Author: Jacob Hurwith
I have said it before and I will say it again; persistence and speed are the two most vital factors in closing more referrals. I have gone over the broad numbers in Persistence & Speed: Keys To Winning New Jobs, but today, I want to do a deeper dive into persistence.
80% of Leads do NOT Close on the First Call
While we would all like business to be easy, more often than not, it takes a lot of hard work. Lead generation and home remodeling is no different. While I would like to say that one call is enough to close 100% of your referrals, it most certainly is not. In fact, 80% of leads do not close on the first call. That means that four out of five referrals you receive will not close on the first call. Keep in mind, this statistic holds true for contractors who do and do not contact the homeowner on the first call. Oftentimes, you may not get a hold of the referral. They may be at work, driving their kids or eating dinner. Or, maybe they did answer, but was not ready to pull the trigger and hire someone. Either way, you must call back. If you do, hopefully they will as eager to answer the phone.
53% of Contractors Make Contact on Second Call
We looked at all the data we had from January 2012 through June 15, 2014. We looked at over one million matched referrals and found that of all the contractors who did not make contact with the first call, nearly 53% DID make contact on the second call. With just one extra call, more than half of the contractors who did not make contact had an actual conversation with the referral. Sadly, we looked at the opposite end of the spectrum as well. Of the contractors who did not make contact on the first call, 44% never called again. That means that more than two out of every five contractors only tried to reach their lead once. This will not work. Calling twice instead of once always increases your odds of closing a referral.
74% of Subsequent Calls are Two Minutes or Less
Time is money and when it comes to subsequent calls in lead generation (calls after first attempt), call times are not as long as you may think. According to our updated numbers, 28% of subsequent calls are less than one minute and 46% are between one and two minutes. Therefore, nearly three out of every four subsequent calls are less than two minutes, or 120 seconds of your time. As I noted in Persistence & Speed: Keys To Winning New Jobs, given that making two calls instead of one increases the chances of contact by 87%, I’d say 120 seconds of your time is worth the investment.
Conclusion
All this data can and should be used to increase your return on investment. The only way to do that is to start calling your leads at least two times, if not more. By calling every referral at least twice, you vastly increase your odds of closing more jobs and escalating your ROI to new heights.
