Successful Marketing - Ideas For Business Pros | Are Your Sales Leads Hot Or Cold?

Are Your Sales Leads Hot Or Cold?

kimhillman | 12 January, 2009 10:40

What do you do when you get a sales lead? Do you set it aside to respond to later - maybe after lunch or maybe tomorrow? Or do you jump on it right now and phone the person back or send them the requested information?

Sales leads come in hot, but they cool fast. People are inundated with offers and ads, about 5,000 of them per day. Their attention is quickly diverted from one thing to the next. This means the longer you wait to follow up with your leads, the less chance there is of them buying from you or even remembering why they were interested in your product or service in the first place.

When you don't follow up with leads promptly, you're wasting your marketing dollars. If you do a direct mail campaign and it brings you 50 leads, you need to follow up with each lead the day you get them. There should be correspondance by mail and/or phone, or the product should be shipped immediately.

twenty years ago it was acceptable to expect a shipment to arrive in four to six weeks. Today if one week passes and the shipment hasn't arrived people begin to wonder whether the items were sent or if they got lost in the mail. Likewise, when leads leave a message, they expect a prompt return call the same day - not a week later.

Our world today is a fast paced one and people move very quickly from one thing to the next. If you don't catch people when they're interested, you'll lose them. They'll simply move on and forget you. Don't let this happen. Follow up with those leads while they're still sizzling and you'll make more sales!

Up and at 'em!

Kim Hillman

Up & At 'Em Publications

www.upandatempublications.com