Why can’t my call center sales team get buyers on the phone? It sounds like you have a problem with poor lead validation. It’s estimated that 50% of all leads are actually bad leads. That means that 50% of your sales team’s time is being wasted on leads that won’t end in sales. How can you pinpoint where leads are going wrong? Take a look at the top six reasons why your sales team isn’t getting through to quality leads.
Top Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Buyers on the Phone
Bad leads are low-quality leads, uncontactable leads, and duplicate leads that keep your sales team running in circles to nowhere. What makes businesses that rely on leads and cold calling vulnerable to failure? There are seven core reasons for failed leads. While some are more prevalent than others, are all capable of quashing your sales numbers.
#1 Invalid Phone Number (26.1% of Leads)
Incorrect phone numbers are responsible for a quarter of all bad leads! Bad phone numbers account for a large amount of the wasted time that keeps sales team members from closing sales. When a number is wrong, a sales agent is pouring time into trying to track down the intended lead. If the agent is leaving voice messages, a cat-and-mouse game that leads to nowhere ensues. Of course, invalid phone numbers aren’t just harmful because they waste time. They also harm your company’s reputation by making it seem like your sales agents target people “at random” for sales pitches.
#2 Invalid Email (25.2% of Leads)
Does your sales team have a high email bounce rate? If email campaigns aren’t getting through, it’s very likely that you’re dealing with an excessive amount of bad leads. In email marketing, the bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that aren’t received. These messages are returned by the mail server because the addresses used are invalid. The primary reasons for “bounced” emails are:
- The email address isn’t real.
- The email domain doesn’t exist.
- The email server has blocked delivery.
If you’re dealing with an unusually high bounce rate, it’s smart to investigate the message being sent. It is possible that your sales team may simply be attempting to send an email marketing message that is too large. However, a 50% bounce rate is probably indicative of the fact that your team is using low-quality, invalidated leads.
#3 Duplicate Email (20.5% of Leads)
Is your team running into an issue with having the same leads logged in the system multiple times? Lead duplication is a messy problem. Imagine the waste of having four or five team members all pursuing the same lead. The duplication issue grows even more problematic as you get deeper into the sales process. Marketing and sales teams may be using data from the wrong record during every exchange. There’s never a cohesive view of the lead journey. What’s more, the customer never feels like they are getting a personalized experience when interacting with your brand because they are being treated as “several different leads” at once.
#4 Already DNC (19.1% of Leads)
This is where bad leads become dangerous for businesses that use cold calling and telemarketing. Lead companies that don’t properly vet leads often sell phone numbers that are on the National Do Not Call (DNC) registry that was created to help consumers stop unwanted sales calls. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), companies that call DNC numbers can be fined up to $43,792 per call.
#5 Known Litigator (1.9% of Leads)
Predatory litigators will target call centers and telemarketers because they want to try to extract thousands of dollars in lawsuits. For businesses, this petty litigation can also result in lost time and resources. Using invalidated leads makes businesses vulnerable to this avoidable problem.
#6 Failed TCPA (0.7% of Leads)
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restricts the use of telemarketing calls and automatic telephone dialing systems. The way around this is to make sure you’re contacting leads who have provided contact information to allow you to “reasonably associate” with them. If you’re getting leads who didn’t opt-in, your business could be in violation of TCPA rules.
How to Fix Lead Problems
Don’t settle for a 50% failure rate with leads. Seeking validated leads is the easiest way to overcome the seven common lead issues covered above. How are other businesses your size doing it? Sales and marketing teams that rely on leads are using Pipes.ai’s Lead Optimizer to clean their data, eliminate irrelevant or fraudulent leads, and enjoy a refined pool of high-quality leads with high conversion rates! There’s no easier way to get results while also complying with all federal industry regulations.
When your company makes the switch to Pipes.ai, your sales team and call center will enjoy duplicate checking, location-based scrubbing, phone validation, a 90-day lead window, email validation, high-risk/litigator checks, and TCPA audits. You don’t have to update your entire lead infrastructure to start using Pipes.ai. Pipes.ai lead validation technology integrates seamlessly into your existing technology stack. Companies can utilize an easy one-day integration to begin working with better, stronger, and safer leads within 24 hours. That means you’re just a day away from dramatically upgrading your sales numbers. Pipes.ai will use AI to validate your first 600 leads for free with our Free Lead Optimizer so you can finally fix your sales team’s “bad lead” problem.
