Today I attended a webinar about lead management offered by insidesales.com In it, David Elkington presented statistics relating to response time to online generated leads. For me, the highlights of these statistics were company's response time to online generated leads.

I am one to drop my information everywhere I am asked for it. Although in the past I was worried that I would get called and spam and so on, today, I want to know what techniques and styles are being used by companies that try to engage me. I imagined this would keep me up to date to the latest trends on marketing. Yet, I am weary when I enter my information on a form for a webinar or online presentation and I get contacted immediately by phone. This is why I was stunned when David indicated that extensive research by leading organizations indicates that responding within 5 minutes to an online inquiry is the way to go.

As he quoted a research done by his organization, David narrated how large and well known companies respond within 44 minutes, these being the best response time in his probe. More disturbing to me was him prompting webinar participants to respond within 5 minutes of the inquiry. the reason I use the qualifier "disturbing" is because I feel a light surge of aggression when I am contacted within five minutes of having given my information. I had not analyzed the emotions I get when this happens, but since I am writing about it I would say I feel victimized, and I see the caller as a predator. Yet, I am open to the possibility that this feelings are characteristic of me alone, and that many people who inquire for services and products are happy to receive a phone call within five minutes of having submitted their inquiry.

In this light, I'd like to learn more about how others feel. So, please, if you will, would you tell us how you feel about the response time to inquiries you make online?

To read the study, and its results, follow this link:  http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/lrm_study