Over the last 6 months as I’ve worked heavily with chatbot marketing, designing and debugging the process, creating specific assessments and flows for lead generation, I’ve watched how my clients have handled the leads that come in. After a few conversations, I started to see the problem with what I had developed. To put it plainly, my clients weren’t ready to switch from their old ways. We all know the standard lead process. Pick up a phone and call them if they gave you a number, follow up with an email whether there is a number or not, and keep the process going until you get an answer or put it to the back of the pile. What I saw in creating these lead generation processes through messenger was something different, the ability to communicate with that lead in real time when they were not just hot but scorching! Anyone who has done sales has heard it before. Your leads start dying the moment they submit. Simply put, the longer it takes to talk to them in regard to what they inquired about, the less chance of a close, and maybe even an email reply or them answering the phone. This process was developed to change all that. What I had envisioned was that within 20-30 minutes of a lead generated (during business hours of course) someone would be able to reach out to them.  What I didn’t expect was my clients to be utilizing the old ways to do that. I was seeing that every lead that came in with a phone number was being responded to with a phone call and if there was no phone number or no answer, they’d get sent an email. I watched this happen over the course of a few weeks with multiple clients and had to have the hard conversation because, honestly, no client wants to hear you say you aren’t working the leads right. The thing you must look at with these types of leads and marketing campaigns, is that the lead is already having a “conversation” with you in a channel and manner they are comfortable with. When you try to push it to a phone call or an email before convincing them of the value, you’re just going to push them away. For example, I created a series of questions to gauge someone’s pain levels and locations for an integrative medicine clinic. The assessment let the lead know they’d be contacted with the results and to schedule an appointment. The office was great about getting back with them, but they kept it to the old school methods of phone and email and found many people not getting back with them. To show them a better way, I personally responded to several people and was able to have conversation right there in messenger allowing me to overcome their objections and answer questions right there without forcing them into a phone call or an email exchange. In fact, I was able to book a few appointments right there and when they got called for a confirmation, they answered the phone. This is the method you have to look at when venturing into this new territory of Chatbot Marketing, being able to quickly reply and keeping it in the channel the lead is most comfortable until you make the close. If you’d like to learn more about Chatbot Marketing and how Silversky Enterprises can create and market your Chatbot, call us at 1-855-9SILVER or request a quote.