Manage Those Leads!

Posted by Commence on November 4, 2009 under CEO Corner | 5 Comments to Read

Small to mid-size businesses are looking toward CRM solutions to help them implement a structured process within their sales organization.  Many CRM solutions do this rather well and provide the flexibility for businesses to implement a standard sales process from companies such as Sandler Systems or Dale Carnegie or create a completely customized one. This ensures that each new opportunity follows a structured path from the initial introduction to closure, resulting in more timely and accurate revenue forecasting.

But sales opportunities don’t just fall from the sky.  They are often nurtured as a lead, qualified, then converted into a sales opportunity.  Who determines if an opportunity is qualified and what process is used to make this determination is an area that is often overlooked by small to mid-size businesses and can cost them dearly.

A typical sales organization consist of a few experienced sales representatives that do a pretty good job with lead qualification, a few with 2-3 years of experience that often have difficulty in accurately determining a qualified lead from an unqualified one, and some entry level staff that are honing their skills and place every one that asks for a brochure on the monthly forecast.  Your sales team represents one of the largest expense items within your organization and if they are spending valuable time chasing tire-kickers vs. qualified opportunities the cost to your business can be alarming.  What’s the answer?  Make sure that your CRM system can automate the lead qualification process.

Commence On-Demand, a web based CRM solution from Commence Corporation is helping small to mid-size businesses learn how to automate the lead qualification process via the use of an automated business process. Similar to implementing a structured sales methodology, Commence On-Demand also implements an automated lead qualification process.  The process makes each sales representative answer a series of qualification questions that are built right into the lead qualification module.  The structure ensures that each sales representative is using the same process to determine a qualified lead from an unqualified one.  The leads are then color-coded based on the responses.  This enables each representative and their management to immediately identify the top opportunities each representative is working on.

Here is an example screenshot showing a list of qualified leads:

Lead management and qualification is as important as managing the sales cycle. For more information about how Commence On- Demand can assist you with these processes see http://www.commence.com or ask for a free trial of our best in class CRM software.