SOP 91 — Run the first-contact channel stack and the double dial

1. Start everywhere, continue where they answer

How should you first reach somebody who has just opted in? By text, by email, by direct message or by phone? The answer is all of them, more or less.

The rule. Start the conversation in more than one way, and continue it wherever the lead answers. When somebody opts in, message them on more than one social platform, text them, call them and email them: the works. Then, wherever they respond, make that the channel you use with them. Over time the conversation moves to the phone, a video call or a meeting in person; at the start, go wherever resistance is lowest.

An example. You call, text, message and email a lead, and they answer the direct message first. Carry on the conversation there. You can move to a richer channel later, such as a phone call or a video call, once it is under way.

It sounds basic. Even so, so many people reach out once, on one platform, and stop. That is a big mistake.

2. Reach out like you mean it

Reach out as if you are actually trying to get hold of the lead, not going through the motions. Imagine you needed to reach your parents because something had come up. You would call more than once, text them, message them, maybe even email them. You would ring their friends to ask where they were, or the front desk if they lived in a building with one. You would do whatever it took.

Your leads need your help, and they said so when they opted in. Not reaching out as if you mean it does them a disservice. So reach out in several ways and in several places.

The bottom line. You get more first replies when you open conversations in as many ways as you can, then carry each one on in the way that lead prefers.

3. The first attempt, step by step

The first attempt is the opening of the week of attempts on SOP 89 — Run the seven-day follow-up cadence, which sets the order.

Call within five minutes of the opt-in. The standard and the reasons for it are SOP 90 — Reach a new lead fast.
If you get nothing, call again at once. This is the double dial, in section 4.
If there is still nothing, leave a voicemail.
Straight after the voicemail, send a text.

Later that same day come two more rounds of the double dial and a text, with a few hours between them; that and the rest of the week are on SOP 89.

3.1 A second sequence: automated messages first

One practice here fires a run of automated texts and an email the moment a form comes in, before any call, each one personalized to the lead:

When	What the message does
At once	Uses their name and asks whether they reached out
30 seconds later	Asks one question: the biggest challenge they face right now
2 minutes later	Welcomes them, with a booking link and a single case study that works as a small lead magnet
5 minutes later	Says there is no pressure if now is a bad time, with the booking link for when they are ready

The reasons given. Somebody who has just opted in has time now, and may not have it in twenty minutes. Reach them late and you hear who are you again? And a question in the first text forces engagement, for significantly higher reply rates.

Every one of these messages, and any automated call or voicemail that goes with them, identifies itself as automated, following the reminder rule on SOP 89 section 4, and the laws of your area apply. The calls that go with this sequence, and where they differ from the steps above, are in the flag in section 4.

4. The double dial

If you call once and get nothing, call again immediately. The reasons given:

You have permission. They asked you to contact them, so contact them as if you mean it.
Their phone may be screening you. You will be calling from a number they do not know, and many phones block a first call from a number like that and let a second one through. So even a lead who is expecting your call may miss it.

Obey the laws of your area. The setter scripts on SOP 53 section 2 use the same move.

Flag: what comes first, and the gap before the second call. Sections 3 and 4 open with a call inside five minutes and, if nobody answers, a second call at once. A second view opens with the automated messages of section 3.1, sent within 60 seconds; an automated call follows within two minutes and, if nobody answers, leaves a voicemail and calls back five minutes later. That view times the first call two ways: within two minutes, and within 60 seconds. This page does not settle which reading is right.

5. Voicemail, then text

When the second call also goes unanswered, leave a voicemail, and send a text the moment you hang up. No wording is given for either.

Whichever touch the lead answers first becomes the channel you continue on, as section 1 sets out: a call back puts you on the phone, and a reply to the text keeps you on text until you move to a richer channel.

6. Make your texts look like a person sent them

Spam, automated messages and other junk most often arrive as green messages, though the color of those messages is not certain. Most messages from real people arrive as blue ones. Send blue messages and you get more replies. So get the team iPhones for texting, so their texts arrive as the blue, person-to-person kind.

The technology will change. If there is ever something like this again, where a message can show that a person sent it, invest in it. It has always been worth the higher response rates.

Flag: blue against green. The paragraphs above say blue messages get more replies. A second view reports one large split test, run by a scheduling platform, that found no difference between the two. The view here doubts that result without having tested it, on the theory that green messages are more often reported as junk and filtered more by carriers, while a blue one reads like a message from a friend; the same view names sending blue as the one step most safely skipped. This page does not settle which reading is right.

7. Call from a local number

Local area codes are picked up at a significantly higher rate than area codes the lead does not recognize or that come from outside their area. There is technology that switches your area code to the one local to the prospect you are calling, and it raises pick-up rates by a lot. The investment is recommended.

The same idea runs through the reminders on SOP 89 section 4: put the area code you will call from in the reminder, and pick-up rates double.

8. Where this sits

Choosing the channel the lead prefers is the first of the personalization tactics listed on SOP 87 — Lift a show rate with incentives, section 2. How fast you make first contact is SOP 90, and the number of attempts is SOP 89. Personalization, speed and volume sit beside availability among the levers set out in SOP 85 section 3.

The rule in its short forms. One short form: use several communication channels at first, then continue where the lead responds first. Another, put more briefly still: contact leads everywhere, then focus on the places they respond. The medium you talk on also counts among the things you personalize from what you have learned about each lead. The fuller form is in sections 1 and 2.

9. What this page does not decide for you

Which social platforms to use. More than one is the rule; none is named.
What the voicemail and the first text say. Section 3.1 gives what each automated message does; this page gives no script for the voicemail or for the text sent after it.
How long to wait before the second call. The instruction is immediately; a second view waits five minutes (the flag in section 4).
When to move a lead to a richer channel. Later is the only guidance.
Whether the green and blue distinction still holds on your leads' phones. The technology is expected to change; see the flag in section 6.
How the double pick-up rate was measured. Not established on this page.

10. The checklist

Question	The answer
Which channels at first contact	All of them: social platforms, text, call and email
Which channel after that	The one the lead answers first
When to move to a richer channel	Later, once the conversation is going
How hard to try	As if you mean it: several ways, several places
The first attempt, in order	Call within five minutes; call again; voicemail; text
A second sequence	Automated texts and an email at once, each saying it is automated; see the flag in section 4
When the first call gets nothing	Call again at once
Why the second call	You have permission, and phones screen first calls from unknown numbers
Texts	Sent so they arrive as person-to-person messages
Calls	From a number local to the lead
The law	Obey the laws of your area

11. What this page does not cover

The rest of the week's attempts and the reminders are SOP 89, the five-minute standard is SOP 90, and the setter scripts used once somebody answers are SOP 53.

Caller-identification rules and telephone-marketing law are not covered on this page.