Today we take a look how to setup the Salesforce platform to acquire, qualify and assign leads.
Let’s assume we operate a medium-sized internet and pay-tv operator.
Actually, let us call it OneCast.
OneCast serves 100 thousand internet subscribers and 64 thousand pay-TV subscribers.
The company provides services in 4 metropolitan areas.
Company sales and support is handled via two contact centers in different locations.
The lockdown left OneCast with a fair set of challenges.
The company had to close physical customer services centers and sales branches.
And at the moment company staff is working remotely. And even after the lockdown restrictions are lifted, the company will likely shift part of the workforce to work outside the office.
Up until now the company had very rudimentary tools to acquire digital leads and sign new customers via digital channels.
So let’s see how Salesforce would help to ensure smooth OneCast operations.
First, we created an online contact form. Any third-party form creator will do. In this case we used JotForm. Kudos to them.
We outlined the main questions in the form including the customer’s address and region.
The address will be used to check the service availability.
The region will be used to automatically assign the lead to the salesperson, responsible for respective location.
Now let’s switch to the sales agent’s homepage in Salesforce.
Here we can see the sales funnel, agent’s leads and share of leads assigned to other sales agents, and tasks the agent has to complete.
Let’s click on the icon for the new leads.
Here we see our ‘Happy Customer’ already imported from the contact form.
Why was this lead assigned to Vanessa?
Sales agents do service customers in their respective metropolitan areas. However we can quickly change how we want to assign leads.
Here are the assignment rules and priorities.
In this case, if the lead’s region matches Vilnius, it will be automatically assigned to Vanessa. If not, the lead will be assigned to other respective queues.
This is only a quick glimpse of Salesforce lead assignment feature. We will cover lead assignment in the coming videos in more detail.
OK, now let’s get back to our Happy Customer.
And already we can see an automatic ‘Thank you for your submission’ letter has been sent from the Salesforce platform.
In addition, a task to contact the customer was created for Vanesa. During this call Vanesa should learn more about the customer’s needs.
After making a call, the sales agent can leave the notes in the client card and send a follow up email directly from the Salesforce platform.
In the qualification phase we need to learn:
- How many access points will the client require?
- Will the client require equipment and installation? And in this case, a service team will be assigned to this task in later stages.
- Plus, we should not forget about the customer’s decision timeframe.
Customer qualification will also give a client score.
Various specifics can go into score calculation. For example, additional points for premium package subscription, high monthly fee, or no installation required.
Customer scores can be compared among leads and company resource priorities assigned.
As this is a simple business-to-consumer order, lead score is not of highest importance. Yet in business-to-business transactions, lead score is one of key aspects in decision making.
After completing customer qualification, we can convert the lead. Now his journey continues throughout onboarding, documentation and installation processes, which we will cover in the future videos.
So today we have learned:
- Enabling online lead acquisition is simple. You may start with any third-party form creation application and integrate it with Salesforce.
- The leads from the form appear in Salesforce and can be processed with usual company business practices.
- Here, there, or everywhere – Salesforce is a cloud platform, thus all customer tools are accessible whether you work from home or from office.
- Lead assignment rules are simple to create. Some can even be embedded via third-party contact forms.
Let’s get in touch hello@bluelark.digital