Don’t hesitate: your prospect wants to speak with someone. They’re raising their hands — hell, they’re waving their hands trying to get your attention. 👋 People don’t give away their contact information easily!
If you’re not staffed enough to hop on a call every time a form comes in, consider using an AI voice agent to make the first call and fill the gap. An AI agent can answer questions for your prospects, qualify or disqualify them, and even book meetings on your behalf.
🔥 Spoiler alert: We’re currently running a beta program for a small cohort of Close customers for Chloe, a built-in AI teammate who can call your inbound leads and have these conversations for you.
Chloe won’t be available until later this Spring, but if you’d like to be placed on a Beta waitlist, reply to this email with: “I want to be on the Chloe Beta waitlist.”
2. Get them on your calendar ASAP.
If you can’t call them back instantly, you can always get on their calendars. Don't worry about qualification yet — just lock in a time. 🔒
Set a workflow trigger that sends an SMS text the moment a lead submits a form (or if someone on your team is unable to attempt a call within a certain time).
Say something like:
Hi, [Name]! This is Desiree from Close. I see you filled out our contact form. Let's schedule time to chat. Here's my availability: [Calendar link].
I know it’s tempting to spend more time researching the lead and qualifying or disqualifying them before reaching out.
But once they book the meeting, you can follow up later via email with qualifying questions:
Hi, [Name],
Excited to speak with you tomorrow! So I can prepare for our meeting, I’d like to ask a few questions to make sure you’re getting the most out of our time:
1. Can you describe how you currently handle [problem]?
2. What’s your experience with solutions like ours?
You can even use this time to surface demographic questions to see if they’re an ICP fit:
1. How big is your company?
2. What’s your budget?
3. What’s your timeline for integrating?
This way, you can still do some qualifying before the meeting — and respectfully disqualify if needed.
NOTE: You can reverse the order of the scheduling link and the qualifying email if you’re afraid of booking meetings with unqualified leads. Either way, you need to send a real message that engages them immediately.
No more “Thanks for your reply, we’ll be in touch, blah blah blah,” cop-out messages.
Your inbound leads are excited to talk to you! The purpose of instant replies is to signal to customers that you see them, you’re excited to speak with them, and they’re being taken care of.