For instance, you have a rule that says:
“Sales will follow-up and report on the resolution of
every sales inquiry.”
This statement leaves a lot to interpretation. Follow-up
could be in person, by phone or even by email. A little specificity might
help, such as:
“Salespeople will follow-up and report on the resolution
of every sales inquiry. At least four attempts will be made for every
inquiry within a three week period.”
Possibly you can have a rule that states:
“Marketing will measure and report the return on
investment for every dollar entrusted to it.”
On the surface this looks good but upon reflection it is
not possible to measure and report on the effectiveness of soft-dollar
expenditures such as collateral material, investor relations, PR,
branding, etc. So possibly the rule should be:
“Marketing will measure and report the return on
investment for every dollar spent on lead generation.”
Ideally marketing and sales representatives should meet
together and hammer out the business rules for inquiry management. Here is
a sample set of business rules for a B2B company, with direct and reseller
sales channels for products that are worth more than $1,000. Your rules
may be different.
Typical Business Rules for Inquiry Management
1. Database: All inquiries and leads will be
entered into a single database and counted by product, source, source
type, and who it was sent to for follow-up.
2. Profiling: Inquirers will be asked profile
questions that will be used to grade inquiries.
3. Qualifying: Marketing will adhere to policies
and procedures to qualify all inquiries prior to distribution to the sales
channel.
4. Inquiry Grading: Inquiry grades will be attached
to each inquiry based on the answers to the profile questions.
5. Inquiry Fulfillment: Information fulfillment (in
hard copy or electronic form) will be completed within 24 hours from the
time the inquiry is received.
6. Competitors: Every effort will be made to screen
out inquirers who are from competing companies.
7. Inquiry/Lead Assignments: We will assign
inquires and leads directly to the salesperson most responsible for the
follow-up.
8. 48 hour Opening Rule: Salespeople will retrieve
and open inquiries and sales leads within 48 hours.
9. 100% Closeout: Sales will close out and report
on investment for every lead generating dollar spent.
10. Inquiry Retention: Inquiries will be maintained
on the marketing database for three times the length of the company’s
average sales cycle.
Get the picture? Once you have a set of business rules for
inquiry management, your organization will be all the richer for it.
*This information has appeared in the various articles and
workshops Obermayer has presented. Most recently it has appeared in his
book,
