If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. But sometimes it’s hard to determine when you should keep trying and when it’s smart to cut your losses. In the auto business, we’re faced with this problem daily. Like when your BDC doesn’t succeed at making contact with a lead after the first call. Then questions like, should you try again, when should you try again and how many times should you try again, all come into play. But knowing the right amount of times to call each lead will increase appointments and sales.
In the past, we’ve talked about how important it is to contact leads as soon as possible to increase your chance of scheduling appointments. But speed to lead is only one piece of the puzzle. When you consider the number of calls your BDC should be making to each lead, the full picture starts to come together.
Our research shows 64% of calls made within the first minute convert into scheduled appointments. This statistic highlights how important it is to call a lead immediately after opt in, ideally when the they are still looking at your site. We call this concept speed to lead.
That’s great, if you can get a lead on the phone during your first call attempt. But if you can’t, the question becomes when are you supposed to call back and how many times do you call a lead before it’s dead. We’ve taken all the questions out of how many times you should call—and when—with our Ultimate BDC Call Cadence.
Within the first 24 hours after a lead opts in, you should be calling 3-4 times. If your BDC can reach a lead in the first 30 minutes they have more than a 21% greater chance of scheduling an appointment than if they speak to the lead four hours after submission. And all calls within the first 24 hours still have, on average, a 19% higher schedule rate than any other time in the first week.
That is why speed to lead is important. The hotter the lead, the more your BDC should be calling them. Your BDRs might think calling a single lead four times on the first day is overkill, and perhaps it might seem a little crazy by reasonable standards. But if you want outrageous results, you won’t get them abiding by reasonable standards. In fact, our research shows you should be calling at least four times to get the results you’re looking for. If you want more appointments, your BDC should be investing more time in the leads that are most likely to convert.
Because you’re most likely to convert a lead into an appointment on the first day, subsequent days do not need quite as heavy of a focus. But you should still be pursuing regular follow-up to have the best chance of turning a lead into an appointment. After the first day, the scheduled calls become less about frequency and more about strategy. That’s why our cadence organizes calls at times when people are most likely to be able to answer the phone.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for the number of calls your BDC should be making to a new lead, the simple answer is 10. But as you can see, it’s not only about call volume. You could just as easily call each new lead twice a day for a week and hit 10 calls. But using a more strategic call cadence will maximize output by focusing energy on the most accessible leads at the most efficient times.
Now we know what you’re thinking: “Jim & Travis, this all sounds great, but my BDRs are already busy and would roll their eyes at adding more calls.”
It’s true, even the most organized BDC team would struggle to keep track of a call schedule as intense as this call cadence. Add in the complexity of lead priority scoring, and it would be impossible for a BDC to manually track the logic that goes into a follow-up strategy like this.
That’s why we created a system that does all the heavy lifting for you. Call Commando not only tracks leads and sorts lead priority, but it also executes the call cadence for you, scheduling each leads calls the moment it enters the system. Call Commando takes the most stressful parts out of your BDC while improving efficiency and output, resulting in more appointments and more sales. But having a proper call cadence is only step one to building a successful BDC. Recruiting, culture, strategy and technology all factor into an effective BDC. Whether you’re building a BDC from the ground up or looking for some new ideas to invigorate your team, you can get all the tools you need in our free ebook The Ultimate Guide To A Powerhouse BDC.