Have modern technologies made us lazy or are we a more efficient society because of them? In todays world most things are done with just the push of a button. Cell phones do not require us to type in phone anymore. Anyone saved in our address book can be brought up on our phone screen and then all we do is press send. Close family and friends can be called by holding down one number called a “shortcut”. We use these features so much we don’t even know our house number, we have to look it up when asked what it is.
Why not use that same technology for your sales process. Phone Dialer Software allows you to triple the number of calls made in a business day with just the click of button.
Phone Dialer's allow you to just login into a dialing system and your software will automatically begin calling your contacts. Saving you the time, and money. When dialing phone numbers by hand the average phone calls made by a sales rep is 50. With phone dialer software you can make anywhere from 250 to 350 calls in one business day.
The Advantages of Phone Dialer Software:
• No Manual Dialing
• Increase calls made by 4-5 times (250-350 calls a day)
• Leave pre-recorded voice messages while moving on to the next call
• No searching for phone number, automatically dials list.
• Little to no down time between calls
• Increased contacts and more sales
Technology is a must for any business who regularly makes over the phone contacts and sales. All you need is a computer, phone, and an internet connection to access the technology.
The software also knows what time of day is best to call a certain contact based on call data. The dialer automatically calls who the best contact is for that time of day, and day of the week. Make the most of your time and the sales representatives time by being as effective as possible. The Voice Messaging technologies that often accompany Phone Dialer Software also allows to record messages that you can leave on voicemails while you are on to your next call saving you time.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lead Management Giving you the Leading Edge
Lead Management is critical in today’s competitive business world. Being effective in managing your leads is necessary for business success. Managing and contacting leads is the foundation of a sales force, and growth in many businesses.
New research by MIT and InsideSales.com shows that if you aren't contacting web leads within 5 minutes after they fill out a form then your chances of reaching them decreases by 100 times compared to contacting a half hour later, and over a thousand times by waiting for more than a day. The same principle applies with any lead you receive, the faster you contact that lead the better your chances of speaking with that lead.
As a business you need to contact and qualify your leads as soon as possible. This is what Lead Management Software can do for your organization. Hosted software connects leads to your sales reps as soon as they are received through online forms. Built-in dialers allow reps to call prospects within seconds of receiving their information. If contact isn't made with a prospect the software keeps track of that and will place that prospect into a email nurturing campaign aimed to help the prospect remember your company when they are ready. Helping you to get the most of every lead.
Voice messaging can be built into a lead management system. Allowing you to leave a pre-recorded voice mail for each contact with your contact information, while moving on to the next call.
Benefits of Lead Management Software:
New research by MIT and InsideSales.com shows that if you aren't contacting web leads within 5 minutes after they fill out a form then your chances of reaching them decreases by 100 times compared to contacting a half hour later, and over a thousand times by waiting for more than a day. The same principle applies with any lead you receive, the faster you contact that lead the better your chances of speaking with that lead.
As a business you need to contact and qualify your leads as soon as possible. This is what Lead Management Software can do for your organization. Hosted software connects leads to your sales reps as soon as they are received through online forms. Built-in dialers allow reps to call prospects within seconds of receiving their information. If contact isn't made with a prospect the software keeps track of that and will place that prospect into a email nurturing campaign aimed to help the prospect remember your company when they are ready. Helping you to get the most of every lead.
Voice messaging can be built into a lead management system. Allowing you to leave a pre-recorded voice mail for each contact with your contact information, while moving on to the next call.
Benefits of Lead Management Software:
- Built-in Dialers for faster contacting
- Lead tracking and management
- Customizable to your specific techniques
- Voice Messaging Broadcast
Lead Management software is an indispensable tool for any business that relies on over the phone sales. It will increase your sales exponentially using a few techniques and tools that give you a leading edge over your competition. Allowing you to contact, qualify and close more customers. Helping your business to thrive and grow.
Hosted CRM's
Hosted Customer Relationship Management software, is an indispensable tool in today’s competitive business environment. Hosted CRM's organize and track information on all your current and prospective customers. These are generally used by your sales and customer service, but can be used for anyone who wants to keep track of conversations. You can store relevant information such as phone numbers, mailing addresses, unique request and needs, etc.
What sets Hosted CRM software apart is you can access this information from any location where you have a computer and an Internet connection. Allowing you to have access to your information from anywhere around the world. You also don't have to worry about losing your information because of errors with your computer because it is stored on a secure database.
Here are a few things that help you manage your customer relationships:
What sets Hosted CRM software apart is you can access this information from any location where you have a computer and an Internet connection. Allowing you to have access to your information from anywhere around the world. You also don't have to worry about losing your information because of errors with your computer because it is stored on a secure database.
Here are a few things that help you manage your customer relationships:
Calendar
- Keep track of appointments
- Schedule callback times
- Reminders for routine calls and task
Sales Lead Tracking
- Tracks lead status and information
- Tracks when and how many contact attempts have been made
- Keeps you organized so you do not lose any leads and make the most of each one
Reports
- Provide detailed reports of the effectiveness and productivity of your sales strategies and campaigns
- Can provide reports on each individual agent, such as calls and sales made, people contacted or whatever or specific needs are
- They also come equipped with, or with the option of integrating Sales Tools listed below
Dialers use software integrated with your CRM to make calling people easier and more efficient. By taking a call list and eliminating the time spent manually dialing and the “downtime” between each call. Simply they keep sales agents calling people by calling someone whenever they are available. There are a couple different variations with Predictive Dialers and Power Dialers, being the most popular.
Email Marketing- Uses pre-formatted emails to stay in contact with potential and current clients and alert them of new products, special offers etc. Using emails sent out at specified intervals.
Voice Broadcast-Uses an Auto Dialer to call are large list of contacts and play recorded messages instead of having an agent call each person the auto dialer just plays a message to a live person or an answering machine. Often used for reminder calls of appointments. Letting people know about new products and special offers. Also allow you to leave pre-recorded message when contacting leads if you get an answering machine you can just leave a message while you are already calling the next person.
Overall, Hosted CRM software, allows being more efficient in the sales process, and in managing your current customers. Helping you to maximize your productivity and efficiency.
Auto Dialers
Auto Dialers, what are they and how do they work? Have you ever picked up the phone and gotten a recorded message telling you about a new satellite TV plan or reminding you of your next doctors appointment. Well, that magical experience was brought to you compliments of an Auto Dialer.
How Does it Work?
Auto Dialers are known as “computer telephony software” that simply takes a call list and a pre-recorded message and calls everyone on the list. It plays the message to a live person after a slight pause from when it detects their voice or they will leave a message on an answering machine. They can also be set-up for contacts to press a pre-selected button such as “press 1 to speak to an agent” and be connected to a live agent. They can also be integrated with most Customer Resource Management software (CRMs).
What are They Used For?
Auto Dialers are used for administering surveys and polls. Notifications to customers of billing, promote new products, special offers, emergency notifications, reminding clients of appointments etc. Improving your customer satisfaction and retention.. They can be used to automate any number of tasks these are just a few of the most common uses. They are used for business-to-consumer communications, however they do not work for a business-to-business company.
Advantages
• Allows for maximum contact in minimum time
• Lower Cost, little preparation work by agents needed with a low cost per minute rates, and less time spent of the phone by agents doing busy work.
• Easy reporting and tracking the dialer keeps track of who was contacted and when so you can contact everyone and not duplicate calls
• Prospect more efficiently by qualifying accurately and sending them directly to agents
• Agent efficiency lets agents focus on higher quality customer interaction
Disadvantages
• Lag time between when prospect says hello and when message begins to play
• Often people are annoyed at getting recorded messages
•
Summary
Auto Dialers are very useful tools that can automate many tasks, help cut cost, and increase efficiency. They have a lot of advantages such as contacting a lot of people and getting a quick, simple message to them quickly. They are amazing tools for notifications, reminders, prospecting, and should definitely be considered as a time saving and cost cutting tool by anyone who spends large amounts of time doing any of these tasks.
How Does it Work?
Auto Dialers are known as “computer telephony software” that simply takes a call list and a pre-recorded message and calls everyone on the list. It plays the message to a live person after a slight pause from when it detects their voice or they will leave a message on an answering machine. They can also be set-up for contacts to press a pre-selected button such as “press 1 to speak to an agent” and be connected to a live agent. They can also be integrated with most Customer Resource Management software (CRMs).
What are They Used For?
Auto Dialers are used for administering surveys and polls. Notifications to customers of billing, promote new products, special offers, emergency notifications, reminding clients of appointments etc. Improving your customer satisfaction and retention.. They can be used to automate any number of tasks these are just a few of the most common uses. They are used for business-to-consumer communications, however they do not work for a business-to-business company.
Advantages
• Allows for maximum contact in minimum time
• Lower Cost, little preparation work by agents needed with a low cost per minute rates, and less time spent of the phone by agents doing busy work.
• Easy reporting and tracking the dialer keeps track of who was contacted and when so you can contact everyone and not duplicate calls
• Prospect more efficiently by qualifying accurately and sending them directly to agents
• Agent efficiency lets agents focus on higher quality customer interaction
Disadvantages
• Lag time between when prospect says hello and when message begins to play
• Often people are annoyed at getting recorded messages
•
Summary
Auto Dialers are very useful tools that can automate many tasks, help cut cost, and increase efficiency. They have a lot of advantages such as contacting a lot of people and getting a quick, simple message to them quickly. They are amazing tools for notifications, reminders, prospecting, and should definitely be considered as a time saving and cost cutting tool by anyone who spends large amounts of time doing any of these tasks.
In today’s competitive business world there are many tools for increasing sales productivity. Customer Relationship Management software (CRM's), telephone dialers, voice broadcasting, email marketing, are just a few of the most popular online tools used to increase effectiveness in the work place. Which in turn increases sales.
Here is a breakdown of the most popular sales tools
- CRM- Keeps track of all your potential & current customers information and lets different departments the ability to access important information. They are very helpful in the sales process allowing you to track the status of your lead so you don't forget key information. When dealing with a lot of different prospects at one time this helps you remember where you left off in your previous conversation. There is also reporting in these tools allowing you to quickly see the effectiveness of campaigns and the productivity of your sales team.
- Telephone Dialer- These dialers use computer telephony software to increase call productivity by constantly dialing contacts and minimizing time between calls. This increases the amount of calls made by 3 to 4 times over manual dialing, (Usually an average of 300+ calls daily) a must for selling from remote locations. There are several variations: Predictive Dialers, Power Dialers, Ratio Dialers, which all vary slightly.
- Voice Broadcasting- Broadcast a message to a large number of people. You can record a message by loading it into your dialer and sending it to your contacts. This is used for prospecting and lead generation, and for contacting leads. If you get the voice mail of a lead you can leave a pre-recorded message while you move on to the next call.
- Email marketing- Used to stay in contact with potential & current customers by promoting products, special offers, and upgrades, through what is known as a “drip campaign”. Using an email template that is sent out at intervals of your choosing. This is one of the most cost effective ways to stay in contact with customers and prospects.
There are many options for computer telephony software; predictive dialers, auto dialers, power dialers, and ratio dialers. However, the two most widely used are predictive and power dialers.
How do you choose the one that is right for you? To help you answer that question here is a list of the pros and cons of each.
Predictive Dialer
Advantages of Predictive Dialers over Power Dialers
Very little down time for agents.
Higher rates of speaking with people
Draw Backs
Often calls are “abandoned”, meaning a prospect will pick up and no agents will be available to speak with them.
Lag time. Prospect says “Hello” multiple times with a delayed response from agent. Because agents are not switch over to a call until the dialer detects a live person.
Power Dialer
How it Works
The Dialer calls you
The Dialer Calls then calls the next phone number in your database
The Dialer bridges the two calls together before the prospect answers so you are ready to talk when they answer, no delays.
So as long as you are connected to the dialer it keeps dialing when you are available keeping you busy and productive.
Advantages of the Power Dialer over Predictive Dialers
Increased productivity make 3 to 4 times as many calls as manual dialing. An average of 300 calls a day.
Increased Messaging leave more unique voice messages for your contacts. Meaning you can leave a voice mail while you have already begun to dial the next contact.
You can make sure you tie up loose ends before moving on to the next call such as scheduling callback time, sending emails & faxes, or leaving a voice mail.
Drawbacks
Won't contact as many people as predictive dialer
The Difference
The Predictive Dialer is a quantity approach. The Predictive Dialer allows you to make more calls and speak with more people with the drawback being you are going to miss talking to some of the people you dial because of abandonment.
The Power Dialer won't make quite as many calls. However, the quality of the calls will increase dramatically, due to no abandonment. Agents are also able to tie up loose ends before moving on to the next call. There is also an ability to set up automated processes with the Power Dialer Software allowing you to automate your processes of sending emails, voice mails and much more without actually having to do it live.
How do you choose the one that is right for you? To help you answer that question here is a list of the pros and cons of each.
Predictive Dialer
How it works
The Predictive Dialer works on it’s ability to predict when the next agent will be available.
It tries to match the time that a prospect will answer the phone to when an agent will be available for the call.
The agent logs into the dialer and it starts dialing prospects until one answers the phone.
Using the averages of several key variables: talk time, rings before a customer picks up, and percentage of dialed calls answered, etc. The Dialer makes more phone calls to match the agents with new people to speak with, when they finish their current calls.
Advantages of Predictive Dialers over Power Dialers
Very little down time for agents.
Higher rates of speaking with people
Draw Backs
Often calls are “abandoned”, meaning a prospect will pick up and no agents will be available to speak with them.
Lag time. Prospect says “Hello” multiple times with a delayed response from agent. Because agents are not switch over to a call until the dialer detects a live person.
Power Dialer
How it Works
The Dialer calls you
The Dialer Calls then calls the next phone number in your database
The Dialer bridges the two calls together before the prospect answers so you are ready to talk when they answer, no delays.
So as long as you are connected to the dialer it keeps dialing when you are available keeping you busy and productive.
Advantages of the Power Dialer over Predictive Dialers
Increased productivity make 3 to 4 times as many calls as manual dialing. An average of 300 calls a day.
Increased Messaging leave more unique voice messages for your contacts. Meaning you can leave a voice mail while you have already begun to dial the next contact.
You can make sure you tie up loose ends before moving on to the next call such as scheduling callback time, sending emails & faxes, or leaving a voice mail.
Drawbacks
Won't contact as many people as predictive dialer
The Difference
The Predictive Dialer is a quantity approach. The Predictive Dialer allows you to make more calls and speak with more people with the drawback being you are going to miss talking to some of the people you dial because of abandonment.
The Power Dialer won't make quite as many calls. However, the quality of the calls will increase dramatically, due to no abandonment. Agents are also able to tie up loose ends before moving on to the next call. There is also an ability to set up automated processes with the Power Dialer Software allowing you to automate your processes of sending emails, voice mails and much more without actually having to do it live.
Hosted CRM's
Hosted Customer Relationship Management software, is an indispensable tool in todays competitive business environment. Hosted CRM's organizes and tracks all of your information on your current and prospective customers, used mostly by your sales teams and customer service. You can store relevant information such as phone number's, mailing addresses, unique request and needs etc.
What sets Hosted CRM software apart is you can access this information from any location where you have a computer and an internet connection. Allowing you to have access to your information from anywhere around the world. You also don't have to worry about losing your information because of errors with your computer. Because it's stored on a secure database.
Calender
Keep track of appointments
Schedule callback times
gives you reminders for routine calls and task
Sales Lead Tracking
Tracks lead status and information
Tracks when and how many contact attempts have been made
Keeps you organized so you do not lose any leads and make the most of each one
Analytical Reports
Provide detailed reports of the effectiveness and productivity of your sales strategies and campaigns
Can provide reports on each individual agent, such as calls and sales made, people contacted or whatever or specific needs are
They also come equipped with, or with the option of integrating Sales Tools listed below
Dialers- They use software integrated with your CRM to make calling people easier and more efficient. By taking a call list and eliminating the time spent manually dialing and the “downtime” between each call. Simply they keep sales agents calling people by calling someone whenever they are available. There are a couple different variations with Predictive Dialers and Power Dialers, being the most popular.
Email Marketing- Uses pre-formated emails to stay in contact with potential and current clients and alert them of new products, special offers etc. Using emails sent out at specified intervals.
Voice Broadcast-Uses an Auto Dialer to call are large list of contacts and play recorded messages instead of having an agent call each person the auto dialer just plays a message to a live person or an answering machine. Often used for reminder calls of appointments. Letting people know about new products and special offers. Also allows you to leave pre-recorded message when contacting leads if you get an answering machine you can just leave a message while you are already calling the next person.
Overall, Hosted CRM software, allows to be more efficient in the sales process, and in managing your current customers. Helping you to maximize your productivity and efficiency.
What sets Hosted CRM software apart is you can access this information from any location where you have a computer and an internet connection. Allowing you to have access to your information from anywhere around the world. You also don't have to worry about losing your information because of errors with your computer. Because it's stored on a secure database.
Calender
Keep track of appointments
Schedule callback times
gives you reminders for routine calls and task
Sales Lead Tracking
Tracks lead status and information
Tracks when and how many contact attempts have been made
Keeps you organized so you do not lose any leads and make the most of each one
Analytical Reports
Provide detailed reports of the effectiveness and productivity of your sales strategies and campaigns
Can provide reports on each individual agent, such as calls and sales made, people contacted or whatever or specific needs are
They also come equipped with, or with the option of integrating Sales Tools listed below
Dialers- They use software integrated with your CRM to make calling people easier and more efficient. By taking a call list and eliminating the time spent manually dialing and the “downtime” between each call. Simply they keep sales agents calling people by calling someone whenever they are available. There are a couple different variations with Predictive Dialers and Power Dialers, being the most popular.
Email Marketing- Uses pre-formated emails to stay in contact with potential and current clients and alert them of new products, special offers etc. Using emails sent out at specified intervals.
Voice Broadcast-Uses an Auto Dialer to call are large list of contacts and play recorded messages instead of having an agent call each person the auto dialer just plays a message to a live person or an answering machine. Often used for reminder calls of appointments. Letting people know about new products and special offers. Also allows you to leave pre-recorded message when contacting leads if you get an answering machine you can just leave a message while you are already calling the next person.
Overall, Hosted CRM software, allows to be more efficient in the sales process, and in managing your current customers. Helping you to maximize your productivity and efficiency.
Dialers
Calling your list of sales leads is what I would call "Monkey work", this is any task that can be automated with technology, or outsourced to a team of highly-skilled monkeys ;) Dialers are used to automate the calling process for sales reps. They make calling a long list of contacts by using computer software to go from one call to the next. All an agent needs to do is load a list of contacts that can be sorted by any number of variables: such as location of contact, time of day, cell phone, land line, etc. They are often used in call centers to increase productivity. Depending on the type of dialer used you can double to quadruple the number of calls made each day compared with manual dialing.
There are several types of dialers available today.
Hosted Dialers- General Term used to categorize Dialers that are hosted on servers and can be used to run multiple campaigns at once.
Auto Dialers- Make automated calls using pre-recorded messages. The dialer takes a call list dials each contact and plays the recorded message to them or leaves a message on the answering machine. Often contacts have the option to switch to a live agent using their keypad. Also used for surveys and polls using push button technology.
Predictive Dialers- Used in call centers to keep agents talking to live prospects as much as possible. They work on the principle of calling ahead. The software uses mathematical formulas to “guess” when the next live person will pick up the phone and the next agent will be available to speak with them. Using the averages of how long agents spend with each contact, the number of calls to someone picking up, etc. Then the dialer makes calls appropriately to match up agents with live people as soon as they finish their current call. Usually keep your agents taking 70-80% of the time.
Power Dialers- Similar to Predictive Dialers, used in call centers and for sales teams. Where they differentiate from predictive dialers is organization, they don't call anyone until an agent is available and each agent can have their own personal list of contacts where as with a predictive dialer call list is shared by several agent. Agents take a call list and whenever an Agent is “available” in the dialer it calls the next person and the list to keep the agent busy. They usually make anywhere from 300-350 calls a day.
There are several types of dialers available today.
Hosted Dialers- General Term used to categorize Dialers that are hosted on servers and can be used to run multiple campaigns at once.
Auto Dialers- Make automated calls using pre-recorded messages. The dialer takes a call list dials each contact and plays the recorded message to them or leaves a message on the answering machine. Often contacts have the option to switch to a live agent using their keypad. Also used for surveys and polls using push button technology.
Predictive Dialers- Used in call centers to keep agents talking to live prospects as much as possible. They work on the principle of calling ahead. The software uses mathematical formulas to “guess” when the next live person will pick up the phone and the next agent will be available to speak with them. Using the averages of how long agents spend with each contact, the number of calls to someone picking up, etc. Then the dialer makes calls appropriately to match up agents with live people as soon as they finish their current call. Usually keep your agents taking 70-80% of the time.
Power Dialers- Similar to Predictive Dialers, used in call centers and for sales teams. Where they differentiate from predictive dialers is organization, they don't call anyone until an agent is available and each agent can have their own personal list of contacts where as with a predictive dialer call list is shared by several agent. Agents take a call list and whenever an Agent is “available” in the dialer it calls the next person and the list to keep the agent busy. They usually make anywhere from 300-350 calls a day.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Follow-up Strategies
The last component in lead management is your follow-up strategy. There are several different strategies that you can use and each is dependent on the score the lead receives. You can also change your strategy depending on the response's you get as you attempt to contact each lead. The strategies we'll talk about today are very basic and can be adjusted according to individual needs and results.
The first strategy is known as immediate response, meaning that as soon as you receive their information you attempt to contact your lead. This is often your most effective strategy especially with “hot” leads that show a lot of promise. A new study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and InsideSales.com, a leader in the lead management industry, shows that with web leads you should contact them within five minutes of capturing them or your chances of contacting them and making a sale drop dramatically. So with all good leads you should contact them immediately. It's similar to someone who came into a guitar store, a good clerk doesn't just wait for them to come to him after they've entered the store he greets them immediately and begins the sales process. It should be the same when you receive leads, especially request or inquiry leads, you contact them as soon as possible and keep the ball rolling.
The second strategy is 24-hour response, usually used if the immediate response fails. Try calling 3-5 more times within the next 24 hours. You can even send an email, text message, or snail mail if you can't contact them over the phone.
The third strategy is the two-week response. If the first two strategies fail try a phone call everyday or every other day for the next two weeks. Also try sending more emails or faxes to see if can get a response.
The last strategy is a lead nurturing campaign. When you first captured the lead they weren't interested enough to make a purchase. Using emails, letter, faxes, and phone calls you try to generate more interest, contacting them about once a month using one of these tools. Try and build more interest in your product by offering free trials, special offers, more information, webinars, whatever it is you think will add value to your prospect–just try to get them interested enough to contact you again.
Using lead management software this process can be made very simple and easy to track allowing you to know where every lead stands in regards to which strategies are being applied with them and where they are in the contacting and sales process.
The first strategy is known as immediate response, meaning that as soon as you receive their information you attempt to contact your lead. This is often your most effective strategy especially with “hot” leads that show a lot of promise. A new study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and InsideSales.com, a leader in the lead management industry, shows that with web leads you should contact them within five minutes of capturing them or your chances of contacting them and making a sale drop dramatically. So with all good leads you should contact them immediately. It's similar to someone who came into a guitar store, a good clerk doesn't just wait for them to come to him after they've entered the store he greets them immediately and begins the sales process. It should be the same when you receive leads, especially request or inquiry leads, you contact them as soon as possible and keep the ball rolling.
The second strategy is 24-hour response, usually used if the immediate response fails. Try calling 3-5 more times within the next 24 hours. You can even send an email, text message, or snail mail if you can't contact them over the phone.
The third strategy is the two-week response. If the first two strategies fail try a phone call everyday or every other day for the next two weeks. Also try sending more emails or faxes to see if can get a response.
The last strategy is a lead nurturing campaign. When you first captured the lead they weren't interested enough to make a purchase. Using emails, letter, faxes, and phone calls you try to generate more interest, contacting them about once a month using one of these tools. Try and build more interest in your product by offering free trials, special offers, more information, webinars, whatever it is you think will add value to your prospect–just try to get them interested enough to contact you again.
Using lead management software this process can be made very simple and easy to track allowing you to know where every lead stands in regards to which strategies are being applied with them and where they are in the contacting and sales process.
Scoring
Let’s take a closer look at one of the most important aspects of lead management, scoring. After you've captured your leads and supplemented them with as much additional information as you can. You give them a score–or rating–for how likely they are to buy your product at that point in time. Scoring is very important, it helps you focus your time on the leads that will be the most productive and which follow-up strategy to use with each lead.
When scoring several factors are taken into consideration: First, what is the quality of the data you have captured on your leads? Is the data valid and from good sources? Can you likely contact them with the information you have? And are they part of your target market?
Second, what is their behavior such as how many times have they visited your website, have they made any request for white papers, free trials, or been part of your nurturing campaign.
Third, quantity of data, or do you have enough information to contact them or enough to really make an accurate judgment of who they are and how likely they are to purchase your product.
After all of these factors are determined each lead is given a score. Several different scales can be used when scoring leads but the most common scale and the one we’ll look at today is the A-E. On this scale an A is someone that is highly likely to purchase your product, you have good contact information, shown a significant amount of interest, and they match up with your target market.
Leads receive a score of B if it is a good lead that is slightly lacking in any one category or a combination of the three areas used to score leads. They may not match your target market or may not have shown a large amount of interest, or they may have shown a lot of interest but you don't know very much about them.
Leads receiving a score of C are ok or average leads that still have a possibility of making a sale but the conversion rate is usually much lower than leads that receive a score of A or B. They are lacking significantly in one area or lacking slightly in all the areas of evaluation.
Leads scoring a D usually don't have very much information or are not really interested at the moment, these leads are entered into a lead nurturing campaign. Finally leads receiving a score of E usually are bogus or their isn't enough information to make any kind of judgment on them. So if they have enough information to be entered into a nurturing campaign they are, if not they are discarded.
Scoring can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be but it's very important that it is done to increase the efficiency of your sales force. Using lead management software can make this process very quick and painless and help you respond to your leads very quickly.
When scoring several factors are taken into consideration: First, what is the quality of the data you have captured on your leads? Is the data valid and from good sources? Can you likely contact them with the information you have? And are they part of your target market?
Second, what is their behavior such as how many times have they visited your website, have they made any request for white papers, free trials, or been part of your nurturing campaign.
Third, quantity of data, or do you have enough information to contact them or enough to really make an accurate judgment of who they are and how likely they are to purchase your product.
After all of these factors are determined each lead is given a score. Several different scales can be used when scoring leads but the most common scale and the one we’ll look at today is the A-E. On this scale an A is someone that is highly likely to purchase your product, you have good contact information, shown a significant amount of interest, and they match up with your target market.
Leads receive a score of B if it is a good lead that is slightly lacking in any one category or a combination of the three areas used to score leads. They may not match your target market or may not have shown a large amount of interest, or they may have shown a lot of interest but you don't know very much about them.
Leads receiving a score of C are ok or average leads that still have a possibility of making a sale but the conversion rate is usually much lower than leads that receive a score of A or B. They are lacking significantly in one area or lacking slightly in all the areas of evaluation.
Leads scoring a D usually don't have very much information or are not really interested at the moment, these leads are entered into a lead nurturing campaign. Finally leads receiving a score of E usually are bogus or their isn't enough information to make any kind of judgment on them. So if they have enough information to be entered into a nurturing campaign they are, if not they are discarded.
Scoring can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be but it's very important that it is done to increase the efficiency of your sales force. Using lead management software can make this process very quick and painless and help you respond to your leads very quickly.
Lead Types
In sales lead management all leads can be classified as one of two types: 1. request or inquiry 2. cold name or list name. We'll look at what differentiates the two types and evaluate their attributes.
First lets start with the request or inquiry lead. These leads are generated when someone contacts you and requests more information about your product. A simple example would be someone who goes to a car dealership and looks at cars they are considering purchasing. When they leave if they did not make a purchase, but are still interested, the sales rep gets their information and enters it into a database. Creating a new lead. Another example would be someone who fills out a web form requesting a free trial of web software. After submitting the web form their information is entered into a database as someone who has expressed interest in the product and should be followed up with. These are your best leads.
Request or inquiry leads are someone who already has an interest in your product. If you compare it to fishing you would say they are “nibbling” at the bait and all you need to do is set the hook.
You can capture these leads in several ways; people coming to your place of business, calling toll free or local numbers, filling out a web form, are just a few of the most common methods.
When capturing these leads you want to obtain as much information as possible. This helps you in two area's. First, scoring, or calculating how likely they are to purchase your product. Second, more data helps with the contacting process. More data increases your chances of contacting the prospect after the initial contact. Two ways of contacting is always better than one, like a phone number, email or mailing address.
It's important to contact request leads as soon as you can even immediately if possible. Studies have shown with web leads specifically, that if you do not contact them within 5 minutes of the chances of making contact and making a sale start to drop dramatically.
The second type of lead is a cold name. This type of lead is not nearly as good. Collected from a list vendor or phone book listing these, you can contact these people with the hope that they might be interested in your product. Using cold names is more like throwing your line in the water not knowing what the fish are biting on.
What you are selling determines how effective cold names will be. If you are selling a product with a large market, such as cellphones, or TV's cold names would be more effective, than something with a small market like whitewater kayak paddles, which would be very ineffective to sell using cold names. Depending on what you are selling determines how effective these will be, but they are proven to be less effective than the request leads.
The primary difference between request leads and cold names is the level of interest. With request leads you have people who are already interested in buying your product. With cold names you are trying to build interest in your product so you can sell to them.
First lets start with the request or inquiry lead. These leads are generated when someone contacts you and requests more information about your product. A simple example would be someone who goes to a car dealership and looks at cars they are considering purchasing. When they leave if they did not make a purchase, but are still interested, the sales rep gets their information and enters it into a database. Creating a new lead. Another example would be someone who fills out a web form requesting a free trial of web software. After submitting the web form their information is entered into a database as someone who has expressed interest in the product and should be followed up with. These are your best leads.
Request or inquiry leads are someone who already has an interest in your product. If you compare it to fishing you would say they are “nibbling” at the bait and all you need to do is set the hook.
You can capture these leads in several ways; people coming to your place of business, calling toll free or local numbers, filling out a web form, are just a few of the most common methods.
When capturing these leads you want to obtain as much information as possible. This helps you in two area's. First, scoring, or calculating how likely they are to purchase your product. Second, more data helps with the contacting process. More data increases your chances of contacting the prospect after the initial contact. Two ways of contacting is always better than one, like a phone number, email or mailing address.
It's important to contact request leads as soon as you can even immediately if possible. Studies have shown with web leads specifically, that if you do not contact them within 5 minutes of the chances of making contact and making a sale start to drop dramatically.
The second type of lead is a cold name. This type of lead is not nearly as good. Collected from a list vendor or phone book listing these, you can contact these people with the hope that they might be interested in your product. Using cold names is more like throwing your line in the water not knowing what the fish are biting on.
What you are selling determines how effective cold names will be. If you are selling a product with a large market, such as cellphones, or TV's cold names would be more effective, than something with a small market like whitewater kayak paddles, which would be very ineffective to sell using cold names. Depending on what you are selling determines how effective these will be, but they are proven to be less effective than the request leads.
The primary difference between request leads and cold names is the level of interest. With request leads you have people who are already interested in buying your product. With cold names you are trying to build interest in your product so you can sell to them.
Auto Dialers and Lead Management
How can an auto dialer assist you in the lead management process? Auto dialers are very useful tools for contacting a lot of people without using a lot of your sales reps time. They are used for prospecting and qualifying leads. Which means they can help you find leads and assist in the follow-up process once you have acquired leads.
We'll first go over how an auto dialer works. An auto dialer is designed to make a large amount of calls in a short amount of time and is used to help maximize your sales reps productivity, by automating the process of contacting web generated leads.
The process is simple–you take a list of people located in your Costumer Relationship Management (CRM) software and input them into the auto dialer. Next, the dialer calls each name in the list. When the dialer detects someone picking up the phone or it gets an answering machine it will play a pre-recorded message to him or her about your product or company. Then the individual will have the option to be directly connected to a live sales rep or be added to a do not call list. The dialer tracks who has been contacted and who has not, saving you a lot of time and resources.
An auto dialer can be a very useful tool. You can take a large list of people and the auto dialer will call each one, and you can find out who is interested or might be in the future. The dialer uses a CRM to track all information gathered making it easy for your sales reps to find and filter new leads.
The follow-up process with the help of the auto dialer can be very useful with leads that did not score well but you still want to follow up with. So instead of using your sales reps valuable time calling unqualified leads you can have the auto dialer call them. If they are interested they can be directly connected to a live agent. Saving money on resources and helping you to get the most out of every lead.
In conclusion auto dialers are great tools to help you automate your sales process and increase your efficiency and production with out making a huge investment. Most dialers are very reasonably priced and are easily integrated into most CRM systems. If you do not have an in house or hosted CRM system then most dialers have them built in giving you a two for one deal.
We'll first go over how an auto dialer works. An auto dialer is designed to make a large amount of calls in a short amount of time and is used to help maximize your sales reps productivity, by automating the process of contacting web generated leads.
The process is simple–you take a list of people located in your Costumer Relationship Management (CRM) software and input them into the auto dialer. Next, the dialer calls each name in the list. When the dialer detects someone picking up the phone or it gets an answering machine it will play a pre-recorded message to him or her about your product or company. Then the individual will have the option to be directly connected to a live sales rep or be added to a do not call list. The dialer tracks who has been contacted and who has not, saving you a lot of time and resources.
An auto dialer can be a very useful tool. You can take a large list of people and the auto dialer will call each one, and you can find out who is interested or might be in the future. The dialer uses a CRM to track all information gathered making it easy for your sales reps to find and filter new leads.
The follow-up process with the help of the auto dialer can be very useful with leads that did not score well but you still want to follow up with. So instead of using your sales reps valuable time calling unqualified leads you can have the auto dialer call them. If they are interested they can be directly connected to a live agent. Saving money on resources and helping you to get the most out of every lead.
In conclusion auto dialers are great tools to help you automate your sales process and increase your efficiency and production with out making a huge investment. Most dialers are very reasonably priced and are easily integrated into most CRM systems. If you do not have an in house or hosted CRM system then most dialers have them built in giving you a two for one deal.
The Process of Lead Management
Lead management is simply the process of acquiring and managing your leads so you can begin the sales process with them, or turn a lead into an opportunity. There are six key steps to doing managing leads.
1. Data management – decide on a database to store your information. This could be something as simple as an excel spreadsheet or a rolodex. Or something with more features like a CRM.
2. Lead capture - Meaning just get the basic information for each of your leads; name, phone number, and mailing address. You can use web forms, toll free numbers, local landlines, or buy leads from a lead provider, using whatever tools you have.
3. Lead delivery - Deliver the lead to your database whether it be excel, a CRM, or a lead management tool.
4. Supplement your lead - So get more information about your leads, using other database's look up any information you can about them. For example use an area code registry to see where they are from, if you sell business-to-business find out what industry they are in, their competitors, etc.
5. Score - Based on the information you have, give each lead a score based on how likely they are to buy your product. When scoring leads 3 categorizes are taken into account.
a. Quality- how well do they match our target market.
b. Behavior- how many times have they contacted us, have they requested information or free products, etc.
c. Quantity- do we have enough information to contact them or are they a real lead.
Using this criteria we can then rate each lead. Rating systems are often done A to E or 1 to 10. We'll look at the A to E a little closer here.
A. A very hot lead is someone that is very likely to buy your product.
B. Is a fairly good lead?
C. Is not really that great but worth calling?
D. Is not good at all?
E. Is bogus or too little information?
Note: D & E are usually not contacted right away but put into lead nurturing campaigns, which we'll discuss later on.
6. Route -After scoring your leads you route them to your sales reps. When routing them you must first choose what sales rep the lead will go to based on criteria of your choosing, such as location, ratings and your sales reps skills. Then you notify your sales reps with a phone call, screen pop, and/or text message, allowing them to initiate the last step.
Follow-Up Strategy- There are 4 basic strategies.
1. Immediate response- Using your different media tools phone, email, fax, chat, text message, voice broadcast. The object is to contact them as soon as possible preferably within about 5 minutes.
2. 24 Hour Response- If option one fails make 3-5 five phone calls with 24 hours and perhaps send an e-mail, text message, or any of the other options used in immediate response
3. 2 Week response- If the first two options fail try a phone call everyday or every other day.
4. Nurturing- If the first three strategies fail or they don't meet your standard for starting with those options you can put them in a nurturing campaign where once a month or whatever you chose, you send a newsletter to them, free demos or any other number of options. The purpose of nurturing is to get them to come back to you, more interested then when you first received their information.
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