Sales Lead Management

1
Sales Lead Management

• Implementing an Effective
• Lead Tracking Program
• Charles Leonard 434.962.2202
  charles_at_blueridgeoutdoors.com

2
Speaker Background

• Rep for an outdoor travel lifestyle magazine
• Lots of travel tourism clients, from
  State-level tourism agencies, down to small
  vacation leasing firms
• Ive noticed similar problems that are common at
  all levels what happens to the leads?

3
Identifying the Problem

• From the media rep side
• Very simple this problem is keeping us from
  keeping your business.
• It doesnt matter how good the leads are, if they
  arent being followed.
• It doesnt matter how well theyre being followed
  if nobody knows which ones are converting

4
Identifying the Problem

• From the travel operator side
• Uncertainty who is responding to marketing?
  Where are they? How did they become a lead?
• Who is going with the competition (neighboring
  states, counties, etc)?
• What are the salespeople (CVB partners) doing
  with the leads you send them?

5
Identifying the Problem

• UNCERTAINTY
• Who is responding to marketing? Mail? Email?
  Phone?
• How are you following up with them? (Portal)
• How did they become a lead? (Source)
• How are you going to know when they convert?
  (Follow the lead!)

6
Identifying the Problem

• LOSING TO COMPETITION
• Just as important who is NOT coming to your
  destination?
• Where are they going instead?
• How often is this happening (what percentage of
  leads)?

7
Identifying the Problem

• SALESPEOPLE
• What are they doing with the leads you send
  them?
• Are they educated on/aware of your specific
  marketing programs?
• Are they reporting back on successes?

8
Identifying the Problem

• What this boils down to is
• PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
• Figuring out where your leads originate, how they
  move through the decision-making process, and
  whether or not they eventually CONVERT.

9
A Mantra

• Marketing is a process, and as such can be
  measured and improved upon.

10
Critical Terms

• A few themes tend to run through this subject of
  marketing, each of which will be addressed from
  several different angles
• Lead - An inquiry about your products
  servicesthe bread and butter of your operations.
• Wasting Asset - Every day a lead sits
  unaddressed, it becomes less valuable.
• ROI - How do we measure what has been
  accomplished with our marketing?
• Research/Communications - Without free-flowing
  information sharing between you, customers, and
  your sales force, you will be hindered.
• Rule of 45 - 45 of all inquirers will buy from
  somebody within 12 months.
• 100 Rule - You must follow 100 of leads to
  achieve Maximum ROI.

11
Examining the Components

• Your marketing programs are not one big
  homogenous chunk of effort they are delicate and
  efficient machines comprised of many moving
  parts.
• Its important to identify each component and be
  able to assign values to them a discrete
  notation that allows you to quantify what youre
  doing.
• This is essential for measuring and improving
  upon your marketing.

12
Examining the Components

• IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
• What are your specific tourism niches?
• Who is the target audience for each niche?
• What are the media portals youre using? What
  is the mix?
• Does the mix match up with the audience?
• Do your media portals and their timing align
  with sales targets?
• What are salespeople doing with the leads? Are
  they reporting back?

13
Examining the Components

• SPECIFIC TOURISM NICHES
• Who are the people that seek out your tourism
  niches?
• Where are they, and how are you reaching them?
• Have they been identified in your lead tracking
  programs?
• Are they being sent materials targeted to their
  interests?

14
Examining the Components

• MEDIA PORTALS
• Print ads, BRC, Web ads, Inbound 800,
  Sweepstakes, Trade Shows, and so on.
• Each of these is unique and important, and
  specific to its own audience.
• Examining how niche, audience, and portal
  interact is very important.

15
Examining the Components

• SALESPEOPLE
• In tourism, this is difficult but not
  impossible. Your salespeople are not your
  employees, but your industry partners and member
  organizations.
• Nevertheless, they are your sales force, and
  there should be mechanisms through which they can
  report to your office.

16
The More You Know

• Information is power, they say. In your case its
  the power to know whats going on with your
  marketing dollars (ROI).
• This section will discuss techniques for
  collecting and keeping the information that will
  shed light on some marketing mysteries.

17
The More You Know

• LIFE CYCLE OF A LEAD
• When leads enter the pipeline, what steps do you
  take?
• - Enter in Database
• - Make note of the source
• - Send fulfillment mailing
• - Thenwait?
• What information does this leave you with?

18
The More You Know

• I conducted a casual survey of some CVBs I know
  to have been particularly successful developing
  tourism over the years. Topics addressed
  included
• Sources of leads (portals)
• Quantity vs. Quality in leads
• Niches targeting
• Conversion rates, by source
• Follow the lead
• As I moved down the list of categories, the
  information available became more and more hazy
  and undefined.

19
The More You Know

• SOURCES
• Respondents knew exactly what media portals were
  providing the initial lead, and used this to
  track ROI.
• BENEFIT Fairly straightforward, shows of leads
  by media portal instant ROI calculation.
• DRAWBACK Provides no information on conversion,
  the effects of layered marketing, or specific
  tourism interests of the lead. Lots of
  information is missing here.

20
The More You Know

• QUANTITY vs. QUALITY
• Respondents only knew enough to say which sources
  were QUANTITY performers.
• BENEFIT If quality of sources is known, you can
  set expectations and allocate funds accordingly.
  It adds another dimension of meaning to your ROI
  calculation.
• DRAWBACK Will only work if a quality-ranking
  system is implemented and adhered to throughout
  the process, beginning to end. Until then, you
  must follow up with 100 of leads without even
  knowing their quality.

21
The More You Know

• NICHES TARGETING
• Only a state-level tourism agency had a system in
  place to categorize leads by niche tourism
  interest.
• BENEFIT Customer will be receiving materials
  that address their needs. Allows you to add
  another layer to the measurements you have.
• DRAWBACK Extra cost of materials development
  (worth it!)

22
The More You Know

• CONVERSION RATES
• Respondents seemed to expect an overall
  conversion rate of about 50, the Rule of 45
  supports this.
• BENEFIT Expecting and knowing are two different
  things. You can plan with expectations, but you
  can report ROI with knowledge. Down the road, you
  can make better plans with that new knowledge.
• DRAWBACK Takes time, an extra step in the
  process (worth it!)

23
The More You Know

• FOLLOW THE LEAD
• This is the softest variable, the hardest one
  to keep track of and the one thats most out of
  your hands.
• This ties back to the idea that your sales force
  is comprised of your industry partners member
  CVBs, hotels resorts, service industry, etc.
• Create a system that fosters communications and
  reporting

24
Systems to Implement

• FOLLOW THE LEAD/CONVERSION RATES
• PROBLEM Getting useful feedback from sales force
  and lead database.
• SOLUTION
• - Make efforts to communicate regularly and
  consistently with customers and sales force.
• - Give numbers marketing updates to sales
  force.
• - Send simple surveys to leads at increments of
  3, 6, and 12 months from date of inquiry

25
Systems to Implement

• FOLLOW THE LEAD/CONVERSION RATES
• PROBLEM Branding each lead with as much data as
  possible, and keeping that data together.
• SOLUTION
• - Make sure your database accounts for all the
  new things weve mentioned
• - This includes lead source, date acquired,
  tourism interest(s), quality (if known).

26
Systems to Implement

• NICHES TARGETING
• PROBLEM You know that people come for different
  reasons, but you dont know which name goes with
  which interest.
• SOLUTION
• - Create a list of 3-4 critical questions to ask
  each inquiry.
• - Train staff in fielding coding these
  questions for a phone call
• - Send an auto-reply to email requests with the
  questions and an explanation why its important
• - Create an online form with checkboxes to
  collect info
• - For mailing lists, send either a BRC postcard
  or an email.
• - Remember to code these into an Excel Sheet or
  DB!

27
Systems to Implement

• QUANTITY vs. QUALITY
• PROBLEM You dont know what your leads are
  worth. Are they all the same? Some more valuable
  than others?
• SOLUTION Once youve made it this far, youre
  almost home. Once the systems listed above are in
  place, youll be generating all the data you
  need. Every 6 months, look at your collective
  conversion rates for source and tourism niche

28
Life Cycle of a Lead

• When leads enter the pipeline, what steps do you
  take?
• If phone or email ask follow-up
  questions/send questionnaire
• If mailing list, send BRC
• Enter lead into DB with coded info
• Send targeted fulfillment mailing
• Add info to monthly report to partners
• Now, what information does this leave you with?

29
Life Cycle of a Lead

• When an inquiry leaves its destination, be it a
  website, a promotion, or a phone call, its
  simply a name, address, and (if youre lucky) an
  email.
• After it processes through your office, it should
  be all of the above, complete with a detailed
  profile
• - who this person is
• - where they came from
• - what their interests are
• - when they want to travel

30
Overview

• The central theme of the ideas weve discussed is
  information handling. Subjecting your marketing
  programs to systematic, knowledge-based tests and
  protocols will show you real results. As soon as
  you give up keeping track, that lead is as good
  as lost. Even if they do convert, youll never
  know.
• The more you know, and the more effort you make
  to know, the better your marketing programs will
  perform.

31
A Mantra

• Marketing is a process, and as such can be
  measured and improved upon.