• Calls
to customer service. Inquiry calls to this group are
often thought of as intrusions and irritants. Customer
service reps are seldom trained to determine what
prompted the inquirer to call. They rarely have inquiry
entry screens on their computers for this purpose. Even
a paper form for taking inquiry interest is better than
nothing. If your toll-free number in an advertisement
could end up in customer service, get the operators
trained on taking inquiry calls. Tell them how important
these calls are for the company. Most inquiry management
programs, including CRM, SFA, and contact
management programs, have a section entitled, “Enter New
Inquiry.” Teach customer service people how to use it.
Use paper as a backup or a last resort to capture the
vital information of n inquirer, including the source.
•
Inquirers (usually callers) that go to a salesperson or
local office. In some companies inquiries are
intentionally directed to the local sales office. That
would be great, were it not for the fact that few of
these offices will take the time to attribute the caller
to a specific marketing campaign. Instead, the calls
should be taken at a central contact center where the
name and information is entered and then hot-transferred
to the proper salesperson.
• Calls
to executives or marketing. These are often lost for
accountability purposes. Sometimes they are given to
salespeople; sometimes the questions re answered, but
the names and sources of the inquiry are not recorded.
Executives can also learn to use the “Enter New
Prospect” screen.
• Trade
show inquiries. Just because a sales rep speaks to
someone in his or her territory during the show doesn’t
mean that he has the right to pocket the inquiry. Use
computer lead retrieval or multiple-copy lead forms at
shows and let the salesperson take a copy if it is in
their area.
• Emails
from “Contact Us” Web pages. Too often the emails
that are generated go to someone will read them or maybe
forward them – but never add them to a database. They
are bit counted as an inquiry. Maybe the person’s needs
are met, maybe not. In the section that follows I will
discuss capturing Web-page responses.
• Small
local shows. After all, it is a local show. Why sent
the inquiries to the home office just so the
representative can get them back a week later? The
reason is that a local show may not be booked next year
if the marketing department can’t review the total
quantity of inquiries and the
ROI
from this year’s show. In
addition, the prospect may not get the literature they
wanted. Again, use multiple-copy lead forms so the reps
can separate and keep their own copy.
•
International inquiries. Too often inquiries from
foreign countries are not recorded. It they are, the
names are many times not passed to the local sales
office in the country or region that handles the
prospect. They are lost.
•
Representative-generated inquiries. One of the most
undercounted sources of inquiries is the category called
Rep Generated. It can be 5% to 10% of your total inquiry
count if you:
-
Give the
salespersons training on why they need to report these
inquiries.
-
Give them
an easy-to-use system to enter the names. Again these
are entered n the “Enter New Prospect” section of the
inquiry management, CRM, SFA, or contact
management program.
