Research Shows Online Schools Respond to Web-Based Inquiries Noticeably Faster Than Other Industries
PROVO, Utah, March 7, 2013 – XANT, Inc., the leading provider of sales automation technology designed for inside sales professionals, today announced educational institutions affiliated with the Distance Education and Training Council(DETC) significantly outperformed other industries in responding to Internet inquiries. The Online Education ResponseAudit, conducted by the XANT research division, revealed the industry average in responding to web-generated leads was 24 hours and 18 minutes, dramatically faster, on average, than any other industry studied. Average lead response time for attendees of salesforce.com Dreamforce shows since 2008, Cloudforce, Leads Con, and multiple AA-ISP tradeshows have been gathered. Fictitious leads are submitted “secret-shopper” style on the websites of organizations and tracked as to how fast and persistent they are in responding by phone, voicemail, and email. The combined average of over a dozen different research studies since 2007 reveals that the average sales rep responds in 46 hours 37 minutes and makes 1.4 call attempts before giving up. “Few industries understand best practices allowing them to response to web-generated leads quickly,” said Dave Elkington, CEO and founder of XANT. “The DETC should be congratulated for responding to leads nearly twice as fast as other industries studied, but there is still significant room for improvement.” Best practices in lead response times found in the XANT Lead Response Management study reveal the odds of contacting a lead if called within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes are 100 times greater. Additionally, the odds of qualifying are 21 times greater if the lead is called within five minutes versus 30 minutes. The fastest call responders audited were:
- Lakewood College, 46 minutes
- Henley-Putnum University, 2 hours 21 minutes
- Allied Schools, 6 hours 5 minutes
Among the most persistent schools were:
- Kona University, 22 attempts
- California InterContinental University, 23 attempts
- Allied Schools, 25 attempts
Download the complete research at www.www.insidesales.com/research_papers.php. To see a demo of the XANT PowerDialer and our lead management software, or to speak to a sales rep, call (877) 200-5698. to arrange a free trial of our phone dialer software.
About XANT, Inc.
XANT is the worldwide leader in cloud-based, sales automation and predictive analytics for inside sales professionals. Their PowerDialer for Salesforce 5.0 has been one of the most popular applications on the salesforce.com AppExchange for over five years. The company was recently recognized #9 by Inc. Magazine for employee growth in Utah and #347 of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies on Deloitte’s 2012 Technology Fast 500. The company was also named Service Provider of the Year by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). XANT enterprise customers include ADP, Dell, Gannett Local, Inc., Marketo, ON24, Re/Max Cornerstone, Seagate, Groupon and more. To try the technology with your sales team, visit: www.www.insidesales.com.