Lead Response Times: A Study

Ok, so I stumbled across this MIT study on Lead Response Management and found a literal treasure trove of information that continues to back up what we know instinctively about responding to leads: response time is a factor! Huge factor, even.

On the Lead Response Management site is a whitepaper about the Jim Click Automotive Team.  The automotive industry, like the real estate industry, has been hammered by the economy.  Yet this automotive team increased their gross profit by 102.8% in eleven months!

They did this with an integrated system generating web leads.  Sounds like a truly neat system that would be fun to implement in real estate.  However, without dropping a bunch of money on a fancy integrated system, their results and findings, still point the way to increasing your own success with online generated leads.

THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED THE WAY CARS & HOMES ARE SOLD

The Internet has also conditioned people to demand an immediate response to information inquiries, and if not, they lose interest quickly.

This same study found that 92% of automotive consumers felt that the speed in which a dealer responded to their inquiry affected their perception of the dealer and whether they ended up purchasing a vehicle from them. 74.3% said it even affected their perception of the manufacturer who supplies cars to the dealership.

So, we know that response time is a factor…and a big one at that.  Now, due to the immediacy web users have come to expect, your brand and service/product are now being judged by your response time.  Unresponsive/slow to respond means the customers perception is dropping.  Respond quickly and you have least allowed yourself the ability to continue the conversation.

PROFESSIONALISM, COURTESY AND FORTHRIGHT ANSWERS

People are less inclined to subject themselves to the high pressure sales tactics of dealerships as they were in the past. They want real, courteous answers to questions. Or they just go elsewhere.

Information about real estate cars can be found everywhere on the internet.  Jim Click Automotive Team learned and profited from their ability to meet the needs of their customers shortly after responding to a web lead.  Dealerships struggle with the some of the same negative perceptions as real estate agents; namely, high pressure sales tactics.

They found that by contacting the web customers immediately, answering their questions and inviting them to the dealership, they were able to generate more sales.  Here are the three critical opportunities they discovered:

Critical Opportunity #1: A number of Salespeople may be talking to customers and qualifying them prior to capturing vital contact info and getting them to come in to the dealership.

Critical Opportunity #2: Not answering inbound calls and responding to Web leads immediately (as in 5 minutes.)

Critical Opportunity #3: Not proactively reaching out to leads, prospects, and past customers effectively, efficiently, and with a high volume of contacts.

Great points for anyone generating leads, let alone online leads, would do well to heed.