This problem goes unaddressed by just about every web marketer. It is quite often the cause of ineffective results in what would otherwise be effective online marketing campaigns. But the common-sense answer is easier said than done:

ANSWER: You respond to them quickly and often to qualify them into prospects.

Many organizations expend thousands of dollars monthly with Yahoo, MSN, Business.com and especially Google to lure clicks to their website. These same companies invest significant amounts up front in building a website to attract visitors. They even use analytical or testing tools like WebSTAT, WebSideStory, WebTrends or Omniture to analyze how to convert these visitors to leads.

The concern comes when they let those leads to sit in the sales managers? inbox for 48 to 72 hours before they get imported into a customer database like RightNow Technologies or Salesforce.com, and finally get assigned to the correct sales rep to begin the sales process.

Our research shows that the average salesperson only makes 4 to 5 attempts to get in touch with them the first week then they move on. That means only one-half of a company's internet leads will actually get contacted.

By the time they get contacted (if they get called back) a competitor has often reached them first and is already close to another customer, your customer.

Why? Because they called them back immediately, and followed up often enough to make contact.

Just how quickly do they begin attempting contact? Within minutes and seconds, not days and hours. And they keep making attempts, often at different times of day and different days of the week until they make contact.

Why spend thousands of dollars on generating clicks, high conversion websites, and expsensive analysis systems if you are going to let your leads sit for 48 hours and contact 55% of your potential prospects? The question is almost insulting, yet that is exactly what happens.

There are new technologies available that take control of lead response within seconds. They will continue to make dozens or more attempts at different times of the day and different days of the week to increase lead contact rates above 85%. Also, these solutions can automatically market to leads and continue to qualify prospects every 3-4 weeks for 2 years or more.

We at InsideSales.com call this ?Lead Response Management?. Wringing every last bit of value out of your costly leads and tracking a true return on investment from your lead sources.

This overlooked oasis of opportunity may just be the next most leveraged element of search marketing. It lies hidden somewhere between the Lead Generation Process and the Sales Process or right where the handoff commonly occurs between the Marketing Department and Sales. It's the frustration that everyone feels but no one is doing anything about, until now.