We sat down recently with Yelling Mules’ VP of Sales, Mike Arsenault, to gain insight about his personal process when it comes to conducting successful sales. Mike employs a technique called ‘speed to the lead’, which is contacting the prospective lead within one hour of their inquiry.
“You should never wait on a lead”, he said. “Statistics show that the first person that makes contact gets the lead.” Mike could not be more correct in stating this, and according to Lead Connect, “Contacting the prospective client within one minute of their inquiry will help increase your lead conversion by 391%.” Quick responses can truly be the difference in an ultra-competitive market.
Mike gave us an example of how being productive and decisive with leads helps conversion rates.
“We had a call the other night with a lead that came in at 6:00 and I responded immediately. The client had just finished filling out our questionnaire and just as she sent it through I was calling her.” He stated furthermore that, “If you let the client dictate when a call is going to be, you’re going to have all your calls three weeks out.”
Mikes commitment to responding to and addressing leads is not very complicated he said. “You want an email to be simple, offer two different phone call times because that initial phone call is important.” By just getting the potential client on the phone, Mike develops a personal relationship and by doing his due diligence on the client he is also able to engage them in conversation about their business.
Mike emphasized that “Research on leads is extremely important because you want an idea of who you are talking to, I look at all these simple concepts and I wouldn’t even be able to show the great work that we do including the process of 5 points of approval when building our sites. We’re never going to get to that point if we don’t get a hold of a client and do it in a timely manner.”
This type of urgency and responsiveness can translate to any industry, including Web Design. It is important to convey information to the potential the clients the benefits that your services can be without being overbearing.
There is certainly a fine line, as Mike said, “You don’t have to be calling people 3 times a day, but at the same time still be consistent with your follow-ups.” For example, “We had a client the other day that couldn’t be reached for months, and I just kept at him. Yesterday I was able to finally able to contact them and set a meeting.”
Mike’s sales system of speed to the lead is extremely effective because he is dedicated to it. “I’m a huge believer in the sales-systems, doing things the same way so that you gauge yourself on what’s working in your system. If you are doing it differently on every call, and let’s say you’re not producing and not having results you don’t know what to identify as the problem.”
Check out our other sales posts.
