Lead Capture - A Dangerous Moment in Your Sales Process

That priceless moment when mortgages loans client, or relationship, or direct customer inquiry consolidate school loans you a lead is perhaps the most dangerous moment in your sales process. So often leads are lost or misplaced. They fade away without even an initial follow-up. Why? Because we lack focus on our lead capture processes.

Getting the Lead

Stop for a moment and figure out how you capture leads. Probably a myriad Kansas Lemon Laws business cards and sticky notes. If you are lucky they are still sitting around, but chances are they have long since been whisked into a arbitrary drawer or worse the trash can.

This is a critical moment to manage for sales success. And it is not that hard.

There are only a few communication channels that produce a lead--word of mouth, telephone, email, Web. Design a standard lead capture method for each and then quickly get it into a centralized lead management system.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Word of mouth: Have a dedicated index card in your wallet or purse
• Telephone: Have a stack of index cards or a dedicated notepad next to your phone
• Email: Set-up filters, tags, or star incoming email identified as a lead
• Web: Have these inquiries feed directly into your lead management software

Validate the Data

Data is always a challenge to manage and maintain its accuracy. Clients' telephone numbers, addresses, and emails are always changing.

I suggest getting a service like Jigsaw, CardScan, Plaxo, or LinkedIN to help you keep accurate information on your clients and business relationships. These services can sync with most lead management software and alert you to changes in your relationships' profiles.

Score and Prioritize

As you begin to assemble a sizable lead management database of prospective and past clients it is important to have some rules for managing them. I suggest a simple system similar to how you might prioritize tasks: A, B, C, D for urgency and 1, 2, 3 ,4 for priority.

Over time analysis of your leads and their outcomes will help you better assess scores and priorities. Initially you may assess leads by relationship, source, and perceived urgency to close. With more data and lead reporting you may find other more telling characteristics.

Do It Fast!

If you get nothing else add this concept to your lead capture--a sense of urgency. Make sure you get that new lead into your central lead management system as soon as possible. Also, make sure you make that first contact or attempt on the same day.

Nothing impresses a new prospect better than a sense of urgency. It immediately sends the message that they are an important priority.

Bill Rice is a leading authority on kaleidico.com/article/lead-management/">lead management and the lead generation Arizona Lemon Laws He is a frequent writer, sharing insights on sales at BetterCloser.com, providing commentary on the lead generation market at leadmarketwatch.com">LeadMarketwatch.com and speaker, featured at venues like Leads2007, LeadsCon, Ohio MBA, and Online Lead Quality Summit.