Friday, January 11, 2013

Use A Coding System For Prospects

When prospects contact you to request information, label them with a code that quickly tells others on your staff how important this particular prospect might be to the business. The first part of the code deals with the projected revenue for the information request, such as a letter from A to D, with A being a prospect with a $10,000-plus potential event and D being one with under $2,000 volume potential. B might be $7,000 to $10,000 and C would be $2,000 to $7,000.
Then create a numbering system that reflects the prospect’s level of urgency from 1 to 4, with 1 being an alarm to your staff that a clients needs to be responded to very quickly while 4 says the prospect doesn’t have a wedding date yet and is just gathering information. With this system, all staff members know that a lead with a A-1 code is much more time critical than one with a D-4, so they need to contact the A-1 prospect before the D-4, even if the D-4 lead came in first. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, please challenge your thinking; most businesses use some kind of method to classify their leads and customers.


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