Okay, now you are all set to go. You have chosen a business segment or vertical, set up a lead generation and distribution business, signed with a few affiliates and even negotiated with a CPA network (such as Azoogle, Copeac, Hydra, etc.) to generate leads. Heck, you have even paid a handful of money in advance for implementation and training and signed up for a lead distribution software system. Obviously your focus would now turn to clients who buy leads from your lead company. It may not be too difficult to get a few clients, if you are in the industry for some time. Every business is looking for leads and trying to leverage the internet as a lead generation medium.

Satisfying the Clients with Lead Quality

First and foremost objective is to satisfy the client. There are several factor which influence the customer satisfaction in this scenario; prime among them are:

1. delivering leads on time, as promised
2. making sure that the leads are genuine (and not bogus)
3. ensuring that the lead information is correct and complete
4. pricing it optimally

As you would have noticed, the prime criteria for customer satisfaction turns out to be the Lead Quality (and not necessarily quantity). Using right affiliates / networks, genuine lead generation methods avoiding deception and incentives, scrubbing the leads (for incomplete information, duplicate leads, etc.) and adding lead verification techniques where necessary will lead to high quality leads and hence increased lead client satisfaction.

Lead Delivery via Emails

Another important factor that lead companies and sellers often overlook is the lead delivery process and back office systems. If you are selling leads to end users who are mostly small businesses without strong technical capabilities (which will be the case 70% of the time), you will be in for a big surprise. Even if your lead distribution software system supports multiple lead delivery methods, there is no guarantee that they would have evaluated all methods and finalized a suitable method to fit their specific scenario.

Most of the clients will go with email alert notifications in real time. While this is a required and essential process, at least 30% of the emails will not get into your client’s attention. Either the email will not land in their email inbox or fall into the junk mail / bulk mail folder. Or even the client may delete some lead alerts when trying to  sort out all the spammy looking stuff in their inbox.

Even if they receive your lead via email alert, it might slip through the crack and they will never follow up with the prospect for hours or even days. Ultimately, as the new emails keep piling up in the box, older emails will lose their relevance and visibility. Unfortunately, the client will conveniently put the blame on the quality of leads (in other word, you, the lead seller) and will stop placing repeat lead orders with you! In worst case scenario, you may not get your money for the leads already delivered, if you have provided a post payment caption. Keep in mind that none of this is in your control or your fault!

Leveraging Back Office Systems

You can leverage the back office system feature of lead distribution systems to increase customer satisfaction and contribute to increase your client’s business. Yes, there is an important role to be played by you as a lead generation company and lead seller in educating and encouraging your clients to adopt the to the usage and benefits of back office systems for thier own good.

Every major lead generation and distribution management software system comes with some sort of back office system access feature for the lead buyers. Using these system not only guarantee the delivery of the lead, but also will help the clients increase the lead conversion rates by using the lead retrieval, tracking and management functions.

Flavors of Lead Back Office Systems

Advanced lead distribution systems such as LeadPro247 will have mutiple flavors of back office systems in order to meet the requirements of various lead buyers. Either you may absorb the cost (which is generally low and affordable) of these systems or pass it on to your customers. Considering their total value, it may be useful if offer the back office system as an added benefit!

The following three versions / types /flavors are most commonly found in the lead company software systems such a LeadPro247:

1. Basic version: Lead Retrieval System
2. Medium level: Lead Tracking and Management System
3. Premium level: Lead Tracking and Marketing Automation System

Lead Retrieval System

When the leads are distributed, the clients can immediately access the leads in the lead retrieval system. They can also see the purchase orders placed by them and the status of the orders. This will provide a real time view of the leads delivered and pending quantity. Access to the lead retrieval system provides peace of mind to the buyers and helps you reduce your customer support and  hand holding efforts. You can focus on your business – generating and delivering quality leads!

Lead Tracking and Management System

This version of customer access goes one step further and help your clients manage and track their leads as they follow up with their end customers. In other words, your lead distribution system back office turns into a mini CRM (customer relationship management) system for your clients. The leads delivered by you can be assigned to one or more sales reps within their organization for follow up. The clients can also track customer conversions, follow-up and call back reminders, etc. A wealth of lead tracking reports will be available for your customers.

Lead Tracking and Marketing Automation System

This is the premier level of back office access that can be provided to your lead buyers. In addition to lead retrieval and tracking management, the system can be used a full fledged marketing automation system. Drip Email Marketing is used to follow-up and nurture the leads. Depending on your buyers’ requirements, they can opt for self-payment depending on their drip email campaign volume, survey response volume, etc. This back office system would be useful for your sophisticated and deserving customers who would like to use an online marketing automation system.

Conclusion

Finally, a word of caution. Many of your lead buyers may not be ready to go the full extent of leveraging the functions and features of your lead distribution back office systems. However, you should encourage the clients to use the Lead Retrieval system at the minimum, which will pay back in no time for both of your organizations.

A key component of lead sales process which helps lead generation and distribution companies sell more leads is providing multiple, flexible payment options. Each lead buyer will have a specific requirements depending on their lead sales practices in that specific business segment. Using a Lead Distribution Software solution with multiple payment support options will help you cherry pick a suitable method based on the client requirements.

Providing flexibility does not mean that all payment related activities should be carried out manually. On the other hand, you should automate the payment processes as much as possible, so that you can focus on lead generation and sales.

The above screenshot shows an example of payment options that  could provided for a lead order from a lead client. The options include:

• Payments not processed via the lead distribution and management system. This is the least preferred option. However, you have a different arrangement with the client and payments could be entirely handled outside of the system.
• Capture Payment in Full for the entire Order volume. This option could be used if the order volumes are small (in the case of real time leads) or aged leads are delivered immediately.
• Deduct Full Payment for the entire order from the client’s account balance. Again this could be used in the above order scenario. This case is applicable when the client has money in his account, either through a prepay method (ex. auto capture of certain amount of payments at preset conditions) or through manual methods.
• Accumulate Payment and process at certain intervals. This would be useful if you are extending a credit plan for the buyer. The accumulated payments could be captured at the end of the day, end of the week or when the outstanding hits a threshold.
• Deduct payment from buyer’s account balance in real time. This option is applicable when balance is available in the account and the payment can be taken in real time.
• Capture payment from buyer’s credit card in real time. When the individual leads are delivered in real time, this option can be used to capture the payment from the client’s payment card.

In every case, the system should be able to handle the exceptions and trigger payment capture as necessary or put the order holder with an alert to the administrator.

If you are receiving payments outside of the system via wire transfer, physical checks, etc. from lead clients, the same should be entered into the system. Even if you are processing credit card payments externally, the same should be recorded in the system. Similarly any adjustments should be posted into the system. This would help to have a unified view of the situation and automate the rest of the processes as much as possible. The above picture shows a typical manual payment / refund entry screen on the lead distribution and payment processing software tool.