Chances are, your leads didn't just contact you, they messaged several other companies as well. For this reason alone, responding to new inquiries quickly is imperative if you want the best chance of getting the deal. Businesses that respond within an hour of the initial request are 7 times more likely to hold a more successful conversation with the decision-maker.

If you can't respond within an hour, set up an autoresponder that sends a message back to the lead. This is far better than leaving them with no response for an extended period of time.

When you're battling against your competitors for the attention of new leads, it is crucial to be the first one in their inbox.

Finding the decision maker in the sales process is not only crucial for avoiding wasted time, but also for increasing the likelihood you close the sale​. This is especially true for Commercial jobs, but it applies to Residential as well. When you talk to the decision maker, you will learn far more about what matters most to them and what criteria they have for selecting the company they will be working with. This will help you craft your pitch to maximize your chances of closing the deal.​

If you ask good questions and listen to their answers, you'll find that your leads will oftentimes tell you how to sell them. Most companies run through a generic checklist of what they think people need to hear before they're ready to buy, but if you can tailor your sales pitch to match the needs/wants of your prospect, your closing rate will increase dramatically.​​

Before anyone is ready to give you their money, they need to trust you. If they don't 100% believe that you'll get the job done right, the sales process will get exponentially more difficult. The most successful green-industry companies, with the highest closing rate all use testimonials, gallery photos of past projects, and even a satisfaction guarantee to establish unwavering trust.

Very few sales happen within the first interaction, so following up is essential to closing any kind of deal​. It's important to remember that a lack of responses does not mean a "No" to your offer, people get busy. An article from Hubspot said that 80% of sales require an average of 5 follow ups and shockingly, 92% of sales-pros give up after 4 attemps.

As you stay in touch, personalize your follow ups based on what you've discussed up until now. Touch on their pain points, remind them of your solution, and continue to provide value along the way if you can.

As mentioned on the previous page, follow ups are critical to progressing the sale forward. But, if those follow ups aren’t being seen, the whole sales process slows down. One underutilized, but great way to stay in touch with prospects is through texting. Unlike emails that can be easily missed or phone calls that likely get ignored - you can almost guarantee your text follow ups are seen.

Compared to email’s 20% open rate, Gartner found that text messaging had an open rate of 98%. And, when it came to phone calls, text messaging had a 285% higher response rate.

That all being said, if you want to speed up your sales process and maximize the impact of your follow ups, texting is something to try.