Status reporting – the Engagement Model NEW

To track the health of your new business flow, it’s really critical to have some sort of way of labeling the stage that a discussion is at that gives some measure of insight into the likelihood of the discussion proceeding to a sale. This is known as “status reporting”.

Particle’s approach to status reporting tracks the level of engagement or commitment that the customer demonstrates throughout the process. This is the best way to measure their likelihood of proceeding.  Our approach is often modified by clients to fit their market, but it usually has the following general structure.

Lead status

Whenever you complete an event, you will be prompted to capture an outcome and set up a new action. This establishes the “status” of the lead.

In any lead, near the top of the field, you will see the current status. This is generally a combination of a broad measure of engagement, coupled with a more specific measure of engagement plus the next action that’s planned.

It gives you a good, quick read of where you are in that conversation.

This same approach is used in sales reporting to help analyse your overall pipeline.

Phases

High-level breakouts that help manage the pipeline – mostly used in reporting

  • Lead > a prospect has asked about a service. It’s not clear whether this is an opportunity
  • Opportunity > the prospect is qualified as an opportunity and is engaged in the process
  • Customer > prospect has proceeded to purchase
  • Closed > prospect did not proceed

Stages

The next level of classification that gives more insight into the status of the relationship

  • Lead:
    • Enquiry > a new lead that the salesperson has not yet spoken with
    • Contact > a lead the salesperson has spoken with – confirming the contact info works!
  • Opportunity:
    • Engaged > prospect has committed to a meeting
    • Selected > prospect has chosen a service that meets their needs
    • Committed > they’ve indicated they will proceed – requested a contract, paid a deposit
    • Contracted > they are obliged to proceed – perhaps having signed a contract
  • Customer:
    • Settled > the sale is complete – paid in full and possession taken
    • Surveyed > a post-sales survey is completed – NPS etc
    • Periodic check-in 1 / 2/ etc > periodic contact to check on ownership experience
    • Service renewal 1st / 2nd etc > how many times the service has been renewed
  • Closed
    • Nurture > based on the outcome selected, they are a future prospect and will be actively contacted by marketing and sales.
    • Hold > outcome indicates they are not a near prospect, but given conversations we know they are a bona fide enquirer and will be held of marketing down the track
    • Problem > they are not a bona fide enquirer and will not be available for future contact.
    • Archive > test leads are archived and will not appear in reporting

Outcomes & engagement

These Stages are used in the event outcome screens. When you are prompted to capture an outcome, you’ll be asked to determine whether progress has been made toward a sale or not. If the answer is:

  • Progressing or Go back – you’ll be prompted to indicate which Stage you are now at: Engaged, Selected etc. This is now the Lead Status.
  • Exiting or Problem – you’ll be presented with some reasons why and depending upon your choice, the lead will go to one of the Closed Stages above. That is the new Status.
  • No change or No contact – have no impact on the Lead Status.

TIP:  If you’re unclear about whether things have in fact progressed, refer to the current/ next Status at the top of the screen. This hopefully will clarify things. If you have moved it beyond the “next Status” indicated, you will be able to select your desired Status in the next screen – skipping one or more Stages.