Did you know that reducing your lead follow up time from 10 minutes to 5 minutes can increase your contact rates by 900%?
Put another way, if you’re not reaching out to your leads with speed, then you’re losing revenue. This is especially important in the home services and home improvement space.
So in this post, we're going to cover exactly what speed to lead is, why it matters, and how you can reach out to leads both faster and more effectively—with templates and examples.
What is speed to lead?
Speed to lead is the strategy of quickly communicating with a lead once they reach out to your business, such as by filling out a form or calling you. You should strive to get to every lead within five minutes. But don’t worry—it’s easier than you think! You don’t need a call center to create an effective speed-to-lead strategy (but if you have a call center, you definitely need one). You just need the tools, the process, and the templates, which are all in this post.
You should strive to get back to every lead within 5 minutes.
Lead response time: why it matters
Responding to leads with speed is important no matter what industry you're in, but it's particularly important in the home services and home improvement spaces. This is because:
- Competition is fierce. Lead aggregators will give one lead out to four or five businesses.
- The first impression matters. 78% of homeowners will go with the first business that reached out to them.
- Consumers expect you to reach out to them. Plus, this shows you're on top of your game.
8. Automate your outreach
One of the biggest hindrances to following up with leads is simply just bandwidth. When you have a high volume of leads coming in, it can be hard to keep up with reaching out to and following up with all of them.
But if you automate your outreach via text message, email, and voicemail drop, you can put all that on autopilot. This not only ensures you're reaching out with speed, but also frees up more time for you to engage with who is actually responding.
9. Set up a speed to lead team
Teams with higher engagement and sales have three major players.
- Speed to lead owner: Engages and qualifies all leads and sets appointments (administrative assistant, inside rep, call center rep, marketing associate, etc.)
- Marketing/sales manager: Own campaign strategy around each lead source. Has visibility for coaching S2L owners and ensuring set and close rate benchmarks are met.
- Field/sales rep: Handles the appointments set by the S2L owners..
An efficient team structure makes all the difference.
10. Set goals and KPIs
Finally, you can't improve something if you don't quantify it. Gather baseline metrics like response time, response rate, and appointment set rate—by campaign, by rep, etc. Then once you get a feel for what you're hitting each month, you can set goals to improve those metrics. Drill down into the data to identify what (and who) is working and what's not so you can harness your strengths and cut out what's dragging you down.
How to respond to a sales lead
Being the first to respond to a lead is only beneficial if you know how to do it tactfully. In this section, we're going to cover the best outreach and messaging approaches to ensure you have fruitful conversations with your leads that turn into sales.
1. Lead with text...
There are many reasons to use text messaging for your lead outreach, the main one being that consumers prefer text. Plus, your leads are likely at work during the day and can't pick up a phone call. But they can (and do) quietly check their phone (96 times a day apparently).
Text gives you the highest chances of getting in front of homeowners when they first reach out.
Text will get the response, then you can engage on their channel of choice.
2. ...but use a multi-channel approach
Texting may be preferred, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon the other channels. In fact, a multi-channel strategy is a must. Text is where they prefer to be reached, but that may not necessarily be where they prefer to take the conversation further. Plus, getting a text from you name after seeing your name in their inbox increases the chances that they’ll open and respond.
3. Follow up more than once
Notice how the above sequence happens not just with multiple channels, but over multiple days? According to the InsideSales.com study we mentioned earlier, seven or more follow-up attempts yields 15% more connections. And yet 81% of sellers make five or fewer follow-up attempts. According to the Forbes stats above, that number is even worse: most businesses give up after 1.3 call attempts.
What the heck?!
We ourselves have found that within a multi-day sequence, it can take 3-5 days of touches before the person responds.
Bottom line: One-call closing is not a thing anymore. You need to be persistent in your lead outreach! You don't have to be pesky. One to two touches a day, with short messages and some pauses in between, is perfect.
4. Keep it short and sweet
Notice how above I said "short" messages. All too often, home improvement businesses reach out to leads with a long spiel about who they are, what they do, how long they've been in business, and yada yada. This is all great information — but save it for your about us page! You're scaring your leads away!
Keep it super short and sweet. Just a brief invitation to engage.
Lead follow up message templates
Use our lead follow-up text and email templates below to send messages that will get responses.
Touch 1 - Day 1
Send within five minutes of lead request.
Text template:
Hi Meredith, it’s Jake with J&H HVAC. I got the form you submitted and wanted to get you scheduled for an appointment or answer any questions you have. How can I help?
Email template:
Subject: J&H HVAC | Meredith, let’s get scheduled
Hi Meredith, thanks for submitting your form online. I am reaching out to get you scheduled or answer any questions you might have. Let me know the best time and manner to reach you. Thanks!
Touch 2 - Day 2
Follow up with value to peak their interest.
Text template:
Hi Meredith, it’s Jake with J&H HVAC. Following up on the form you submitted. I want to confirm a time for you to meet with our A.C specialist and learn how we can help.
Touch 3 - Day 3
Text template:
Hey Meredith, Jake again. Are you still interested in a quote for AC installation?
Email template:
Subject: J&H HVAC | Your AC installation estimate
Meredith, I don’t want to miss you! I got your information from [lead source] and wanted to get you scheduled or answer any questions you might have. What day/time works best?
Touch 4 - Day 5
Skip a day then give them an out to put them in control
Text template:
Hey Meredith, I don’t want to bother you anymore, so I’ll just follow up one last time. Any chance you have 10 minutes to chat about the siding you’re looking to get done? You can just text me when you’re ready.
Start improving your speed to lead now
The numbers don't lie. Responding to leads within five minutes can increase your appointments and sales, which means higher ROI on your lead sources, tech stack, and other sales and marketing investments—all of which leads to higher revenue. Follow these steps to improve your speed to lead today:
- Make real-time options available
- Optimize your website for lead capture
- Have a CRM
- Schedule your ads accordingly
- Set up alerts
- Use texting
- Set up lead scoring and routing
- Automate your outreach
- Set up a speed to lead team
- Set goals and KPIs
