The Lead Response Problem I’ve Been Trying to Solve Since 2007

Can I share something I’ve been working on?

It’s got the perfect mix of programming, Google Ads, and business to get me excited. And, it solves a problem that’s been irritating me since 2007.

Back then, I read a study that found businesses that reduced their lead response times from 30 minutes to 10 saw a 26% jump in qualified leads. That stat stuck with me. Speed-to-lead seemed like the simplest fix most businesses were ignoring. Almost 20 years later, not much has changed.

I’ve been trying to crack this ever since. And over the past 5 years, I’ve been working closely with one client to do exactly that.

Now we’ve built a system that connects leads and salespeople almost instantly. And I think it could help a lot of other people too.

This client gets about 6,000 internet leads (website, Google, Facebook, etc.) a month via contact forms of some kind.

When we first started working together, the leads went to a sales manager. The sales manager would assign each lead to a salesperson.

On a good day, speed-to-lead was hours. But when a sales manager was out or busy, it could take days before someone tried to call the lead.

Obviously not ideal.

Version 1: Better, But Not Perfect

Version 1 of our fix for this problem was to skip the sales manager. I programmed the system to assign leads to the right salesperson as soon as they arrived. The system sent an SMS with the lead details to the salesperson and told them to call pronto.

This cut speed-to-lead from hours to minutes most of the time. But it wasn't perfect.

Sometimes a salesperson forgot to mark themselves as away. Other times they were tied up with another customer. And some were still slow to follow up — especially if they’d already hit their target for the month.

Still, it was a big improvement on what they had before. So they accepted that a few leads would slip through the cracks.

But the cost of generating good leads using Google and Facebook keeps climbing. So we decided to revisit this problem.

Today's Version: Almost Instant

Here’s what I’ve built for them:

1. As the lead arrives, the system works out which salespeople are in the running to get the lead.
2. The system calls the first salesperson on the list. If they answer, the system asks them to press 1 to talk to the lead. If they don't answer or accept the lead, it dials the next person on the list.
3. It works its way down the list until we’ve got a salesperson on the line. Then it dials the lead, and if the lead answers, it bridges the connection.

It’s still early, but we’re already seeing much faster response times. This will lead to more sales.

The system does smart things like retrying calls, recording them, and queuing leads that come in after hours. But the real value is how fast it connects people.

If You Run Ads, This Might Be for You

Normally, this kind of setup would cost too much for a small business. But since I built it for a bigger client, I’m pulling out the key parts so more people can use it.

If you’re paying for online ads and need more sales, this is something worth looking into. If your current ad person can’t help with it, maybe we should talk.

And if you're an agency or freelancer what I'm doing might be a good fit for your clients. Let me know if you'd like see how you can offer this to them. I want to make you look good.

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