Slow or Fast? The Winner in Small Business Marketing

We all know the story and who wins this race in the book - in today's world of sales and marketing it is the salespeople and companies that embody the best of both the tortoise and the hare that win the race for customers.

Don't have a bad Hare day!

We all know that responding quickly to phone or web inquiries is important but I doubt we have internalized just how important the speed of response really is.  A recent study by MIT shows that the ability to qualify a web lead and bring them into the buying process goes down by a factor 21 times if you wait more than 30 minutes to call the lead.

Twenty one times less chance to qualify the lead if you wait just 30 minutes!  If you wait just 10 minutes versus calling within the first 5 minutes the chances of qualifying the lead go down 4 times.

A few thoughts on why this is so:

• Short attention span of web leads - they are interested now and want to talk to someone now
• Recency - web leads tend to contact a number of companies and the ones that respond quickly stay top of mind
• Service - companies that respond quickly (now defined as within 5 minutes or less) show they value customers and are committed to customer service which is a good indicator of future performance
• Comparison - quick responders may have no competition to face if they are first to react and handle the interaction well
• Technology - quick responders are assumed to have technology systems and expertise in place and know how to use them

Of course this data needs to be put in the proper context - they were studying service offerings like insurance....but the lesson holds for any business that generates leads on the Internet.  Be first to respond or lose a very high percentage of web generated leads.

Slow Riding is Not Taking It Easy

Once you have responded quickly the tortoise now takes over.  Studies show that it takes at least 7-12 touches to make a sale and for many industrial products it takes many more - as well as months of patience and persistence to finish the process, show your value versus the competition, and ultimately to make the sale.

A few trends lead to the requirement for more tortoise-like behavior:

• Longer buying cycles with more hurdles to clear before earning business
• Smaller budgets with more scrutiny from C level executives on every expenditure
• More people involved in making buying decisions
• Less employees at your prospects with more responsibility making them harder to reach with less time for you
• Supply chain consolidation reducing the number of suppliers a company will chose from

So the winner of the race is no longer one or the other - the winner is the one who comes out of the gate the fastest and maintains a steady pace for the entire race.