Sales CRM - Following up with Leads

Problem
According to a study done for Harvard Business Review, 71% of qualified leads are never followed up with. Even more, the leads that are followed up with, they’re only touched an average of 1.3 times. 

Solution
- Create automated follow-up emails
- Set filters that sales staff can use to follow-up regularly with all new leads (requires CRM module)
- Use Task Reminders to assign time sensitive follow-ups or appointments (requires CRM module)

Auto-Email Follow-up

1. Edit the Customer - Recent Quote emails (for both the customer and admin created versions) and set Send to 1 Days and Save.
2. Edit each again, and set it to 5 days and click Save Copy. You should now have 4 emails.
3. The reply icons can now be used in the CRM log even when an entry is marked as closed.

Sales Staff Follow-up

1. Create a new status called Lost.
   You can do this by going to Settings -> Statuses (when logged under the main account), edit the Cancelled status, change name to Lost, change the color, and uncheck 'Lead has been Cancelled' and click Save Copy.
2. Customize Lead Overview to include the column for last contact.
   Follow this guide to customize the lead overview columns- Add the column for last contact, Contact Last Sales Contact Date/Time
3. Have a plan for assigning sales reps to leads.
   You can have one person just assign them as they come in or allow the staff to just claim them on a first come/first serve basis.
4. Setup your follow-up filters. Do this for each sales worker account.
   See below for some recommended filters.
5. Train sales staff.
   Check Overview for any assigned todo tasks
   Use filters to follow-up with new leads
   After following up with customer, leave a note on the CRM tab with any important details
   Set any leads to Lost that don't need continual follow-up (they'll drop-off list after 21 days or if in Lost status)

Follow-up Filters

Create and save the following filters. Follow this guide on how to setup filters.

Filter name: Assign Sales Rep

Description: Find any leads that need to be assigned to a sales rep

keyword: salesrep: none
Event Date: Next 500 days
Status: Quote

Filter name: Follow-up Quotes

Description: Follow up about every 3 days with all new leads

keyword: salesrep: Johnny (optional if you are using sales reps)
Event Date: Next 500 days
Last Contact: Over 3 days ago
Create Date: Last 21 days (causes lead to drop off list after 21 days)
Status: Quote
Click Last Contact column to set the Sorting

Filter name: Follow-up Events

Description: Follow up about every 7 days with almost booked events

keyword: salesrep: Johnny (optional if you are using sales reps)
Event Date: Next 500 days
Last Contact: Over 7 days ago
Status: Hold, Contracted
Click Last Contact column to set the Sorting