What is it about having a deadline on writing an article make is so much harder to start? At the same time I am easily starting this post I have an article due in two days on virtually the same topic, but am having a heck of a time getting the right intro paragraph started. I guess it is the pressure that is getting to me. 
I am actually going to have to have someone proof read my work! lol
Anyway, a no brainer was confirmed in a press release today by Leads360. I say no brainer with a certain level of sarcasm too. You would think that this lead management stuff is a no brainer, but it is simply not for most. The release also give a very cool piece of information that I think is very valuable, but before I get into the details I also want to say that I love the fact that a company is providing information like this no matter how logical it may seem. I think the major problem with lead management is that there are so many questions that do not have statistically relevant answers for the masses, only best guess and assumptions. And when there are only best guesses and assumptions, even if they are completely logical, they become more difficult to implement within a company.
So here are some facts. According to the press release calling a lead 2 times over just one time increases your chances of contacting that lead. lol I laugh because I know you all just said, duh!, but more specifically it increases your chance by 87%. I also laugh because you would be surprised how many companies will buy a $30 lead and only call it once. Typically this is not because they think they only need to call a lead once, but is because there usually is a lack of oversight.
The real nugget of information is given when the report tells you how many calls can you make until you reach the maximum contact rate. The answer is 6 calls. Making any more then 6 calls according to Leads360′s study will not impact your contact rate for the better. This is very interesting answer to a question that, I am sure, not a lot of people knew. I would love to see the actual numbers for each attempt and would be curious to see the degradation in contact rate with the number of calls exceeding the 6th call. Where does it really fall off the map?
This number really gets me thinking. First, does this mean I should not have my CSR’s call a lead more then 6 times? If the stats are correct a lead buyer could save money and resources by not calling leads that statistically cannot be contacted. Here is what I would do with this number if I were buying leads. First, I would do my own study with my own leads to determine where my contact rate begins to decline. Once I determined that number I would look at redistributing that lead to either a dialer or a second tier CSR group. (That is assuming I give all my fresh leads to my top tier closers first.) My goal would be not stop calling those leads altogether, but rather stop wasting my closers with those leads and let the work horses attack them.
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Yeah! Duh! If the lenders that are buying leads don’t get this by now, they never will! Apparently there is a feeling that they don’t hence the writing of this article and the study.
One of the first things I learned 20 years ago about sales is the concept of “Six drips till you drop.” I can’t remember or find the Author of this concept, but the fact I was taught this 20 years ago, and Lead360 verified it is interesting.
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Matt,
I have worked with a lot of lead buyers and you would be surprised.
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Suprised by what in particular?
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You would be surprised how many there are that do not get this point, that call leads once, that don’t call within 24 hours (let alone 5 minutes), that receive leads via email, that waste thousands of dollars and then blame it on the quality of leads. You are probably right, they never will get it either.
The good news is that there are a lot buyers that do get it and that do implement very solid lead management best practices.
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It doesn’t suprise me.
For the old school street Loan Officers(those that primarily suck up to Realtors) they might have tried buying some leads at one time, but for the reasons mentioned above, failed.
For some on-line lenders it’s the art of picking the low hanging fruit while other leads that might be good 1-6 months out fall to the floor.
I sound like a broken record!
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To misquote a famous author: “Elementary, my dear Watson”. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s written works never actually saw this phrase although the first and second parts of the phrase were seen in close association during conversations. But I digress.
As many of you opined above and is the central premise of the paper (found here: http://www.leads360.com/contact/default.aspx?msg=whitepaper&KW=call_attempts_study), sometimes the most obvious and logical actions are never taken by lead buyers. I don’t necessarily understand why they don’t but I do revel in the fact that it means significant upside for those that choose to engage with their leads smartly.
We conducted the study based on several million leads that our clients tried contacting over a period of many months to have as diverse a data set as possible. We studied the effects of multiple call attempts all the way to 20 and I’ve published the entire results of our study below just to whet your intellectual curiosity. Some explanation is in order:
* Column 1 denotes the call attempt
* Column 2 denotes the percentage of ‘Contactable leads’ contacted – this is key to understanding the study and is NOT the same as Contact Rate. This means that the data set excludes any leads that were never contacted. This metric is a percent of the remaining leads in our study which we define as ‘contactable leads’
* Column 3 denotes the percent improvement in the ‘% of Contactable leads contacted’ metric for each successive attempt over the very 1st call attempt
* Column 4 denotes the percent improvement in the ‘% of Contactable leads contacted’ metric for each successive attempt over the preceding call attempt
Contact % of Contactable Improvement Improvement over
Attempts leads contacted over 1st attempt preceding attempt
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1 39%
2 72% 87% 87%
3 83% 114% 15%
4 88% 128% 6.5%
5 91% 136% 3.4%
6 93% 141% 2.1%
7 95% 145% 1.5%
8 96% 148% 1.1%
9 96% 150% 0.8%
10 97% 151% 0.6%
11 97% 152% 0.5%
12 98% 153% 0.3%
13 98% 154% 0.3%
14 98% 154% 0.3%
15 98% 155% 0.2%
16 99% 155% 0.2%
17 99% 156% 0.2%
18 99% 156% 0.1%
19 99% 156% 0.1%
20 99% 157% 0.1%
As you can see, the benefits of calling start trailing off pretty steeply after the 5th or 6th attempt, we chose to prescribe 6 attempts as the cut-off. I beg to defer with LeadCritic in that this is a very statistically relevant study with a data set this size and of this heterogeneity, at least at a high level. I do agree though that to get maximum benefit from a study like this, one should conduct the same study but specifically for their own sales team to understand the effect of call attempts on their contact rate.
Cheers!
Nisheeth Singh
Director of Strategic Intelligence, Leads360
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Nisheeth,
Thank you for adding this very valuable information!
Also, just to be clear, I think the study is very statistically relevant. I am not sure where I said the opposite, but if I did I will chalk it up for typing too fast.
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