A buyer replies on Tuesday. The answer goes out next week. By then, a faster vendor is on the call.
Speed is not a habit. It is a tier the company commits to.
Pick a tier. Staff it.
Where do outbound campaigns actually fail?
Most campaigns do not fail at the message. They fail in the gap between a reply and an answer.
A reply is a person waiting.
What are the response tiers?
| Tier | Response time |
|---|---|
| Tier 0 | Within 2 to 3 minutes |
| Tier 1 | Within an hour |
| Tier 2 | Within a few hours |
| Tier 3 | The same day |
| Tier 4 | Days. Never acceptable. |
Tier 4 is procrastination. A buyer who waits that long has already moved on to someone faster. If you want to stay competitive, you do not run on Tier 4.
How does a team hold its tier?
Each client commits to one of the tiers before the campaign goes live. Then we assign a person to hold it, so no reply waits on someone's busy week.
Speed is not a trait. It is a staffing decision.
What does Tier 0 look like in practice?
A buyer writes back at 10:12. The answer goes out at 10:14.
The fast tiers run on one shared Slack channel:
- The buyer's reply lands in the channel.
- The draft answer lands under the buyer's message.
- Someone on the client's side answers in two words: "Send it."
Answer in minutes, not days.