THE BEST PRACTICES

FOR LEAD RESPONSE MANAGEMENT

BASED ON THE RESEARCH OF As Published in

JAMES OLDROYD, PHD, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

& DAVE ELKINGTON, CEO, INSIDESALES.COM

YEAR 1 2 3

ACROSS MANY COMPANIES

WE EXAMINED THREE THAT RESPONDED TO FROM OVER 15,000 AND OVER 100,000
YEARS OF DATA WEB-GENERATED LEADS UNIQUE LEADS CALL ATTEMPTS

WE FOCUSED ON 1 QUESTION
FOR THE BEST RESULTS, HOW SHOULD
COMPANIES RESPOND TO THEIR LEADS?

THE MISSION:
1. MAXIMIZE RESULTS 2. MINIMIZE EFFORT
Many of the results in this study are based on first call attempts,
indicating how to get the job done right the first time.

BEST DAYS TO MAKE CALLS

TUESDAY vs. THURSDAY

BEST DAYS TO
2.5k
MAKE CONTACT
CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS

MONDAY 2.0k
DIFFERENCE

TUESDAY

1.5k
WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY
1.0k

FRIDAY

0.5k
According to similar graphs, Wednesdays and
Thursdays are the best days to qualify* leads.
* QUALIFICATION - the stage in the lead nurturing
processwhere the lead is willing to enter the sales process. TUESDAY THURSDAY

BEST TIMES TO MAKE CONTACT

CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS

QUALIFYING 7:00
BEST TIME TO CALL
RATES 2ND BEST TIME TO CALL

EARLY AFTERNOON vs. 7:00

LATE AFTERNOON
3000

7:00
2500

7:00
2000

DIFFERENCE

1500 7:00

1000
7:00

500 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00

According to similar graphs, between 4pm

1 - 2 PM 4 - 5 PM
and 5pm is the best time to qualify leads.

RESPONSE TIME

GET ‘EM WHILE

CONTACTS MADE FROM FIRST DIALS THEY’RE HOT!
10,000

BEST TIME TO RESPOND: RESPONSE TIME:

WITHIN 5 MINUTES
8,000 The moment an interested lead
completes a web form until a sales
representative contacts them.

10x
6,000

SUBMIT

DECREASE AFTER
4,000 FIRST 5 MINUTES
10 MINUTES vs. 5 MINUTES
10,000

2,000
8000

6000
INCREASE IN
0 CONTACT RATES
4000
5 min 10 min 15 min 20 min 25 min 30 min
RESPONSE TIME
2000

According to similar graphs, contact and qualification

rates also drop dramatically over a span of hours. 10 MINUTES 5 MINUTES

PERSISTENCE

CHANCE OF MAKING CONTACT AVERAGE CALL ATTEMPTS BY REPS

100% 90% 40%

80% 30% MOST REPS GIVE UP

ON LEADS TOO SOON
6th CALL
1 CALL
5th CALL
4th CALL
60% 20%
3rd CALL
PERCENTAGE OF REPS

2 CALLS
40%
2nd CALL ALWAYS MAKE AT LEAST 10% 4 CALLS
6 CALL ATTEMPTS
5 CALLS
CHANCE

6 CALLS
3 CALLS
20% 1 CALL
st
0

Over 30% of leads are never contacted at all. By just making a

few more call attempts, reps will experience 70% more contacts!

RESPONSE AUDIT

As part of their ResponseAudit™

service, InsideSales.com has used
fictitious leads to fill out web forms
for thousands of companies in order
to assess response time and quality.
Here are some startling trends.

RESPONSEAUDIT™ 2016
A study of 4,723 leads from InsideSales.com shows that companies
are slow to respond to leads and are not persistent in following up.

77.17% ONLY 28.6% OF LEADS

WERE FIRST RESPONDED
TO BY PHONE --
EVEN THOUGH CALLS
THE MOST COMMON OF ALL OF THE LEADS HAVE HIGHER RESPONSE
METHOD FOR FIRST THAT WERE SUBMITTED, RATES AND ARE MORE
RESPONSE WAS EMAIL 77.17% NEVER RECEIVED LIKELY TO TURN INTO
A PHONE CALL. A SALE.

IMMEDIACY IN RESPONSE

AVERAGE PHONE
RESPONSE TIME

44 hours
28.4% of first email
OPTIMAL PHONE responses were auto-responses,
RESPONSE TIME
often with no call-to-action.
5 minutes
HOURS 10 20 30 40 50

Only 4.7% of companies achieved the

optimal 5-minute window.

PERSISTENCY OF LEAD RESPONSE

AVERAGE PERSISTENCY

4.47 touches
50.0%
RECOMMENDED PERSISTENCY

12 touches
TOUCHES 02 04 06 08 10 12
50% of leads
were not responded to at all.
Only 9.4% of leads received the
recommended 12 touches.

SOURCES:
Response Audit, 2016, InsideSales.com
Harvard Business Review, Lead Response Management Best Practices