Step One. How To Manage Leads

At Avidian, There are two categories of leads:
1) Single Users
2) Servers

A single user is someone interested in only purchasing a single seat. A server lead is a person working for a company who's interested in five or more seats. Ten seats is our average.

Selling Scenarios

There are three selling scenarios available to you with single user and server leads. You can generate significant revenue with all three strategies. :

1. Single User. Work the single user lead to accumulate small chunks of revenue that add up. (A single seat is $149.00)
2. Single User in a Team. Work the single user who's part of a sales team to gain entry to the team's company to sell a server.
3. Server. Work the server lead to sell a larger deal.

Source of Leads

We have a few very good sources for leads.

1. Google. Our primary incoming lead generation source is Google. We have several keywords that register use high on the search engine. Visitors click through Google to our site.
2. Site Traffic. We have about 30,000 unique visitors a month. We have our Prophet a Day contest winners and other visitors who email and ask questions.
3. Self Service Customers. We have several hundred self serve single customers a month who buy a single license.
4. Press. We produce press releases and stories for the press and have been in numerous magazines and newspapers.
5. Buyer Zone. We often use leads from outside contractors such as Buyer Zone or ABC Directories.
6. Cold Calling. Sales people are encouraged to cold call markets to generate their own leads.

Lead Capture

Incoming leads are captured through our reception desk. Our staff fields emails and telephone inquiries and routes them to the sales staff using an "up system." Sales people rotate turns to receive the next incoming lead. We keep track of all leads coming into the system. In addition we manage leads coming into the website. You can log on to get the Prophet a Day contest winners.

Create Opportunities

When you receive a lead, create an opportunity for it. If its a single user, categorize it as a Lead in the sales stages. Work it through the sales stages if its a single user / team lead or if its a server lead. Your leads feed the rest of your sales funnel.

Working Your Leads

For all incoming or outgoing leads, create a sales opportunity and label the sales stage. Fill in as much information as you can about the sales opportunity.

1. Fielding a call. Ask how many users there are. As a rule of thumb, don't spend longer than 15 minutes with a single user. If there are questions, pass the person to Tech Support. If you field a call from a single user, be very careful with your time. Separate "selling time" from "service time." A single user can ask question after question about the product. If its a single user who's part of the team the 15 minute rule doesn't apply. Treat the single user like the Champion.
2. Receiving an email. Contact the lead as soon as you can. If you can't reach them by phone send them an email.
3. Outsourced Lead. Outsourced leads such as Buyer Zone or ABC Directories come to you in an email, file or opportunity record from reception. Follow the same guideline as receiving any lead. Contact the person as soon as you possibly can.
4. Contest Winner. Contest winners can be contacted according to your schedule. Contact all the participants. Give them your pitch.
5. Self- generated. Cold calling works if you put in the time. Create opportunities from successful calls. Keep notes while you're on the phone.

Dialing the Phone

The first part of a phone call is purely mechanical.

1. Identify the lead
2. Create the opportunity
3. Dial the phone
4. Ask for the person
5. Give the greeting and introduction

This step requires no thought. Actually, any thought you put into it will get in the way. Don’t think. Just dial. There are a thousand things to get in your way of dialing.

Our goal is to dial to new leads 10 times a day. The number of contacts you get will vary. Track the following:

1. Dials (how many times you dial the phone)
2. Contacts (how many actual contacts you make with the right person)
3. Pitches (how many times you are able to deliver the introduction and get a response)
4. Sales Cycles (how many sales cycles you create from Cold Lead forward)

Introduction Script:

Use a simple and effective introduction with the lead amount of words. Practice the introduction until you can say it so you’re comfortable and it doesn’t sound canned. It’s very important in the introduction to ask “How many Microsoft Outlook users do you have?” Saying “Outlook” will immediately trigger a response because it’s so well-known. You’re more likely to keep people on the phone.

Sample Introduction

"Hello Bob, this is Bill Wheeler. I’m with Avidian Technologies. We provide sales management software for Microsoft Outlook. I was calling you today to ask how many Outlook users your company has?

There’s no though in this step. Simple speak the Introduction in a solid convincing manner. Make sure your pace is that of someone who’s working at their desk. Don’t be a hyped-up sales person. Take a very conversational, friendly tone.

Immediately after the introduction the lead will have a response. You’ll need to immediately read whether this response is “open” or “closed”.

An open response is someone who seems talkative, responsive and even interested. Most people like to talk about things that involve them. If they are an Outlook user or have used Outlook in the past (like most people) you’ll probably get an open response. “Oh, Outlook. We have several people in the office who use Outlook. Why do you want to know?”

A closed response is someone who doesn’t want or isn’t willing to talk to you at this time. They might hang up or say something like, “I’m not interested” and hang up. They may even respond to the Outlook user question with a number.

Caller: “I was calling you today to ask how many Outlook users your company has.” Lead: “Five”.

If a closed lead stays on the phone the challenge is to get them to open up and talk. If, after a minute or two they aren’t opening up, don’t waste time. Get some sort of commitment and get off the phone.

Now it’s time to deliver the product information and get the lead interested. Deliver a very brief product introduction to center the focus. Then launch into your probing questions. You are only giving one sentence on the product so the lead knows what you are talking about. Get into the probing questions quickly.

"Avidian Prophet works inside Microsoft Outlook. It adds sales opportunities, reporting and company tracking to Outlook."