Between 40-80% of sales leads are never followed up on, as shared by Mark Hunter and Andy Paul at Dreamforce. Even though I’ve witnessed this type of laziness first-hand, I was still shocked that salespeople could pass up this many opportunities to sell. It’s unbelievable.

One of the biggest mistakes salespeople make is not following up

As Andy Paul put it, "Sales leads are like lottery tickets. They won't all be winners, but you don't know until you engage."

The value of speed

Not only do you want to follow up on every lead, you want to do so quickly.

We now sell to people differently, because they come into the funnel at a different place than before. These days, most buyers have done online research before they reach out. They have fewer questions and are more pressed for time. Simply put, leads now have a shorter shelf life. As Andy says, "Later lives on the same street as never."

Walking past the Insidesales.com booth, I heard a presentation about lead generation and follow-up. The presenter asked the crowd to guess the average response rate for contacting a lead. Someone said two days and another said five days. The presenter pointed to me, and I yelled out the first number that came to mind—36 hours. He accused me of cheating, as the correct answer was 38 hours.

I wasn't cheating, but the data should shock every sales leader. 38 hours is entirely too long to wait before following up on leads. In fact, 38 minutes might be too long. According to InsideSales.com’s 2012 Lead Response Management Study:  

A sales rep is 100 times more likely to get a prospect on the phone if the initial call is made within five minutes from the time the prospect submitted the web form, versus 30 minutes later. The odds of the lead entering the sales process, or becoming qualified, are 21 times greater when contacted within the same time frame. 

The cost of not following up

Just consider the economic impact of such laziness. Companies spend about $250 billion dollars on advertising and lead generation each year. If you only follow up with 50% of your leads...well, you do the math. 

The fortune's in your follow-up. There's nothing more important than taking care of prospects and customers. Sure, they might interrupt your day, but that's the idea. 

To learn more about the power of relationships for sales success, check out my new book, Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal.

About the Author

Joanne Black is America’s leading authority on referral selling—the only business-development strategy proven to convert prospects into clients more than 50 percent of the time. As the founder of No More Cold Calling, Joanne helps salespeople, sales teams, and business owners build their referral networks, attract more business, decrease operating costs, and ace out the competition. A captivating speaker and innovative seminar leader, Joanne is the author of NO MORE COLD CALLING™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust and Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal. To learn more, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com, email joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com, or call 415-461-8763.

Learn more about sales following up and closing deals with the free Salesforce ebook below.