SMS > Email

When it comes to closing leads, time is everything.

In the seasonal, unpredictable world of tutoring, you never know when lead volume could dry up. That’s why closing every lead is crucial. There are likely many inefficiencies throughout your sales funnel today that cause leads to slip through the cracks. I plan to write posts on how to measure and refine each step of the typical tutor funnel, but today I want to focus on the first message you receive from a new lead.

Keep in mind that students and parents rarely put all the relevant information into their first message.

When you first see an email from a new lead (either from direct outreach or from a tutor marketplace), it’s tempting to want to throw out your availability and lock down a session right away.

But remember that you usually have very little idea of where that student/parent is at in the buying process. Are they learning more about tutoring to see if it’s a valid alternative to less expensive books and courses? Or have they already committed to signing up for tutoring and now are just evaluating who to pick? Do they have an immediate need this week, or are they months out from the SAT and are flexible on start date?

If you’re lucky, they might have put some of that information in their message. But always assume there will be more questions you need to answer.

In order to get your lead’s questions answered, you need to first make sure they open your message!

And that’s where SMS really shines. According to research from Gartner, an astounding 95% of sales/marketing text messages are opened, and 45% of leads respond. Compare that to the dismal numbers for email marketing: only 20% of emails are opened, with only 6% receiving responses. That means you’re nearly 8x more likely to get a response from texting a lead than emailing them.

SMS not only improves deliverability, it also shortens response times.

According to OneReach.ai, the average text message receives a response in 90 seconds. Compare that to the average email, which gets a response back in 90 minutes. Yes, usually people reach out to you more than 90 minutes before they want to book the first session. But remember, the 90 minutes is only an average, plus you can’t assume that the lack of a specified deadline in their original message means they don’t have a deadline! If they’re looking for a session for tomorrow and it’s taking multiple hours to get a response, you could be out of luck. Meanwhile, another tutor could be chatting away with that same student on SMS, finalizing the details for their lesson tomorrow.

Use use your first response back to a new lead to shift the conversation from email to text message

After many iterations, I’ve landed on a standardized first response that does just that: “Hello {first name}! Can you send me a text at 312–555–4321? That’s the quickest way for me to answer any questions you might have. Talk soon!”

A few things to unpack:

• Although this is mostly a saved response, you should always include the person’s first name at the beginning of the message. Helps to avoid the impression that you simply copy-pasted your response, plus it shows that you paid attention when they sent their original message.
• Notice I did not ask ‘What’s your number?” Even though you obviously don’t mean the question in a creepy way, when you ask for a # you are inserting an obstacle into the process. Now this person has to think, “Hmmm, do I want to give this random person my number? Maybe I should keep searching.” It’s a lot easier for someone to send you a text then to give up their number (even though sending a text reveals their number anyways 😂)!
• Explain why you want to have the conversation via text. “That’s the quickest way for me to answer any questions you might have” works well because everyone has questions and everyone values speed.
• Create urgency with a ‘Talk soon!’ at the end. It sounds simple but I’ve found that just adding those 2 words at the end of the message shortens response times dramatically. Plus, for those leads that still don’t respond right away, I feel less guilty following up sooner rather than later because I’ve already set the expectation that we’ll be talking soon.
• Note that I did not say, “give me a call at…” Your lead might want a call eventually. But don’t assume they want a call. If you say “give me a call,” you’ve added an obstacle. They now need to think about whether your credentials are strong enough to merit a call. Or they might just not like doing calls with anyone. Now that they have your #, they can reach out to you in whatever way works best for them.