Inquiry management can vary from a simple dealer referral to a sophisticated computer-match analysis for high-end vertical applications, complete with call-back verification, and other bells and whistles in the care and feeding of a computerized database.
 
What exactly is the database? Clearly, it's more than a list, it's your list of names of people collected from various sources and massaged according to your marketing criteria to net the very best prospects and/or customers for each product line. It includes cross-selling criteria from one product line to another.
 
Regardless of the variables, the database program should be fast and accurate. The more time that elapses from the moment the lead or inquiry is received to the arrival, by phone or mail, of the first response, the fewer qualified leads and sales will result. Telemarketing can often justify its cost on that basis alone.
 
The person responding to inquiries and leads, especially over the telephone, should be well-trained, personable and able to handle any special problems that may arise.
 
Most of all, he or she should be able to analyze an inquiry and direct it to the appropriate level of qualification. Pursuing poorly-qualified leads can be expensive and time consuming.
 
Let's take a look at how a lead might flow through a typical lead management system.
 
Sales leads come in from trade shows, publication ads, direct mail and "white mail," or unsolicited inquiries.
 
The leads arrive at a central entry point for evaluation and qualification. For high-end products with expensive fulfillment programs, you might want to call back immediately to firmly qualify the inquiry or lead. Less costly or less complicated operations might skip this phase.
 
ALL LEADS ARE NOT EQUAL
 
At this stage you also might distinguish between leads that originate from a magazine bingo card, an 800 number in an ad or from a toll call phone number in an ad. The quality of each type of lead differs greatly. Of the four sources white mail might be the best since it probably comes from word-of-mouth recommendation or from a press mention where no phone number is given and the inquirer had to work to find it.
 
After evaluation and/or verification, the lead information is entered onto a computer, thus beginning the compilation of a database. Here is also where a fulfillment or information package is sent out--the same day, if possible, or the next day.
 
Be careful here how much you tell inquiries about your product. Keep them interested, but don't give away the farm on the first shot. Your goal is to establish a dialog between the inquirer and a live salesman. Don't cut short the dialog by giving your prospect so much information that he believes he can make a decision without the salesman. It probably won't be the decision you desire.
 
Next you provide a telephone or mail follow-up to the fulfillment  package. It's been estimated that you can double the number of qualified leads you end up with through a fulfillment follow-up step. This contact may result in additional information for the database.
 
At this point the lead may be sufficiently qualified to go to a salesman. Follow-up calls may result in database material. If follow-up calls reveal a poor prospect, the name can be removed from the database at this time.
 
If the prospect was not removed from the database or recycled forfurther follow-up, he or she must have become a customer! Now the prospect goes into a special handling mode to be contacted by a salesman, a telemarketing team, direct mail or all three, depending on the nature of the products, the margin and other factors.

This resource (c) 1995 and compliments of George Duncan of DuncanDirect Associates--since 1976. A national award-winning direct marketing writer/consultant providing response strategies, copy and creative support to business-to-business and consumer marketers. Reach him at (603) 924-3121, email: duncandirect@pobox.com or on the web at http://www.dmworld.com