests, and pain points. Personalized communication can help build trust, establish rapport, and increase the chances of converting a lead into a customer. Sales agents and managers can use strategies such as customizing email templates and using the lead’s name in the subject line to personalize communication.
Personalization can also come in the form of reaching out with a phone number that feels personal to the prospect you’re reaching out to. In other words, using a local phone number can drastically improve your chances of getting someone to pick up the phone during a follow-up call.
Learn how GoSite boosted talk time and ROI with local presence dialing.
Persistence
The fourth key to successful lead follow-up is persistence. Follow-up is not a one-and-done activity; it requires persistence and consistency. Research shows that most deals require 5 follow-up attempts to turn a lead into a customer. Sales agents and managers can use multiple channels of communication, such as email, phone, and social media, to stay in touch with leads. Establishing a regular cadence of follow-up can also help build momentum and increase the chances of conversion.
Kixie’s automation features can help sales agents and managers establish a regular cadence of outreach to leads by automating follow-up attempts. Check out how auto-calls and auto-SMS messages can be sent based on prospect actions in this article.
Lead Follow-Up Metrics
Tracking lead follow-up metrics is essential for optimizing your B2B sales process. By analyzing your lead follow-up metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to boost your sales performance. Two critical lead follow-up metrics to track are response time and conversion rate.
Response time is the amount of time it takes for a sales agent to respond to a lead’s inquiry. Research shows that leads are more likely to convert when they receive a prompt response. Therefore, it’s essential to track response time and update your sales process to ensure your sales team is following up with leads promptly.
Conversion rate is the percentage of leads that result in a sale. It’s a critical metric to track because it helps you identify the effectiveness of your lead follow-up process. By analyzing your conversion rate, you can identify patterns and trends in your sales process that need improvement. For example, if you notice that leads are dropping off at a particular stage in the sales funnel, you can focus on optimizing that stage to improve your conversion rate.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, effective lead follow-up is critical to the success of any B2B sales team. By setting up a lead follow-up process, choosing the right communication channels, and automating your lead follow-up with tools like Kixie, you can increase your chances of turning inbound leads into customers. Remember, the key is to be prompt, personalized, and persistent in your lead follow-up efforts. Good luck!
