Considering that it takes about five follow-up messages to close a sale, it’s not surprising that manual follow-up quickly becomes tiresome. Not only do you have to actually remember to follow up with each lead throughout the length of your sales cycle, but you also have to record all of your interactions, such as how many times you’ve already followed up and what the outcomes were for each interaction.

In today’s fast-moving market, using such an old-school follow-up process isn’t simply too slow. With the amount of businesses vying for consumers’ attention each day, it’s crucial that you have a system that not only ensures that the follow-up happens, but that it’s almost instantaneous. Research shows that you’re nine times more likely to convert a lead if you follow up within five minutes of their first inquiry. Not only that, but 25-50% of sales go to the vendor who responds first, so having an automated lead follow up system is crucial.

As a business owner, what you need is a process that you can rely on — one that ensures that no lead gets left behind. With an automated lead follow up system, you’ll never have to worry about losing leads due to slow, inconsistent follow-up because there won’t be any human error. An automated system starts working as soon as a new lead enters your sales funnel so your leads always get the quickest response.

According to Automated Marketing and Sales Follow-up Made Easy, “Automation doesn’t sleep, forget or take breaks. If someone opts in to an ebook in the middle of the night, your delivery sequence isn’t in the middle of its REM cycle — it’s making sure there’s a copy of your ebook delivered to that new lead’s inbox within minutes.”