Rediscovering long-lost sales opportunities

The problem

What was going wrong

Sales reps were not updating leads in the CRM or following up consistently. There was no task automation, no missed-call management and no follow-up process.

The result: nearly 30% of all open leads sat in the funnel with little or no follow-up. Lost sales were hiding in plain sight, in missed calls and weak follow-ups.

What we did

The fix

1. 1

   Fix missed-call follow-ups with a dashboard

   • The phone system integrated with the CRM, with a real-time report of 100% of missed calls
   • Each missed call creates a high-priority task or puts the lead in a red flag status
   • When a call connects after a missed call, the task completes and the lead goes back to green automatically
   • The dashboard only ever shows missed calls that still need action
2. 2

   Give every lead an owner

   Leads from web forms and missed calls were landing in the integration user’s name. A new rule makes the first rep to act on a lead (call, text, note or edit) its owner, and a manager report shows missed calls so leads are not left idle when an owner is off shift.

3. 3

   Build a follow-up workflow for every stage

   Sequences tied to lead status and deal stage: for example a daily call to open leads with unknown qualification, or a monthly email for six months, then one call, for leads that were qualified but closed lost.

4. 4

   Add email and SMS automation

   • Drip campaigns by lead status, switching as the status changes
   • HIPAA-compliant SMS where the client is in healthcare
   • Emails to qualified leads that closed lost, by closed-lost reason (went with a competitor, couldn’t get back on the phone, long-term pending)
   • Thank-you, referral and renewal campaigns after a sale
5. 5

   Make tasks work for the agents

   Agents see Overdue, Due today and Upcoming. Tasks are created one at a time, the next one appearing when the last is done, and agents can move a due date when a lead asks for a call back in two weeks.