You and your company are doing everything possible to bind every lead to your organization. You spend money on Ads campaigns, advertise on various platforms and are in the local newspaper. The numbers you achieve with your efforts are good, but could probably be better.

Not every lead will convert. This can have several causes, such as not following up with a lead fast enough. In this article, you'll find out why not every lead converts.

1. Lead follow-up within 5 minutes makes conversion 9 times more likely

Research from insidesales.com shows that the likelihood of conversion from lead to customer is nine times greater if you follow up with the lead within five minutes. Yet in 74% of cases, this does not happen (source: Harvard Business Review). In fact, 23% of leads are never followed up at all. The reason for this is anyone's guess, but these figures do show that rapid lead follow-up offers many opportunities.

2. Of all sales, 50% goes to the party that responds first

Don't be under the illusion that your organization is the only one a lead will contact. Depending on the industry, it is customary to request multiple quotes. Of course price is important, but so is the speed with which your company responds. After all, 50% of all sales go to the party that responds first. It is important that you respond quickly to requests from your leads.

Wondering why your leads are cheating?

3. 44% of sales associates give up after one call attempt

On average, it takes eight call attempts to reach a lead. With that knowledge, it's shocking that 44% of account managers give up after just one call. Dare you put your hand in the fire that your account managers aren't letting valuable leads walk away like this?

4. 30% of sales teams find lead follow-up the most challenging part of the sales process

This puts lead follow-up in the third spot of most difficult sales tasks, after prospecting and lead qualification (source: superoffice.com). To make your sales team perform better, you could have employees attend training sessions. The question, however, is whether these achieve the desired results.

5. Bad experiences are shared twice as often

On average, people who have a negative experience with your organization share it with 9 to 15 others. This is twice as often as people who have a positive experience. Is your lead follow-up structurally flawed? If so, this can mean significant reputational damage. Especially when you consider that people are increasingly inclined to post a (negative) review online as well. Therefore, ensure a good experience with your brand throughout the customer journey. This starts as early as lead follow-up.

How can you improve your organization's lead follow-up?

Are you already improving lead follow-up with your team? Or not at all yet? Then take a look at lead automation! With lead automation, lead follow-up can be automated. The lead is also approached at the right time. The employee is offered a phone call at the desired time. The employee only has to accept the phone call and then immediately calls the lead.Download Brochure