How does the time, date and reaction rate affect the sales of an IT company?

This Monday, we finally launched a free online conference on B2B sales and marketing in IT - Conformato.org , which will be held for 2 weeks. I hope, 2 months of training were not in vain. We managed to attract real practitioners in sales and marketing from the IT world.

Now there are several free minutes that I decided to spend on useful content for Habr.

We all know that customers need to respond to requests or requests as quickly as possible. However, in practice, few do. Below is a very detailed study with figures and graphs that may affect the conversion on the site, the validation of requests depending on the time and speed of reaction. My comments are in quotes.

')
Software Advice , which selects software for clients, conducted an interesting study of the behavior of visitors to its site.

The purpose of the study was to determine the time:

• when B2B buyers search the web
• when they are converted on the website
• when you can contact them by phone

For this purpose, data on 6,000,000 unique visitors over the last 6 years were analyzed. The information is taken from Google Analytics and applies to visitors from the United States who have visited the site in search of B2B software.

The results of this study are of great interest to sales managers working with leads generated through the Web.

Before turning to the details, let us reveal the essence of two important concepts, which the authors operated on:

• Conversion - providing your site visitor with your contact information through one of our registration forms.
• Validation - the evaluation of the converted visitor, which is carried out by the sales department using the phone needs analysis and BANT criteria.

Validation of customer requests is a weak link in the sales of IT companies from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. Big companies do it on a whim. In this way, potentially interesting customers are eliminated. Small and medium-sized ones often begin the sales process and at the end find that the customer is willing to pay $ 500 for a Facebook clone.

I recommend step by step to implement the process of analyzing and validating the request from the client. The basis can be taken from the BANT methodology, which is described by the link above. There are more complex techniques, but I would start small.

The main conclusions of the study were the following:

1. Phoned with lead should be carried out as quickly as possible. When we call a lead within 5 seconds, the probability of its validation is 29% higher than with a call after 5 minutes.
2. The best time to establish contact with the buyer - from Tuesday to Thursday. During this period, twice as many leads are validated than on other working days.
3. Don't underestimate the potential of the near-holiday days. Pre-Christmas week analysis showed an unexpectedly high level of conversion and validation.

And now a little more.

The effect of the first call speed on the level of validation

After the buyer has converted on the site, the chances to validate it decrease with every second that we do not use to make a call with it.


If we call within 5 seconds, the fact of successful validation is 30% above average.


If we call after 11 minutes, the chance of successful validation is reduced by 5% compared to the average level of validation.

Findings:

• If your business is significantly dependent on the leads generated via the Internet, invest in technologies and processes that allow you to get in touch with customers as quickly as possible. Ideally, you should be able to make a call within 60 seconds.
• However, not everyone deserves an immediate call. If the buyer fills out a form to contact you directly - for example, is interested in price, product sample, or more detailed information - you should contact him immediately. If he contacts you indirectly - fills out a form to download white paper, access video content, or view other materials, such a lead must first be grown.

Growing leads or lead nurturing is a relatively new trend topic in sales and marketing, which we will write about later. This approach allows you to put on stream and work with potential leads that are not interested in cooperation at this stage.

B2B buyers activity by months of the year

Analysis of customer activity showed that the highest level of conversion was at the beginning of the year. Perhaps this is due to updates to the budgets of companies and the availability of new funds. At the same time, the peak of the validation level falls on the summer months. This is due to the smaller number of leads that need to be called up during this period. As a result, the sales department has more time to focus on the most promising leads.


The summer holiday season is the reason for the low conversion in the summer months. We also see failures in December, as companies are preparing for a new year and do not want to think about new purchases.


The level of validation is higher during the summer months. This is the reason for the low conversion. Vendors can better concentrate on multiple customers.

It should be noted that validation ratings reflect the specifics of a particular business and its seasonality. Your monthly trends may differ significantly from those presented here.

Findings:

• Despite the fact that these data reflect the characteristics of a particular business, they indicate an important point: seasonality can significantly affect the level of the validation process carried out by your sales department. Therefore, you should plan the load on your team, taking into account seasonal variations in customer activity.

The activity of B2B buyers by day of the week

As mentioned above, the greatest activity of buyers falls on the period from Tuesday to Thursday. However, the various indicators these days also differ among themselves. For example, if traffic peak is observed on Tuesday, the conversion rate reaches a maximum on Wednesday.

I see such “shamanism” on some of my web projects. Traffic is growing today, conversions are coming tomorrow. Perhaps this is due to the decision-making process.

The low level of conversion on Monday is most likely due to the fact that people are focused on the traditional tasks for the beginning of the week - they make plans for the week, answer letters that came on the weekend, and so on.


Wednesday’s conversion rate exceeds the average for working days by 2%. Therefore, Wednesday may be the best day to start a correspondence or advertising campaign.


The number of converted visitors that are validated from Tuesday to Thursday is twice as high as Monday and Friday.

Findings:

• When planning your workload, you need to make sure that you have a sufficient number of vendors from Tuesday to Thursday who would cope with the greatest influx of leads on those days.
• For the same reason, it is better to schedule other team meetings and fees on Monday or Friday, when the conversion level is minimal. These days are also best suited for the holiday of your sales managers.
• Consider the opportunity for the sales department to work at the weekend. The main reason that some of the leads are not validated is that these employees do not work on weekends and cannot make phone calls quickly.

In my memory there were several projects that I received, responding to requests from customers at the weekend. By Monday, I already had the necessary stack of information, which could be discussed with technical experts and work on the offer.

It should also be remembered that when a potential client sends out requests, he is in the “here and now” state: he thinks about the project, analyzes some elements, compares suppliers on the web site, content. And if you start to communicate with him immediately, then you get on the fertile ground to discuss the problem that torments the customer.

B2B buying activity during the day

To analyze this indicator, the day was divided into three parts:
- before the start of the working day (from 00:00 to 07:59)
- working day (from 08:00 to 17:59)
- after the working day (from 18:00 to 23:59)


During business hours, the number of unique visitors exceeds the average by 53%.


Until 8 in the morning (that is, before the start of the working day), the traffic is not very active, but during lunch it is almost twice as much as usual.

Findings:

• The greatest search activity of buyers is observed in the first half of the working day. This time is more important for the sales department than the afternoon.
• The traffic becomes maximal shortly before and during the lunch break, which suggests that it is this time that buyers prefer to devote to the search.

"Proactive" online chat rooms such as ClickDesk to help you. They allow you to track where a visitor came from, and automatically start with a customized question.

Below are the conversion charts at different times of the day.


The highest conversion rate is observed during working hours, although it was quite high in the period before the start of the working day.


On average, the conversion rate from 15:00 to 17:00 increases by 17%.


Unexpectedly, the conversion rate from 21:00 to 23:59 exceeds the average. This can occur at the expense of people working in the evenings, and during this period is well suited for a campaign to build a brand.

Findings:

• The conversion rate exceeds the average by 13% in the period from 21:00 to 23:59. Since the sales department does not work, this period is good to use for nurturing customers who are at the search stage by sending content (for example, whitepaper or webinars).

But the validation indicators at different hours.


Buyers converted into business hours are best validated. The time after the end of the working day is more effective than the period before the work begins.


The validation ratings of customers who visit the site from 08:00 to 12:00 are 11% higher than the average.

Findings:

• Since there are several time zones in the USA, this fact must be taken into account when planning the working day. Depending on the location of the office, it can start at 07:00 or even at 06:00.
• Lunch break is better to spend in the office, so as not to miss the conversion, falling at this time.
• Employees of the sales department should plan their personal affairs (visits to the doctor, service station and others) for the afternoons, when the level of validation decreases.

Activity of B2B buyers during holiday periods

The study showed that the company underestimates the activity of buyers during the holidays. However, not all holidays deserve the same attention.

Holidays, which is better to rest

According to the results of this study, they are: Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. On such days, the company does not work, and the level of validation falls below the average, including due to the lack of a sales force in the workplace. However, traffic at this time drops by 60%, while the level of validation drops by 20%. In other words, working on such days really does not make sense.


These days, unique traffic is 59% below average.


However, the Thanksgiving conversion rate is ahead of the norm by 24%.


Validation rates for these holidays are 22% lower than on working days.

Holidays, which should work

These include: the day before Thanksgiving, the days before and after Independence Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, and Columbus Day. While many companies are resting these days, the company's traffic is about 90% of the average, and conversion and validation levels generally remain at a standard level. Therefore, you should seriously consider working during these periods.


Compared with previous holidays, these days the traffic of unique visitors is below average only by 11.5%.


Conversion ratings are 11% higher than working days.


On the day before Independence Day, validation is 5% higher than on other holidays.

Christmas holidays

Purchasing activity was higher than expected.


Oddly enough, people are actively working a week before Christmas - a few days the traffic is above average.


Compared with the other working days of December, the conversion rate during the week before and the week after Christmas looks quite convincing.


Validation rates during the week before Christmas exceed the average for a few days.

Findings:

• Conversion during the week before and the week after Christmas remains at the level of all other business days of December. These days are worth making workers.
• On Christmas Day and the day before, the conversion rate exceeds the average by 19%, while your sales team is down. Therefore, these can be good days to start a campaign to get acquainted with your brand and lay the foundation for new leads.

New Year's holidays

As in the case of Christmas, activity on these days exceeded our forecasts. The levels of conversion and validation during the week after the New Year were higher than the average.


As expected, the traffic on New Year's Eve and during the New Year holidays is significantly reduced - about half the average value of January.


The conversion rate during the week after the New Year is 2.2% higher than the average on other business days of January.


At the same time, the level of validation exceeds the average for January by 5.5%.

Findings:

• It would be nice to see the sales department in the workplace this week.

Finally

While B2B buyers continue to look for the necessary products on the Net, your company needs to understand the characteristics of their behavior during this activity. This study showed that immediately phoned after conversion can significantly improve the qualifications of leads generated via the Internet. In addition, in certain periods of the year, week and day, you need to plan the load of the sales department in order to maximize the conversion of converted visitors to your site into leads.

Sources

B2B Buyer Behavior Report