August 19th, 2009 @ 5:30 am
SCENARIO: A sales lead from your website pops up on your to-do list. The prospect just got off your site after spending 5 minutes there, examining various products, checking prices, etc. However, you’re tied up writing a proposal under deadline — with your boss breathing down your neck — but you’re almost done. You decide to finish up the proposal and call the lead in half-an-hour.
THE FIRST QUESTION (OF 3):
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bobchaif
My original urge was to say it is a set up.
The proposal is probably with a firm prospect vs. a suspect (Boss is involved) so I recommend doing the proposal. Sound alternates would be:
1) Since the boss is breathing down your neck so, ask him to call and give you time to finish the proposal. (Waldo's watch each others six)
2) Failing that ask your boss (he is there breathing) what he wants you to do.
He has a more global view of the situation and the answer may surprise you.
If the suspect filled out a web form, they should have received an email with a question or been passed to a page asking if they would like to share more or have a contact now. Now is the time to engage him further. He is sitting at his desk and we know he is on the computer and we know he is on our site, so engage.
This would reduce engagement time to close to ?0? and, by using the graph as an example, your odds of qualifying the lead become astronomically high.
The summary appears to be reinforcing that we need to engage the person when they come to our site as any other process introduces time we can not afford to loose.
I think giving the sales person a qualified and engaged lead would increase the likelihood of converting the lead into a customer.
Bob C
Geoffrey James
Geoffrey James has sold and written hundreds of features, articles and columns for national publications including Wired, Men's Health, Business 2.0, SellingPower, Brand World, Computer Gaming World, CIO, The New York Times and (of course) BNET. He is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite (translated into seven languages and selected by four book clubs), and The Tao of Programming (widely quoted on the Web as a "canonical book of... more »
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