Managing Sales Leads - Turning Cold Prospects into Hot Customers

Table of contents for Managing Sales Leads

by James Obermayer

Introduction
Section One – Making the Case
1. Sue Makes the Sale
  - The Marketing Manager Presents Her Plan
2. Business Rules to Live By
  - The Rule of 45: How to Predict the Future
    - One Exception
    - Identifying Sources and Leads and Converting Them
  - Two Business Rules
  - The 100% Follow-up Rule
  - How Marketing Complies with the Accountability Rule
  - The Six Ways to Prove the ROI for Sales Inquiries
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
3. Sales Inquiries: An Asset with Declining Value
  - How the 100% Follow-up Rule Increases Corporate Profits
  - Marketers as Creators of Wealth
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
Section Two – Managing the Process
1. Defining and Identifying Inquiries, Suspects, Prospects, and Leads
  - Inquiry vs. Sales Lead
  - Profile Questions: Understanding Buyer Intentions and Potential
  - Why Profile Questions Are So Important
  - Grading the Inquirer
  - Creating Questions and Answers and Coding the Results
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
2. Speaking in Numbers
  - Process Control in Sales and Marketing
  - ROI Reporting: The Proof
  - Benchmark Where You Are Now
  - Did You Buy (DUB) Studies
  - The Methods Used for DUB Studies
    - DUB by Mail
    - Email DUB Studies
    - Telephone DUB Studies
  - Lead Management Reports You Can Use
    - Total Inquiries by Representative and Region
    - Campaign Report
    - Inquiries by Source Type (Media)
    - 12-month Inquiry Summary by Month
    - Inquiries by Product
    - Inquiry Sales Closure Reports
    - Inquiries by Region, Follow-up
    - Return on Investment
    - Sold vs. Lost to Competitors by Source
    - Sold by Media Campaign (Sale by Source)
    - Sold by Source Type
    - Sold by Original Rank
    - Inquiries by Rank, 12-month Total
  - Profile Questions and the Reports
    - Profile Question: How Soon Will You Need This Product?
    - Profile Question: Are You Budgeted?
    - Profile Question: How Will You Acquire This Product?
    - Profile Question: What Is Your Role in Evaluating This Product?
    - Profile Question: What Is Your Application?
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
3. Managing Inquiries
  - Fulfill and Forget: Low Touch
  - Considered Purchase: Continuous Touches, Some Nurturing
  - Nurture Processing: Inquiries for Long, Technical Sales Cycles
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
4. B2B Inquiries: Special Handling
  - Marketing and Sales Stages
  - Marketing Qualifications Stages
  - Sales Stages: Funnel, Opportunity, Deal, or Pipeline
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
5. In-House or Outsource?
  - Pluses and Minuses
  - Criteria for Making the Decision
  - Software Providers for In-House Systems
  - Taking It Outside
  - Inquiry Management Service Providers
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
6. Inquiry Leakage
  - Typical Points of Inquiry Leakage
  - Allowing the Prospect to Reach You Their Way
  - Capture the Source or Lose ROI
  - Source or Media Types: Categories of Primary Inquiry Sources
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
7. Fulfillment, Inquiry Tracking, and Distribution
  - The Literature Package
    - The Envelope
    - The Letter
    - The Literature
    - Where to Buy and the BRC
    - Common Mistakes in Fulfillment Packages
  - Don’t Send Literature to Competitors
  - Duplicate Inquiries
  - Tracing Inquiries from the Same Company: Historic Trace
  - Distributing Inquiries to Sales Territories
  - Sending Inquiries and Leads to Direct Salespeople
  - The Importance of Getting There First
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
8. Closing the Inquiry Loop
  - Giving Salespeople Reasons to Comply
  - Seven Ways to Motivate Salespeople to Follow up Inquiries
  - Reseller Compliance
  - Making It Easy to Report: Compliance, the Key to Success
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
Section Three – Estimating the Number of Inquiries Needed and Finding Hot Sources
1. Estimating How Many Inquiries Is Enough
  - Too Little, Too Much, or Just Right?
    The Good News: A One-Year Lead Generation Plan Gives You Sales for 18 to 20 Months
  - The 60% Factor: Marketing Pipeline
  - Why One Source of Inquiries Isn’t Enough
  - Gaining Market Share at an Extraordinary and Predictable Rate
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter 186
2. Hot Inquiry Sources: Telemarketing and Trade Shows
  - Telemarketing Uses: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
  - Inbound—Toll Free
  - Inbound Telemarketing: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
  - Inbound Telemarketing Costs
    - Program Setup Fees
    - Program Management
    - Reporting
    - Calling Fees: Vendors
  - Outbound Telemarketing
  - Outbound Telemarketing: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
  - Outbound Telemarketing Costs: Vendors
  - Four Reasons Why Telemarketing Programs Fail
  - Telemarketing and Inquiry Management
  - Trade Show Inquiries: One of Your Hottest Sources
    - Trade Show Best Practices
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
Section Four – Rules—Formal and Informal
1. Business Rules for Inquiry Management
  - Rule 1: Database
  - Rule 2: Profiling
  - Rule 3: Qualifying
  - Rule 4: Inquiry Grading
  - Rule 5: Information Fulfillment
  - Rule 6: Competitors
  - Rule 7: Inquiry/Lead Assignments
  - Rule 8: 48-Hour Opening
  - Rule 9: 100% Closeout
  - Rule 10: ROI Reporting
  - Rule 11: Retention of Inquirers on the Database
  - The Reason for Rules
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
2. Getting Cooperation from Sales
  - Sales Management: What’s in It for Them?
  - Salespeople: What’s in It for Them?
  - The Importance of Ease of Use
  - Training Salespeople: The Ongoing, Never-Ending Job
  - Showing the Cost of the Inquiry
  - Actions to Take from This Chapter
3. How to Keep Things Dynamic and Proactive
  - Step One: Benchmark Your Current Follow-up and Closing
  - Step Two: Perform an Inquiry Handling Audit
  - Step Three: Create a Road Map to Fix the Problems
Index

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Sales & Marketing 365
by James Obermayer

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