The 4 Ps of effective selling

The success of a company’s sales organisation and their ability to convert prospects into customers greatly depends on how well they follow up with their inbound leads. The degree of success can be determined using four key elements of lead engagement:

• Promptness: How quickly did a company follow up on an inquiry with a personalised response?
• Persistence: How many attempts did the company make to follow up with the lead?
• Personalisation: To what extent was the response personalised? Did the response move the conversation forward?
• Performance: Did the email successfully reach the lead’s Primary inbox? Or did it land in Promotions, Social, or Spam? 

For the fourth consecutive year, Conversica has commissioned a study to track inbound lead engagement efforts by companies across nine major industries (You can read it for free, here.) This year, our researchers took the scope of this study to a new level, reaching out to over 1,200 companies located around the world. The companies studied are headquartered in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Netherlands, and Sweden. Independent researchers visited the websites of 1,208 B2B and B2C companies, expressed interested in their products or services, and requested to be contacted with more information. 

The results make for interesting study!

• A staggering 25% of the companies contacted did not respond at all. Of the companies that did respond, most gave up too soon; 48% followed up on their inbound leads with only one or two contact attempts.
• The overall grade distribution shows that companies performed better this year. 17% of companies earned an A overall, while only 7% earned an overall A in 2017 and 2016 and only 3% earned an A in 2015.
• A bright spot in the study was the significant increase of companies receiving an A in persistence. 24% of companies received an A grade in persistence, a notable increase from 10% of companies in 2017.
• The Automotive-Sales industry performed highest across two of the 4Ps, with 37% in this industry achieving an overall A.
• Automotive-Service, Mortgage Lending, Manufacturing, Insurance, and Telecom performed poorly across all 4Ps. 53% of Auto-Service companies did not respond at all and zero companies in the Telecom industry received an overall A grade.

Given the surprising numbers of 25% of companies that did not respond at all, and 48% that only reached out 1-2 times, it’s clear that inbound leads are not receiving sufficient engagement from most businesses. Prioritising responsiveness and persistence and implementing the right tools can significantly improve the success rate for inbound lead follow-up.

Interestingly, some companies that performed well in previous years performed more poorly this year, and vice versa. This suggests that no company can be great at the four P’s all the time, so companies must instead invest in strategies that set themselves up for consistent and effective lead follow-up. 

If your interest is piqued, you can read the full report for free here. If you're keen to learn more about how Conversational AI and the Augmented Workforce can revolutionise your sales effectiveness, check out the ebooks, reports, and papers at our newly refreshed resources page.

Meanwhile, if you're in London tomorrow (April 25th), you're more than welcome to attend our UK office's launch drinks reception. Let me know if you want the details!

Matt