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Sales Lead
Capture Process
A
lead management system facilitates a fast,
efficient, and coordinated system to gain and
maintain customers. In today�s web centric world, an
organization obtains leads from a variety of places
such as blogs, social networking sites, lead vendors
and many more. The first step in a lead management
process is therefore of utmost importance: Lead
Capture. Only if the leads are captured
efficiently can they be managed.
The lead data may be collected from various sources
in a variety of forms. Lead Capture involves the
process of consolidating all these leads into the
lead management system.
The LeadPro247 Lead Capture, Distribution and
Management solution offers several ways to integrate
data from various sources into the system. These
include:
- Lead
Data Entry - Manual entry of prospect data
- Lead
Data Import Templates Maintenance
-
Lead Data Import - From files
-
Lead Data Interface - API / XML
Web Services
-
Lead Data Extraction (using Email
Parsing)
-
Lead Capture Web Forms
Lead Data Entry (Manual entry):
Let us say we come across a prospective customer
when we go to a meeting or a party or anywhere other
than through the normal channels. We need include
the information about that lead into our lead
management system, in order to get timely alerts
regarding its status. This situation implies that we
need an interface to manually enter data into the
lead management system. The LeadPro247 Lead
Management System provides an Add New Lead
option for just this purpose.
First we need to specify the journal to which the
lead belongs. Then all the data fields included in
that journal (including custom fields) may be
filled.
This information required in this
form is the same that is required in the API, files
containing leads and emails with lead information.
This method is easy but is tedious and time
consuming when it comes to handling a huge amount of
leads. Therefore more efficient methods of lead
capture have been provided in the LeadPro247
Software system.
Lead Data Import Templates Maintenance:
Every organization has its own method of capturing
and documenting leads. For example, some may use
Excel or Comma Separated files (CSV). If we already
know what particular file type we will be using the
most, we may create a Data Template to facilitate
the import of leads. This feature helps us save more
time.
Lead Data Import (from Files):
Leads may be imported from various sources and each
source may use a different type of file format. The
information has be consolidated from all these
sources and presented in a single format. The
LeadPro247 Lead Capture, Routing, Tracking and
Management Software allows us to import data from a
variety of files such as:
- Comma
Separated Value (CSV) File
- Excel
2000 - 2003 (XLS) FileTab
Delimited File
- Other
Delimited File (The delimiter can to be set to
comma, semicolon or pipe)
-
XML Formatted File
-
Microsoft Access (MDB) File
These files formats are the most commonly used to
store lead information. The files are parsed to
extract the information and populate the Lead
Database of the system.
The Lead import screen contains most of the fields
in a Data Template definition. Thus we see that Data
Templates do indeed simplify lead import. Assignment
and follow-up activity is then taken on the captured
leads.
Lead Data Interface (API / XML Web
Services):
This
form of lead capture is used mainly when we receive
leads from lead vendors. The lead vendors send the
leads via various API�s through the web. These API�s
are customized for each lead vendor that we receive
leads from. For example, LeadPro has customized
interfaces for a number of insurance lead vendors.
Lead Data Extraction (using Email
Parsing):
Leads may also arrive from a vendor as an email.
The manual entry of these leads into the system is a
tedious process and hence we require some form of
automation for it. This is achieved by parsing the
email and extracting the lead content from it.
Email Parsing is a tricky process and it requires
that the email be sent in a particular format.
LeadPro offers support for parsing many email
templates.
Lead Capture Web Forms:
We may have noticed sign up forms in many websites,
for a variety of reasons. For example, to join a
community, subscribe to a newsletter, ask for a free
trial etc. These sign up forms are nothing but
methods of lead capture. In order to incorporate the
leads from the web forms into the lead management
system, LeadPro247 provides direct compatibility
with these web forms.
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