THE ULTIMATEGUIDE TO

INQUIRY RESPONSE

How to Gain a Competitive Advantage with Phone Voicemail and Email Best Practices

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 2

Sales acceleration technologies have gained considerable momentum over the past few years and are now part of a multi-billion dollar industry Adding fuel to the fire consumers are conducting more of their purchase research online In fact 67 of the buyerrsquos journey is now done digitally1 Because of this many companies are shifting a higher percentage of their sales teams from field sales to inside sales2 Pivoting to an inside sales approach has created a significant opportunity for sales acceleration technology

Most people are familiar with marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) because these technologies have been around for years But what is sales acceleration

Sales acceleration technology helps shorten the sales cycle and makes the sales process more effective and efficient This includes everything from reducing the time it takes to get on the phone with an interested buyer to speeding up the process of collecting contract signatures

Attention on sales acceleration has only recently gained traction but some of this technology has been around for more than a decade During this time much has been learned about the benefits of an accelerated sales process The research presented in this study focuses on the sales teamsrsquo initial response to interested buyers (sales leads) Findings from this research yield best practices that can dramatically increase your sales teamrsquos performance and significantly increase your topline revenue

FORWARD FROM NICK HEDGES President and CEO Velocify

1 SiriusDecisions The Marketing Organization in 20172 Steve W Martin The Truth About the Field Sales to Inside Sales Migration Trend

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 3

METHODOLOGY

Velocify has access to data on the sales process progression of millions of leads This data includes all interactions between interested buyers and sales representatives including response tactics speed-to-contact attempts contact persistence and conversion rates With this data there is significant insight that can be gleaned to determine best phone voicemail and email practices when responding to leads

In addition to analyzing lead progression data Velocify has put many companies to the test by conducting lead response assessments on hundreds of sales teams This involves submitting virtual leads through company websites and tracking how sales teams respond via phone and email for 22 days

With both sets of data actual sales team practices can be compared to best practices and we can begin to bridge the gap

A C T U A L S A L E S T E A M P R A C T I C EB E S T P R A C T I C E

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 4

MEET TIM T H E I N Q U I R I N G B U Y E R

Tim is shopping for a product or service and your company has an offering that meets his needs Like a growing

number of consumers he is doing research online He has spent a few minutes on your website and is interested enough to complete a demo request or online sales form

MEET JOE T H E S A L E S M A N A G E R

Joe has more than 10 years of experience managing sales teams While he has had some success making

judgments on gut instinct and experience he is looking for insights that will give him a competitive edge to

improve his teamrsquos sales process

Letrsquos put this into context and follow a day in the lifeof Tim the Buyer and Joe the Sales Manager

TIM THE BUYER AND JOE THE SALES MANAGER

Letrsquos see how Tim and Joe can help illustrate the findings of our research and the importance of sales acceleration to shorten the sales cycle

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 5

Tim the inquiring buyer has just filled out a sales form on Joersquos website which means hersquos probably not in an important meeting or busy doing something else The next few minutes represent a precious window of time when Timrsquos interest in the product or service Joersquos company offers is peaked and he is probably available for a phone call When it comes to responding to a sales inquiry speed matters Unfortunately Velocify has found that sales teams like Joersquos take an average of 48 hours to respond via phone

SPEED-TO-CALL

On the other hand when it comes to email the correlation between speed and conversion rate is not as strong but important nonetheless A significantly higher percentage of companies respond via email within an hour This is largely due to the wide adoption and efficiency of marketing automation

Impact of Speed-to-Call on Conversion

48 hrs or later24 hrs12 hrs2 hrs1 hr30 minslt 1 min

19x

21x

23x

17x

15x

13x

11x

09x

45

55

35

25

15

5

-5

Speed to First Contact Attempt

3

18

6 6 6

10

51

Increase in Conversion Compared to Calling 48 Hours Later

172x

159x

136x126x

103x

85x

Incr

ease

in C

onve

rsio

n

Perc

enta

ge o

f Inq

uirie

s

214x

Actual Response Speed Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate

A C T U A L S A L E S T E A M P R A C T I C E

Only 3 of inquiries receive a phone response in less than one minute

B E S T P R A C T I C E

Calling a lead within one minute more than doubles conversion rates

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 6

Tim is a busy person so he might not pick up the phone right away even if you call him quickly But how many times should your sales team attempt to contact him before giving up or moving him to a nurture status One could argue that sales reps should attempt to contact Tim as many times as it takes to get him on the phone Others might say that after a couple of attempts it might be better to divert resources to greener pastures Our research shows that the answer is somewhere in between

CONTACT PERSISTENCE

Number of Calls

12 or more11109876543210

80

90

100

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Number of Call Attempts to Make Contact

32

7

51

76

8590

93 96 97 98 99 100

95of converted leads are contacted by the 6th call attempt

Cumulative Percentage of Converted Leads

Actual Call Persistence Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate

46

8 7

A C T U A L S A L E S T E A M P R A C T I C E

CALLS Only 8 of inquiries received between five and seven calls A surprising 32 of inquiries never received a single call while 46 received between one and four calls leaving much room for improvement

EMAILS Only 7 of leads received the optimal number of emails between four and six Most leads 53 were under emailed receiving between one and three emails and 28 of leads did not receive a single email

B E S T P R A C T I C E

CALLS Make between five and seven calls ndash by the sixth call attempt 95 of leads who will eventually convert have been contacted

EMAILS Send between four and six emails prior to moving a lead to a nurture status

A similar analysis was conducted to find the optimal number of emails to send to unresponsive leads

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 7

Making six calls to every unresponsive lead might seem like too much for some but many times inquiring buyers only notice missed calls when voicemails are left Letrsquos go back to our buyer Tim He may have received six calls but if only one voicemail was left he might only take notice of that particular call With this in mind Velocify researchers hypothesized that leaving six voicemails on all six call attempts could be detrimental to conversion rates To find out researchers looked at leads that received the optimal six calls prior to contact and compared the conversion rates of those that received no voicemails to those that received more

VOICEMAIL

Number of Voicemails

6543210

20

30

50

40

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Number of Voicemails

49

23

12

5 5

Increase in Conversion Compared to Leaving No Voicemails

34

0

28

24

9

-10

-28

2 2

Actual Voicemails Left Optimal Needs Improvement Inadequate

A C T U A L S A L E S T E A M P R A C T I C E

Only 12 of inquiries received two voicemails Almost half of inquiries did not receive any voicemails

B E S T P R A C T I C E

Leads who are left two voicemails on six missed calls are 34 more likely to convert than leads who donrsquot receive any voicemails at all

M O R E I S N O T A LW A Y S B E T T E R

Leaving five or six voicemails is actually worse than leaving no voicemails

Leaving two voicemails is optimal when following

a six call strategy

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 8

If a six-call two-voicemail strategy is used on which of the six calls should the two voicemails fall

VOICEMAIL TIMING

First Voicemail

Call 6Call 5Call 4Call 3Call 2Call 1

20

30

40

10

0

-10

-20

-30

21

8

-19 -20 -17

31

Incr

ease

in C

onve

rsio

nB E S T P R A C T I C E

Our research shows that leaving the first voicemail on the second call has a 31 higher conversion rate than leaving that voicemail on any other call

A similar analysis found that leaving the second voicemail on the fourth call is optimal

This makes sense when using The Ultimate Contact Strategy which recommends making the first three call attempts on the first day Leaving two voicemails on the same day might be considered too aggressive so spacing the voicemails out makes sense

Leaving the first voicemail on the second call attempt is optimal

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 9

One of Joersquos biggest challenges is enforcing a consistent contact strategy for his sales team He may have created a contact strategy based on his intuition but how does he know that his team is actually following that strategy While Joe would love for his team to be consistently quick in getting interested buyers like Tim on the phone he has no way of knowing how his individual sales reps respond to leads

CONSISTENCY SPEED-TO-CALL

Impact of Consistent First Call Response Timing

3 Consistency measures were evaluated based on a maximum standard deviation for responses Only companies that had an average call response time of under 24 hours were considered for this analysis We didnrsquot want to compare companies that were consistently slow

InconsistentConsistent

14x

13x

12x

11x

10x

9x

Incr

ease

in C

onve

rsio

n

33 Dierence

B E S T P R A C T I C E

Companies that showed relative consistency in the timing of their first call attempt had a 33 higher conversion rate than companies that were inconsistent3

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 1 0

Joe knows from experience that persistence matters but his sales reps are laser focused on meeting quota and often ignore seemingly unresponsive leads While Joe requires his sales reps to make more than one call attempt most of his reps never make a second call attempt Again it is hard for Joe to know exactly what his reps are doing because he has no process or technology to track call persistence

CONSISTENCY NUMBER OF CALL ATTEMPTS

Impact of Consistent Number of Call Attempts

InconsistentConsistent

14x

13x

12x

11x

10x

9x

Incr

ease

in C

onve

rsio

n

39 Dierence

M E T H O D O L O G Y

Companies that showed appropriate levels of persistence (calling an average of five to seven times) were split into two groups those with sales reps who were consistently calling close to six times and those with reps calling a wildly varying number of times For example half of Company Arsquos reps make six call attempts and the other half make five or seven calls Half of Company Brsquos reps make one call and the other half make 11 calls Both Company A and Company B make an average of six calls but Company Arsquos sales reps are much more consistent

B E S T P R A C T I C E

Companies that were consistent in their six-call strategy had 39 higher conversion rates than companies that were inconsistent

U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O I N Q U I R Y R E S P O N S E | 1 1

When prospective buyers show enough interest in your product or service to submit their contact information it is important for your sales team to show interest in them

Responding quickly and with the appropriate level of persistence not only ensures that you are maximizing revenue it also establishes the foundation of a good relationship between buyer and seller

If Tim does not receive the proper level of attention during the buying process his perception of your company might be damaged

Sales teams like Joersquos need the right tools to respond to todayrsquos buyers as quickly and as efficiently as possible Joe is a good sales manager but without the right tools he will find it difficult to sustain the level of growth that his company is demanding Ultimately Tim wants a positive buying experience and Joe wants to ensure that his sales reps are delivering the right level of customer experience

Sales acceleration technology enables ordinary sales teams to become extraordinary by making it easier to quickly respond to leads and by ensuring the appropriate level of attention is given to each buyer In addition it enables sales leaders to have the visibility needed to enforce a consistent and repeatable process This evolution in sales practices has been shown to have a significant impact on revenue

Sales teams need to take a closer look at arming themselves with the latest technologies or leads will continue to fall through the cracks and revenue will be left on the table

CONCLUSION

Velocify is a market-leading provider of cloud-based intelligent sales software designed for high-velocity sales environments Velocify helps sales teams keep pace with the speed of opportunity and increase revenue by driving rapid lead response increased selling discipline improved productivity and actionable selling insights The company has helped more than 1500 companies across a variety of industries improve customer acquisition practices and sales performance Velocify was recently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte and a Best Place to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal For more information please visit velocifycom or follow the company on Twitter Velocify

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