• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 4, 2023

Brands are letting leads slip to the floor by not responding quickly to inquiries by phone or email, judging by The Conversica Sales Effectiveness Report, a study from Conversica.

Of those studied for this report, only 17.1% of firms replied within five minutes, while 47.3% took 24 hours. All others were in between. 

In addition, 35% of companies gave up after only one or two attempts to follow up, while only 20% made four or more attempts. The average number of attempts was 2.1.

Conversica’s researchers shopped 100 companies by seeking out an inquiry form on their website.

If an onsite contact option was available, they expressed interest in the products or services and asked to be contacted by a member of the target company’s sales team.  

If you like Grade school-type scoring, consider these findings:

Half of the companies scored an F, and among those, 24% had that score because they had no option to send an inquiry from their website, and 25% for not responding at all.

Then there is the issue of personalization. The study cites these five elements:

1. Personalized greeting: Did the message refer to the secret shopper by name? 
2. Individual sender: Did the “From” line of the email list a human name, or a company, team or department name? 
3. Signature or contact information: Did the message provide contact information for the sender to respond? 
4. Success factor: Did the Sales rep move the conversation forward? 
5. Personalized content: Did the content of the email reference the lead’s initial request? 

Companies that performed all five of these functions scored an A. Those that used four pulled a B, and so on.

The result? Of the firms studied, 51% tried to send tailored responses by utilizing four or more personalization elements -- up from 29% in 2010. But 12% used only one or two of the elements. Even most of those that flunked used the person’s first name. 

Moreover, 40% earned an a A for including all the personalization elements -- up from 30% in 2020. 

But the study notes that “nearly one in 10 companies sent only generic automated marketing emails over the 22 days that included either no personalization or only the buyer persona’s first name.” 

It adds: “This does not include the many companies that sent auto-responder emails confirming the request as their first touch, which starts the engagement on an impersonal note. Worst of all was the few companies that made no follow-up after the initial auto-response.” 

On the bright side, none of those that replied by email had messages end up in Spam or Social.