B2B Webinar follow up - Hurry up and wait...
To be aggressive or not be aggressive. That is the question. You've just had a wildly successful Webinar. It was a packed digital house full of your hottest prospects and you are certain you'll get some new forecast from it.
The first instinct of every inside sales organization is to begin their follow up calls in earnest with a dedicated and regimented calls plan the day after the event. I applaud your energy and excitement as well as the fact that you've got a call plan, but I will caution you on one thing. Following up too aggressively and too quickly with your sales pitch after a webinar can be a great turn off to your prospects.
I'm not saying you don't want to reach out to them right away, but you want to be very careful about how you reach out to them in the immediate time following the event. We have found that the best way to turn webinar attendees into gold is to hold off on our politely persistent teleprospecting plan until at least a week after the event.
Instead of immediately turning the leads over to your team, set up to send them two emails over the course of the first week following the event. It is most important to have the presenter (s) of the event be the people that send the intitial email. This email should be nothing more than a "thank you" for your attendance and a link to the presentation that was given.
At the end of the week, the second email should be sent by the presenter(s) again and be very quick and to the point. It should thank them again for attending and then let them know that one of you your colleagues will be following up with them via phone next week to determine whether or not your organization can be of more help....and example of that email could be...
John,
Thanks again for attending our recent webinar "Building a Reliable Sales Pipeline in 30 Days". I wanted to let you know that one of my colleagues here at AG Salesworks will be following up with you next week via the phone. It will be their goal to discuss, in more detail, how we may be of assistance to your company.
Regards,
Pete
Once you’ve sent your two emails, the gloves come off and your inside sales reps should begin following their call plan with your prospects. I know that this may sound counterintuitive to what you've typically read or thought, but much of our techniques are derived from how we like to be dealt with. There is nothing I dislike more than getting a call the day after an event. Give me some time to digest what I've seen.
Of course you need some stats to feel better about what I'm saying. Here is the only one that matters. The Lead rate (% of conversations that turn into leads passed) increases by 2% when employing this non-invasive follow up approach. That is a huge difference.
How do you follow up on your webinar attendees?