For businesses that get inquiries by form, email or phone.
Pull up the last 20 inquiries your business received: contact forms, quote requests, sample requests, emails. Then answer the eight questions below for those 20.
What you are looking for
Most businesses reply to an inquiry once. If the person doesn’t act on that reply, nothing else reaches them, and nobody records whether they bought.
The check shows whether that is happening in your business. The diagram shows the difference between one reply and a short series of follow-up emails.
The eight questions
Answer each one for the same 20 inquiries.
1. How long did each one wait for a first reply?
Write down the times. If some waited more than a day, find out why.
2. Who replied?
If the answer is “whoever saw it first,” nobody owns inquiries. Name one person.
3. What did the first reply ask them to do next?
Book a call, approve a quote, place an order. If the reply didn’t name a next step, the sale depends on the customer deciding what to do on their own.
4. What went to them after the first reply?
List every email and call each inquiry received after that first reply. If the list is empty, start here.
5. How many of the 20 bought?
Can you answer from a list, or are you estimating? This number is your inquiry-to-sale rate. You can’t improve it until you can count it.
6. Where are the ones that didn't buy?
In someone’s inbox, a spreadsheet, a notebook? If you can’t find them in one place, you can’t follow up with them.
7. How old are they?
Under Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL), an inquiry lets you email someone for six months. Customers who bought in the last two years can be emailed as customers. Anyone older needs consent, or a phone call or letter instead.
8. Can someone see your prices or place an order without asking first?
If every path on your website leads to “contact us,” every sale has to go through an inquiry. Some buyers would rather order directly.
What to do with your answers
If question 4 came back empty
Write three or four short emails that go out after the first reply. Each one should answer a question people ask before they buy and include a way to take the next step.
Most email tools, including Mailchimp, Kit and HubSpot, can send them automatically after each inquiry.
If you couldn't answer question 5
Set up one list where every inquiry is recorded with whether it became a sale. A spreadsheet works.
Once you can count it, you can see whether the follow-up emails are working.
Want it set up for you?
The Lead Follow-Up Setup does both in two weeks. $1,500 fixed.
WHO YOU'D BE WORKING WITH
I’m Garrett Hall. I spent 35 years running marketing departments, and I’m Professor of Marketing & Technology at Sheridan College. Digital Marketing Research is my consulting practice.
If you go through the check and want to talk about what you found, book a call.