A step-by-step process for turning a purchased enquiry into a settled deal, from the first call through the follow-up that closes it.
Figures in this article describe the wider market and are drawn from the third-party sources listed at the end. They are not Lead Foundry results, and nothing here is a projection of what any individual broker will achieve.
A purchased enquiry is a person who raised their hand and then went back to their life. The job is to reach them while the reason they raised it is still live, establish what they actually need, and get a specific next step in the diary.
This is that process, in the order it happens.
The first attempt should happen within minutes, which is a delivery problem before it is a discipline problem. A lead pushed into your CRM with an owner and a notification can be called immediately. A lead emailed to a shared inbox waits for somebody to look.
The MIT Sloan lead response research found the odds of contacting a lead drop by a factor of 100 between a five minute and a thirty minute response. Everything downstream in this playbook is multiplied by whether this step works.
The first sentence should remind the person of something they did, because that is the fastest route from suspicion to conversation. Name the brand they enquired through and what they asked about.
Opening with your own name and firm is the standard approach and it starts the call in the wrong place: the listener is trying to work out whether this is a cold call while you are still talking.
The structure that works: Their action, then their stated need, then your name and why you are the person calling. Reversing that order costs you the first fifteen seconds, which is most of the seconds you have.
The record tells you what they typed into a form. It does not tell you what prompted them to type it, and the prompt is what determines urgency.
Those four answers are also the beginning of the suitability record you will need if the conversation becomes regulated financial advice, so asking them is a compliance step and a sales step at the same time.
The single goal of first contact is a specific, scheduled next step. Agreement in principle is not a next step. A day and a time in a diary is.
| What you get | What it is worth | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A booked time, calendar invite sent | The whole point of the call | Confirm by message immediately |
| "Call me next week" | A soft decline in polite clothing | Offer two specific times before you hang up |
| "Send me some information" | Usually a deferral | Send it, and book the call to discuss it |
| A clear no | Genuinely useful | Close it out cleanly and stop the cadence |
The fourth row matters more than it looks. A clean no releases capacity for the leads that are alive, and a broker with no clear nos in their pipeline is carrying dead records that inflate the volume they think they need.
Most first attempts do not connect, which is normal and is not a signal about the lead. Six attempts across roughly a fortnight, mixing phone with short messages, is the evidence-backed pattern: research across close to 3.5 million leads found 93% of leads that convert are reached by the sixth attempt, and that six calls scheduled across a 15 day period improved contact rates by 110%.
| When | Attempt | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Within minutes | 1 | Phone, then SMS if no answer |
| Same day, different time | 2 | Phone |
| Next day | 3 | Phone, then a short email |
| Day 3 | 4 | Phone |
| Day 7 | 5 | Phone, then SMS |
| Day 14 | 6 | Phone, then a closing message that leaves the door open |
An appointment booked is not an appointment held, and the gap between the two grows with the number of days between them. Book close, confirm in writing immediately, and send a reminder the day before.
If an appointment has to sit more than a week out, expect attrition and plan for it. A firm booking appointments three weeks ahead has a capacity problem showing up as a conversion problem.
Open on their action rather than on yourself. Name the brand they enquired through and what they asked about, then give your name and why you are the person calling. That order reminds them of something they did, which is the fastest way out of the "is this a cold call" reflex, and in New Zealand it also goes toward the IPP 3A awareness obligation.
A specific, scheduled next step. Trying to close on the first call is the most common reason a warm enquiry goes cold. Agreement in principle is not a next step; a day and a time in the diary with a confirmation sent is.
Six attempts across roughly a fortnight, mixing phone with short messages. Research across close to 3.5 million leads found 93% of leads that convert are reached by the sixth attempt, and that six calls scheduled across a 15 day period improved contact rates by 110%. Leads needing more than seven calls are 45% less likely to convert.
Yes, and it is undervalued. A clean no stops the cadence, releases calling capacity for live records, and keeps your pipeline numbers honest. A broker with no clear declines is carrying dead records that inflate how much volume they think they need to buy.