Automated Alerts To Boost Conversions

MarketingSherpa has done yet another cool case study describing how Autobytel doubled conversions through more timely responses to leads. While car sales are certainly different than software sales, I do think there is enough in common (expensive purchase guided by a salesperson) to warrant considering similar tactics when online leads are generated. I personally think the key is to strike the right balance between generic and useful. Possibly a simple "Thank you" email to the prospect letting them know a sales consultant will be following up shortly and also including a recent success story and a link to the site while simultaneously texting the salesperson letting them know they have a lead? Timeliness of response can pay huge dividends, as the case study demonstrates.

Why is all of this important?

I'm in the middle of preparing a presentation to be given to some software CEOs and it made me pause to think again as to why the concepts I discuss in my blog are so important to software companies. The reasoning is found in these 4 assertions:

1) Leads are the engine for driving sales growth in the software industry.

2) Most leads are generated when buyers conduct research. (As MarketingSherpa noted in a recent study, 4 out of 5 B2B buyers claim THEY find YOU. So you better be where they are looking.)

3) Most software product research is now performed online.

4) Many (I'd guess it is the vast majority but I have not performed a rigorous study) software marketers/salespeople do not employ proper lead generation and management practices.

I don't know of anyone who disagrees with any of these points, but if you do I'd love to hear from you.

So how do we fix #4? I hope my blog is a small piece of the answer.

Whether To Remove Phone Number From Your Online Form

I have always advocated an online form that is as short as possible - typically 4 fields: name, email, phone, company name. Well I just read a post by Jason Stewart that is making me think that even that is too long. He mentioned that conversions doubled - yes that means a 100% increase - when they stopped asking for phone number on the online form. This is amazing to me. Certainly, phone number provides some value if the prospect does not respond to your email. But if you immediately send a good email response to that prospect and they don't respond, what is the likelihood that that prospect will respond to a phone call, assuming the phone number is even accurate? And is that percentage high enough to offset the twice as many prospects you would have if you removed the phone number?

So I leave this up to every vendor to test, but now I have to decide what will be my default recommendation to our vendors. You can probably guess which way I am leaning.