Tuesday Marketing Notes (Number 106—December 18th, 2007)

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The Six Ways to Prove that Sales Inquiries Convert to Sales

by James Obermayer

Salespeople Report:  The Best Way

In this instance, salespeople report on the disposition of every inquiry through your CRM system, SFA contact management program or ASP vendor. If you sell direct you have the control to make this happen.  If you sell indirectly and the company uses an ASP software product or service to track inquires and leads, you’re in luck.  But if you don’t have such a service or program, you’ll probably use items three through six...  

Compare Invoices to Inquiries: The Most Accurate Way

If you sell direct and have the names of people who buy from you, you can compare the name with the person who inquired. If the sale is made after the inquiry date, you can claim a connection and take credit.   If you have multiple contacts with the prospect, I would credit the original source of the inquiry.  For instance, you may have gotten an inquiry from direct mail, they subsequently called the company, maybe even responded to an e-mail blast, signed up for your on-line newsletter, and stopped by to see you at a trade show.  All of these touches contributed to the sale, but without the first touch you weren’t even in the game.

"Did You Buy?" Studies by Telephone: A Statistically Significant Way to Take Snap-Shots of Buying Activity for a Single Product

Take a list of inquirers that are six months old and call them. Get at least 100 completed questionnaires from a single product and a single point in time (typically a month) and you have a report that is significant. You will know what percentage buy in six months from you or your competitor.  Any outbound telemarketing company can do this for you. Ask questions such as:

• Did you get the literature you requested?
• Did a salesperson from our company contact you?
• Have you bought a product?
• What did you buy?
• Who did you buy from?
• Are you still in the market?

"Did-You-Buy?" Studies by Mail

Similar to Did You Buy Studies by phone, this method is attractive because it can generate the greatest number of responses at the lowest cost.  For every inquiry that comes into the company, send them a self-mailer six months later. Make sure the self-mailer can be refolded and it becomes a return mailer to you. The response you get can be 10-25% over time. Make sure the name is coded so you can compare like sources to like sources within a specific timeframe and you have the most inexpensive study possible.

"Did You Buy?" Studies Using E-Mail

This is an attractive method, although with the e-mail opening rate continuing to drop, you may have a difficult time getting at least 100 responses for a single product and source at a specific time (month).  Try it.  It is cheap, fast and sometimes very efficient. If you get many thousands of inquiries in a month for a limited product set, you may have a winner here. 

Comparing Warranty Registrations to Inquiries Will Give You Reliable and Statistically Significant Information

Compare warranty registrations with the inquiry database and you have a statistically significant report if the date of purchase is after the inquiry date. I recommend crediting the first recorded instance of the person contacting you for the product of interest.  This isn’t perfect, but it is statistically valid.

James Obermayer is CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association  www.salesleadmgmtassn.com and is also a principal with Sales Leakage Consulting. Obermayer is a thought leader who has authored three published books and over 80 articles in the business press.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!