Business Acceleration Program for Service Businesses

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS Grow Faster. Business Acceleration Program for Service Businesses Make Your Business Grow Faster Module 12: Lead Flow Management When you get a lead, you need to keep track of it all the way through the client s decision point and many times even after. This module will help you understand how to track leads and manage your sales pipeline. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 1 of 14

IN THIS MODULE Your Lead Flow Process... 4 High Volume Lead Management... 4 Low Volume Lead Management... 4 Receiving Leads... 5 Business Card Management... 5 Email Introduction Management... 5 Contact Information from Marketing... 5 Next Steps... 5 Connecting with Your Lead... 6 Automate Your Follow-Up... 6 Managing Your Network... 6 Categorize Your Contact List... 6 Create a Keep In Touch Plan... 7 Create a Contact Plan for A and B Contacts and Partners... 7 Get Personal... 8 Be Consistent... 8 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)... 9 Selecting a Good CRM Tool... 9 General CRM Decision Model... 9 Recommended CRM Applications... 10 Software-Based... 10 Web-Based CRM Applications... 10 Homework... 14 Preparation for Next Week... 14 bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 2 of 14

Your Lead Flow Process Every business should have a consistent method of handling leads and walking them from identification to closure. Here are some ways that people handle the lead flow process. Adopt and modify the one that best resembles your approach to lead handling. New Lead Connect Discovery Proposal Negotiation Close Receive lead from marketing process Contact lead and set up meeting What is it you do? What do you like most about that? If you could start over, what would your day look like? Tell me more Assess needs (ask questions) Define scope Research solution Assemble team Write proposal Deliver proposal Follow up Address objections Ask for the sale Negotiate the sale Close the deal Get paid or Put prospect in parking lot HIGH VOLUME LEAD MANAGEMENT Companies dealing with a lot of leads typically use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This allows one or many people to see contact information, contact history, order history, and more. The second section of this module discusses various CRM applications and how they compare to each other. LOW VOLUME LEAD MANAGEMENT If you deal with fewer than 10 leads per week, you may be able to handle them with a paper system. There are some worksheets at the back of this module that can be used to track leads for potential clients and partners. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 4 of 14

RECEIVING LEADS How do you receive leads? There are three main scenarios for lead capture: business cards, email introductions, and leads from your marketing efforts. Each requires an effort to properly handle so that you keep up with them and turn them into gold. Being intentional and consistent with your process will help improve your chances of sales. BUSINESS CARD MANAGEMENT CONTACT INFORMATION FROM MARKETING Contact info File Pile Physical Digital Leave at source Inconsistent filing Tickler file CRM Forget Forget Schedule next step Schedule next step Business card File Pile Physical Digital Forget Someday Tickler file CRM EMAIL INTRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Schedule next step Schedule next step The consistent theme in these scenarios is that piles get forgotten while files with next actions yield results. Yes, it s more work to file contacts. It will also pay you more to do so probably enough to cover hiring an assistant to file for you. NEXT STEPS Having a Next Step for each contact is important. Without them, you have to remember who you need to talk with, and days, weeks, months pass by without contacting them. Email Introduction File Pile Email folders CRM Leave in Inbox Forget? Schedule next step Forget? A better way is to take action on every lead to at least identify what the next step is even if you re not going to take that action until much later. Put the Next Steps on your calendar or in your task list. Be sure to check your lists and calendar daily so that you keep up with your relationships. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 5 of 14

CONNECTING WITH YOUR LEAD The following questions, as suggested in Tim Templeton s Referral of a Lifetime, are meant to open the door and create a conversation: 1. What do you do? 2. What do you like most about that? 3. If you could start over, knowing what you know now, what would your day look like? Bonus follow-up statement that you can use whenever you want: Tell me more. Once you have asked these questions and/or had a conversation with the contact, assess whether it makes sense to continue the discussion at another time. If another meeting is warranted, move to the Discovery step (See the Sales module). AUTOMATE YOUR FOLLOW-UP Use a tool like InfusionSoft or icontact to deliver a set of prewritten messages that can be automatically sent over time to keep in touch after an initial contact. An example campaign could look like this: 1. Great to meet you! email next day 2. Let s reconnect and find out more email 3 days 3. I d love to be on the same team email 14 days 4. Sign up for our free learning series email 28 days Sample InfusionSoft Follow-Up sequence. MANAGING YOUR NETWORK CATEGORIZE YOUR CONTACT LIST List all of your contacts. By each name on the list, write A, B, C, or D. A contacts are active referrers that connect you with others. Bs may eventually become A contacts if you develop the relationship. Cs will probably never be A contacts, but are still people to stay in touch with. Ds are people that you choose not to work with, or who just don t fit in your network. Discard your Ds (or put them in another folder for very infrequent contact), and then separate your remaining list into the A, B, or C categories. In your email or CRM bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 6 of 14

application, create separate folders or tags for each category, such as: o o o o A Active Referrers B Develop C Keep in Touch P Partners CREATE A KEEP IN TOUCH PLAN Plan on communicating by card, email, newsletter, or some other time-minimizing physical method for all contacts. This may be all you do for your C Contacts. Lay out the plan for how and when you will communicate with each list for the next 12 months. This will enable you to know exactly what you need to do and will prevent forgetfulness or inattention. You may also delegate all or portions of the follow-up process to others. A sample Keep in Touch program could look like: Month Card Newsletter Other January February March April May June July New Year s card Spring greeting card 4 th of July card Newsletter Newsletter Letter Free information product Month Card Newsletter Other August September October November December Thanksgiving card Newsletter Newsletter Letter Free information product Once you have the plan designed, find a contract database professional that can handle print and mail service and outsource your Keep In Touch Plan. CREATE A CONTACT PLAN FOR A AND B CONTACTS AND PARTNERS Create a plan to follow up directly with each A Contact each quarter, and to have meaningful communications with them each month (by email at least). Do the same for Bs that you want to develop into A contacts, but the contacts may not be in person every quarter unless you see potential in converting them into A contacts. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 7 of 14

An example plan may look like this: Quarter Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Contact Method Face-to-face meeting to catch up, plan activities for the new year, and figure out ways to help each other Phone call check in and ask how you can help the other person Face-to-face meeting to discuss the year and how you can work together to finish the year strong Social event for A and B Contacts Ask for referrals during the meeting. GET PERSONAL Buy personalized thank-you cards. Send them to people when they give you permission to add them to your database. For Big Think, we use a card that has this image on the front: BE CONSISTENT Following up with a new contact within 24 hours is preferable. They will feel more important and will recall you better. We strive to send email follow-ups the same day. This shows extra effort and often impresses people with your rapid response. Following your Contact, Keep in Touch, and Follow-Up Plans is important to keeping your contacts warm and connected. The longer you go without contact, the tougher it will be to reconnect. Experts say it often takes six or more touches to close a sale. These blended programs will keep you in touch in many different ways and will set you apart. One of the best ways of scheduling and automating your contacts is to select and use a CRM application, which we will discuss in the next section. My Choices I will: Establish an auto-responder Follow-Up Plan and use it after I meet with a new lead. Establish a Keep in Touch Plan and use it to stay in touch with all of my contacts in a tangible way. Outsource as much of this as possible to keep me focused. Establish a Contact Plan for A, B, and Partner contacts where I talk with them at least quarterly on the phone or in person. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 8 of 14

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) CRM systems allow you to track client information, history, and relevant details all in one place. From years of experience using many different systems, this guide can help you choose the right one. SELECTING A GOOD CRM TOOL There are hundreds of contact managers/customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools on the market. Some are software and some are web-based. Because your contact list will become your goldmine, we recommend you use an online service unless you have perfect backups (including offsite backup). The online tools will enable you to access your client information from any Internet-connected computer. Some even have a mobile device interface for use by smart phones. GENERAL CRM DECISION MODEL Use the diagram to the right to select the application(s) that will be the best fit for you. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 9 of 14

RECOMMENDED CRM APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE-BASED Act! (for PC) one of the easiest to use PC-based contact management/crm tools available. Outlook (for PC - not a true CRM) Not a true CRM application, Outlook can still be deadly when used well. Daylite (for Mac) Clean, rich interface that s easy to use. Not tons of marketing/sales process management functionality. WEB-BASED CRM APPLICATIONS FREE/OPEN SOURCE FreeCRM.com Cheap and feature-free, this tool lives up to its cost. The only reason we mention it here is because it is the most-installed CRM tool on the market. We do not recommend it. Horrible interface. SugarCRM You may be able to find free hosting for this, but usually you will need to pay at least $7 per month to host your own installation (such as at BlueHost.com). If you re paying to host your website, may as well add in the free SugarCRM. This is often available in SimpleScripts from good web hosts. SUBSCRIPTION-BASED HighRise This is a glorified contact manager, but seems to be popular because of its simplicity. We don t recommend it, but if you can t get into other CRM systesm, this may fit your perspective. Made by 37Signals, the BaseCamp folks. InfusionSoft This tool does almost everything, including ecommerce, order management, sales process tracking, email auto-responders, and affiliate management. Great for companies looking for online ordering or information products. Landslide Dubbed as a sales performance tool, Landslide is focused on streamlining and managing the sales process. There are some features here that are not in other tools. Salesforce.com The top-selling subscription-based CRM, this tool has the most capabilities for extension, giving it a rich set of third-party add-ins to meet your unique needs. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 10 of 14

HOMEWORK In this module, we discussed lead flow management. Think through your process, choose a CRM application or paper process, and use it to track your leads. PREPARATION FOR NEXT WEEK Next week, we will discuss planning and execution. Without identifying your future state and setting out at least a rough plan to get there, we ll probably stay walking in circles. Getting clear about where you want to go and how you plan to get there is an important step to developing mature business practices.. bigthinkresults.com Copyright 2010, Big Think, Inc. MODULE 12: LEAD FLOW MGT. Page 14 of 14