This problem goes unaddressed by just about every web marketer. It is almost always the cause of ineffective results in what would otherwise be successful web marketing campaigns. But the obvious answer is easier said than done:

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

Many organizations expend thousands of dollars each month with Business.com, MSN, Yahoo and especially Google to drive visitors to their website. These same companies invest tens of thousands in building websites to attract visitors. They even use analytical or testing tools like WebTrends, WebSTAT, WebSideStory or Omniture to analyze how to turn these visitors to leads.

The frustration comes when they let those leads to reside in even the best sales managers? inbox for 48 to 72 hours before they get typed into a CRM database like RightNow Technologies or Salesforce.com, and finally get assigned to the correct sales representative to call them back.

Our research shows that most salespeople 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 costly internet leads will actually get contacted.

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

Why? Because they called them back immediately, and followed up consistently.

Just how immediately do they follow up? Within seconds and minutes, not days and hours. And they keep making calls, often at different times of the day and different days of the week until they get in touch.

Why spend thousands of dollars on driving traffic, well designed websites, and expsensive analysis systems if you are going to let your leads sit for nearly 3 days and contact 55% of your potential prospects? The question is almost insulting, yet that is exactly what happens.

There are new technologies being released that trigger callback attempts within seconds. They will continue to make dozens or more attempts at different times of the day and different days of the week to boost lead contact rates above 85%. Also, these same solutions can automatically market to leads and continue to convert prospects every 3-4 weeks for many years or more.

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

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