Qualifying & Converting Leads

This is the process of deciding whether your lead is really a potential customer. It involves assigning someone to manage the lead, gathering additional information from the customer, and then deciding whether the lead is suitable to be converted into an opportunity.

Assigning the lead

Your first task may simply be to decide who deals with the enquiry. Perhaps in your organisation different people manage different types of enquiry? Or perhaps you organise work based on the customer's geographic location? Or perhaps, as with many small businesses, you simply do everything yourself. A CRM system allows flexibility. Leads may be assigned to specific individuals if required. If so, they will then pop into a queue for the relavent staff member to qualify. This process may even be automated through the implementation of defined workflow process.

Methods of Qualification

Just as you receive enquiries through a variety of channels, so you may also qualify leads in different ways. You might, for example, reply to an email with further information. You may phone the lead up and talk to them. You might schedule a meeting to discuss in person. A CRM system allows you to manage these basic activities, schedule calls, send emails, arrange meetings etc.

During all of these activities, however, the purpose is to gather more information about the potential customer, and decide whether they really might be interested in buying something. The initial requirments are to gather:

• The customers contact details
• Determine where they heard of you (the lead source and potentially marketing campaign source)
• Determine if they have ever been a customer (ie. already have an account)
• And finally determine what product or service they are interested in buying

Once you have this information you are ready to convert your lead into an Opportunity.

Typically, this will involve setting up a new Account for the customer, ensuring the contact details from the Lead are transformed into a full Contact record and recording details of the Opportunity.

Fortunately, a CRM system such as SugarCRM makes this process very simple - it's a one-click process.

So what sort of information makes up an Opportunity? Generally, this will be information about the potential sale. So, it may include the potential size of any deal, the probability of winning the deal, an estimated close date, and the stage the Opportunity is at. Such stages may include:

• Qualfying and analysing
• Proposal
• Negotiation and Review
• Closed Won
• Closed Lost

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