Companies have very optimistic views as to how fast they deal with Web leads—with nearly 25% saying that they respond by phone to online leads within five minutes. However, in reality only 5% actually do respond that quickly, according to a recent study by InsideSales.com.
Moreover, only 20% of companies think that they take over a day to first respond by phone to online leads, when in actuality 31% do.
The study compared responses from a survey of 700 sales professions on their perceived performance with data on how their companies are actually dealing with online leads. Below, additional key findings.
Response Rate
- Of the companies surveyed that had Web contact forms, only 58.6% attempted to contact online leads by either email or phone.
Persistency
- When asked how many attempts their sales teams made to contact a lead, companies most often estimated "more than five," but in reality the most common number of attempts was zero.
First Response Types
- More than 90% of the companies surveyed believe that their first response to sales leads is done by phone, when in reality 67% make their first contact through email.
About the research: The study was based on survey responses about perceived sales performance from more than 700 members of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. The findings of this survey were then compared against data from InsideSales.com's ResponseAudit system, a research tool that tests how quickly and persistently companies contact online leads.
