The 3 Best Questions To Ask A Prospect

Form Fill Follow-up Strategies

Since no one won the $1,500 prize by providing suggestions on how to follow up on leads generated when someone completes a web form to access information or a resource – E.g. an EchoQuote self-serve pricing form, a webinar recording, a white paper, or preview chapters of a book – here is my perspective on the three best questions to ask when following up on web leads.

MIT’s lead follow up research shows how you are 100X more likely to reach the person who filled in the form when you follow up in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes – The report has some other enlightening information and can be downloaded from InsideSales.com. So if you are going to follow up on web leads do so as fast as possible.

What questions should you ask when you follow up

I answered that question by first asking – What are the most important things to learn

For me the three most important things I want to learn are:

• Did they get the resource they requested
• What made them fill in the form
• Is there a sales opportunity

In today’s world of a million and one different spam filters you can never be sure that the email your systems automatically send out get into the recipient’s inbox. So, my first question is “Did you receive the email with the link to download the resource ”

I’m always curious what they saw or heard that made them willing to provide their email address and phone number in return for access to what is being offered. So, my second question is “What made you say it was worth taking the time to complete the form to access the resource ” This question is still a little lengthy and cumbersome so if I’d love to hear if you have a shorter or better version of this question.

My last and perhaps most important questions is to learn which buying mode the person is in so I can learn if there is a pursuable sales opportunity.

I firmly believe that the statistics of those who fill in forms are similar to those who register for webinars. Patrick Cahill – who is the a speaker in the June webinar “How to best use webinars as a lead generation tool” – writes in an article “How to Pinpoint Real Sales Opportunities with Your Webinars“:

People who register for events fall into four categories: immediate opportunities (5%) and short-term leads (20%), long-term leads (50%), and perfectly nice people who will never buy related services (25%).

So my last question is “What happened recently that made it more relevant or more important ”

If I learn they recently experienced a ‘Want’ Trigger Event and are in the Window of Dissatisfaction I ask permission to ask a few more questions so I can understand what problem they are trying to solve or what outcome they are trying to accomplish and then pursue the sale.

If I learn they recently experienced an “Afford” Trigger Event and are Searching For Alternatives I ask permission to ask a few more questions so I can understand who they are already talking to and how I can position myself as the least risky alternative.

If I learn they have not recently experienced a Trigger Event and are in the buying mode of Status Quo and believe they have money, authority, and influence I start fostering a relationship while raising their expectations.

I use to ask the question “Where did you hear about this resource ” but I added that to my forms so I can focus on what I think are the three most important questions when I get them on the phone.

2011 Webinar Schedule