Twice in the last couple of weeks I have seen ads in The Press that caught my eye. I hopped on to the advertisers’ websites, decided they had something to offer and fired off emails to the noted email addresses seeking further details.
Days passed – nothing. No autoresponder to recognise my enquiry had been received and no further response. What a waste! I actually followed up one of my queries by phone and got a fairly disinterested reply – not inspiring me that the company involved will be able to supply the goods I am after.
Most companies don’t need a complicated CRM system to manage a situation like this – how about a piece of paper with a list of leads and the follow up action taken! If you go to the expense of placing an ad without a clear plan for lead follow up you are wasting your time. Lead response needs to be coordinated and timely. A report by MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that the best chance of converting a lead to a sale was achieved by responding within minutes, not hours or days. They also found that persistence pays and that repeated contact attempts continue to pay off right up to the sixth contact.
So place your ads by all means – but be ready to deal with the leads generated in a timely, coordinated manner.
