MARKETER’S GUIDE TO · What’s more, studies show that inbound calls often convert to revenue 10 to 15 times more frequently than web leads, making them the lead type sales managers

MARKETER’S GUIDE TO

Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales

Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales | 2

Introduction

Inbound calls to businesses are skyrocketing, and smartphones are a big reason why. It is now commonplace for consumers to respond to search inquiries, digital and offline ads, emails, and web content by using their smartphones to call businesses. In 2013, 30 billion calls were made to U.S. businesses from mobile search alone, with that number expected to reach 75 billion by 2018.1

What’s more, studies show that inbound calls often convert to revenue 10 to 15 times more frequently than web leads, making them the lead type sales managers want most.2 According to BIA/Kelsey, 66% of sales managers consider inbound phone calls to be excellent leads, more than any other type. It’s why marketers are spending $68 billion annually on ads to generate those sought-after calls: Phone calls mean revenue.1

But as more and more importance is placed on inbound phone leads, marketers are finding that creating effective campaigns and web content that drive those calls isn’t enough. True ROI from a campaign isn’t measured in calls generated by your marketing, but rather in new accounts and revenue generated from those calls by your sales reps or clients. So marketers and agencies are now being proactive about how calls they generate are qualified, routed, and scored to optimize the chances those calls convert to revenue. They are implementing processes to weed out the bad calls and route the good ones to the best sales reps to close them.

This guide explains the importance to marketers of managing calls as they come in and the different options available to do it. It includes information on how you can:

■■ Automatically qualify inbound callers to ensure they are sales ready

■■ Route each caller to the right store, office, or agent right away to improve conversion rates

■■ Score call quality and sales agent performance to build more effective campaigns

It also provides examples of how businesses and agencies have implemented call management strategies to improve ROI and explains the different technologies available to help marketers do it.


What Is a Qualified Phone Lead and Where Should It Go?

Studies show that calls are the most valuable type of lead, converting to revenue far more frequently than web and other leads. And it makes sense: inbound phone leads tend to come from people further along in the buying process. They have specific questions they need answered to make their decision and engaging with the right sales rep right away can make or break the sale.

But at the same time, not every call that comes in from your marketing should be sent to a sales agent. As we discuss later, many calls that originate from search engine inquiries and marketing campaigns aren’t qualified leads and should not be handled by sales agents. So if you haven’t already, you should meet with your sales team (or your client’s sales team, if you work for an agency) and agree on:

■■ The definition of a qualified lead: That

definition may vary from campaign to

campaign. Qualifying a lead may be as simple

as asking callers if they wish to speak to a sales

rep, or as complex as asking for additional

information such as interest level, personal

details, or readiness to buy. But coming to a

consensus on the type of lead sales wishes to

handle directly will help you determine the

questions to ask to qualify an incoming call.

■■ How leads get assigned: This may also vary from campaign to campaign and often depends on the nature of your business and how your sales team is structured. Do you have multiple stores or offices? Do your sales agents work in the office, at home, or in the field? Do leads get assigned differently if they are calling about certain products or from certain locations, or is it first come first serve? Are there some agents who should receive more calls than others? Knowing the answers can help you get callers to the right person right away.

Once you have this information, you can begin to implement a process for qualifying, routing, and scoring leads with the end goal of helping sales close more deals (which ultimately improves your marketing ROI – a win-win). Thinking of it as a step-by-step process is often helpful, beginning with call qualification.

Marketing Drives Phone Leads

Pre-Call

Qualify

Step 1

Route

Step 2

Score

Step 3

Optimize Marketing for What

Works

Post-Call


Step 1:

Qualify Inbound Calls Before Passing to Sales

While inbound calls are often the most lucrative lead type, it’s important to remember that not every call is created equal. Studies show that 19% of inbound calls are high-quality sales leads (see Figure 1), but others are often misdials or mundane inquiries for business hours and store directions.

Wasting marketing budget on campaigns that drive these calls is bad enough, but you don’t want to compound the problem by having your sales staff waste time answering them. That’s why marketers often send callers to an IVR (interactive voice response) virtual receptionist to qualify them first.

What Does It Mean to Qualify Callers?Marketers examine two key factors when qualifying callers: intent and value. If 81% of inbound calls come from people whose intention for calling is not to engage with sales, understanding why callers are contacting you is the basis for how to qualify them. Qualification will work to weed out the misdials, solicitations, and basic inquiries, help callers with things such as account information lookup, and assist with call routing.

Caller value is the second key factor in qualification. This goes back to determining your definition of a qualified lead. The goals for a given marketing campaign and what defines a good lead for your business will determine what kind of value certain callers have and how you need to qualify them. Filtering calls based on caller intent and value increases efficiencies and conversions for your sales team.


Pre-Call

Qualify

Step 1

Route

Step 2

Score

Step 3


Works

Post-Call

Step 1: Qualify Incoming Callers Before Passing to Sales


Why Use an IVR and How Does It Work?Some businesses employ a dedicated team of agents around the clock to manually qualify calls. But if you don’t have the budget or resources, you can qualify callers cheaply and efficiently with an IVR.

IVR is a technology that enables a caller to interact with an automated menu via telephone keypad or voice recognition. Marketers use inbound IVRs to qualify phone leads automatically. The IVR asks callers questions you determine work best to qualify them for your particular marketing goals or campaign, and callers that score high enough can be passed to a sales rep to engage in conversation. Others can be sent to a more appropriate person or department, a voicemail box, or even a second IVR for assistance.

Since not every call is created equal, your IVR can serve as a virtual receptionist and help filter out misdials and robocalls. You can set up your IVR to answer incoming calls, route callers using interactive phone menus, and assist with self-service by providing info like account balances or business hours. IVRs that replace live receptionists can help cut costs and provide 24/7 customer service.

Figure 1: Inbound call mix shows that only 19% are considered high value.1

2013 Call Mix

52%

21%

19%

8%

Service / directions / other basic info calls

Short calls

High-quality calls, new leads

Accidental calls

IVRs Are Multi-PurposeReengage Leads and Customers With Outbound IVRs

Conduct Outbound Automated Phone Surveys

Conduct automated customer satisfaction surveys, market research, and lead generation campaigns over the phone using IVR phone surveys, which routinely get superior response rates to email surveys.

Boost Sales Using IVRs for Order Reminders

If you sell products or services that require reordering or renewals, automating the reminder process with an outbound IVR can be a real cost-saver. The IVR automates an otherwise manual process, taking the customer’s order and inputting it directly into your CRM.

Step 1: Qualify Incoming Callers Before Passing to Sales


CASE STUDY

DialogTech Helps Sq1 Increase Calls by 75% for Global HVAC ManufacturerAgency Sq1’s client is one of the largest HVAC manufacturers in the world, and hired Sq1 to drive calls and sales to dealers in 50 local markets in the U.S. Here’s how they did it:

■■ Sq1 ran paid search campaigns and integrated DialogTech’s call data with Kenshoo, a bid management platform, to track inbound calls back to the specific keywords that originated them.

■■ They were then able to optimize their investment by using that data to improve bidding strategies for keywords that really drove business.

■■ Additionally, Sq1 leveraged DialogTech IVR technology to weed out bad calls and route good callers to the local dealer closest to them.

■■ Sq1 increased the client’s site-side call conversion rates by 75% while decreasing cost per call by 65% in a 5-month period.

“DialogTech enabled us to require callers to validate that they are, in fact, human, so our search campaigns are filtering out the bad calls and passing on the good to local locations.”

Shaun Parnell VP, Technology Integration & AnalyticsSq1

IVRs Can Also Assist With More Complex Call QualificationFiltering calls and automating simple functions are a solid foundation for IVR use, but marketers in industries with more complex products and services turn to IVR technology in more integrated ways to ensure high-quality, sales-ready leads are reaching their sales teams.

For example, if you are using the BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline) model to qualify leads, you can pose relevant questions to learn more about callers’ intent and value. This allows you to determine if they are really ready to buy. Take the home buying process, for example:

■■ Budget: What is the caller’s price range today

for a home?

■■ Authority: Is the caller the sole buyer? Do they

have mortgage pre-approval?

■■ Need: Are they looking to rent or buy? Are they

just researching?

■■ Timeline: Are they beginning to look, or do they

have homes in mind?

Insurance and mortgage companies also use IVRs to determine if a caller is qualified for a specific policy or loan. The ultimate goal for marketers is turning callers into customers. If an IVR finds a caller not quite ready to speak to sales, there is little to no opportunity cost in handling the caller’s inquiry by sending them to voicemail, a custom message, or another IVR menu for additional questioning.

Analyze IVR Effectiveness With Web-Based ReportsIVR implementation can be taken a step further with advanced analytics and reporting (see Figure 2). Measure the effectiveness of your virtual receptionists, phone surveys, or other IVRs by analyzing abandon rates, A/B test results, and more. Personalized web-based reports offer both real-time performance reporting and historical data.

Figure 2: Analyzing abandon rates can help you understand IVR effectiveness and where improvements can be made.


Step 2:

Route Inbound Calls Optimally to Increase Sales

If your marketing is driving calls to your business, routing those calls optimally can be the difference in winning the sale. Contextual call routing technology enables you to direct incoming calls optimally, making sure the right reps can respond wherever they are and callers are being helped at all times.

This section explores a number of call routing options for you to consider, based on the structure of your business and how leads are assigned to your sales team.

Route Calls to Specific Agents or Groups of AgentsA starting point for many marketers is distributing calls to specific agents. If you know which agents are the best at closing sales, you can assign them a weight and route a higher percentage of calls directly to them. You can also route incoming calls to different types of phones (cell phone, work phone, home phone, Skype) and agents in different orders, including:

■■ Simultaneous ringing: Ring an agent’s home,

work, and cell phone simultaneously to ensure

that the call is answered.

■■ Specific ring order: Ring an agent’s phones in

a specific order, such as work phone first, cell

phone second, home phone third, etc.

■■ Sequential agent ringing: Ring multiple agents

in a pre-determined order, based on who is

currently available to speak.

■■ Multi-agent ringing: Ring several agents’ phone

numbers at the same time. The first agent who

answers gets the call, even if they are working

from home.

■■ Top performing agents: Ensure your

best-performing agents receive the most

calls by routing a higher percentage to them.


Pre-Call

Qualify

Step 1

Route

Step 2

Score

Step 3


Works

Post-Call

Step 2: Route Incoming Callers Optimally to Increase Sales


Route Calls Based on Schedules and LocationsDoes your business have multiple stores or offices, or changing schedules? Do you assign leads to agents based on geographic territory? Then you should consider routing calls based on the caller’s location and the time of the call:

■■ Business hours: Route calls based on when you

are open for business, or send to a specific agent

or even a voicemail box during off hours.

■■ Weekends: If you have agents available over the

weekend, direct incoming calls to them, or capture

calls with a custom message or voicemail box.

■■ Holidays: Depending on your business, you may

experience a higher volume of calls during holidays;

if so, call routing can ensure agents are reached

wherever they are.

■■ Time zones: If you have offices in multiple time

zones, callers can be routed to the location nearest

them or the one currently open.

■■ Customer location: You can route callers based

on their geographic location, whether they are

calling from a mobile or landline phone.

The Mobile OfficeBYOD Trend

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device

As the world goes mobile, so too will companies. Gartner predicts that by 2017 half of all employers will have a BYOD program in place3, allowing them to increase the mobility and flexibility of their business.

Businesses looking to increase efficiency or implement cost-cutting measures can explore the benefits a BYOD strategy can provide their sales team. Combining BYOD agents with call routing technology will enable your sales team to work as one, no matter where they are individually or what phone device they use.

Route Calls Based on Marketing SourceYou can route calls from different marketing sources individually by incorporating unique call tracking numbers (more on call tracking later). Options include routing calls by:

■■ Ad: Route inbound calls from different offline,

online, or mobile ads.

■■ Search keyword: Depending on the keyword

searched online, callers can be routed to an

IVR for qualification, a specific agent, or even

a voicemail box.

■■ Web page: If you have pages on your website

dedicated to a specific product or part of your

company, callers can be transferred to the most

appropriate person or team.

■■ Marketing campaign: If you have targeted

marketing campaigns running for multiple

products or services, route inbound calls

to agents based on their expertise for

each campaign.

■■ Or any other source driving calls to your business.

Step 2: Route Incoming Callers Optimally to Increase Sales


Sleep Train Uses DialogTech IVRs and Store Locator to Treat 2 Million Callers RightSleep Train is the West Coast’s number one mattress retailer and the fourth biggest in the U.S. By using DialogTech’s IVRs and Store Locator, Sleep Train is able to automate inbound calls to drive traffic to their 300 retail stores. Sleep Train callers are directed to an DialogTech IVR virtual receptionist with three options:

■■ Press 1 to speak to a sleep advisor at the store nearest you

■■ Press 2 for questions about a product or to place an order over the phone

■■ Press 3 to hear information regarding financing

“DialogTech’s virtual receptionist technology automatically identifies from over 50,000 monthly calls those customers looking to place an order and routes them to our 3-man team to assist. In our first month alone, this small team processed over $200,000 in mattress sales over the phone.”

Dwayne BradleyTelecommunications ManagerSleep Train

CASE STUDY

Figure 3: Reports on call activity from your campaigns can help you determine best strategies for routing calls.

Use Geo-Location to Route Calls Based on a Caller’s LocationSmartphones and mobile devices are driving billions of sales calls to U.S. businesses each month. Routing these calls to the right location or person is cricital to optimizing conversions and sales.

Example of How Geo-Location Works:

1. Individual uses a smartphone to search locally for your business.

2. They press the Call button in your search ad to trigger a call to your business.

3. Cell phone triangulation determines the caller’s exact latitude and longitude.

4. Caller is automatically routed to the closest store, office, or agent.

Understand Call Routing Effectiveness With Web-Based Reports

But how can marketers know that their call routing strategies are effective? Contextual call routing tools collect data you can use to optimize your routing strategies. These reports allow you to understand where calls are being directed, see which agents are receiving the most calls, and how successful they are at converting leads. Data can arm you to make call routing improvements, adjust where and when calls are routed, and give top-performing agents more call volume.


What Does It Mean to Score Callers?Call scoring technologies help you understand the value of callers, performance of agents, and ROI of marketing campaigns. Intent is driving callers to you, you are routing them appropriately, and your agents are working the calls. By scoring a call you can assign values to a conversation based on specific metrics you’ve set and are then identified within the conversation.

Analyzing scoring metrics can uncover which sales strategies work best to convert callers, which agents are performing better than others, and which marketing campaigns are driving valuable callers to your business. There are a number of different ways businesses score calls that we will explore in this section.

Score Call Quality By Monitoring DurationThe longer a call lasts, the higher the probability that it was a quality call. Marketers often see a correlation between these longer conversations with high caller engagement and conversion. Scoring these calls can uncover which marketing campaigns are driving longer calls to your sales team.

Step 3: Determine Caller, Agent, and Campaign Scores

Lead scoring has become an integral part of lead generation, especially for larger businesses that generate hundreds of leads each day. It helps sales teams increase agent performance and productivity and guides marketing in the creation of campaigns that deliver more high-quality leads.

Figure 4: Call duration reporting offers insight into what campaigns are working.


Pre-Call

Qualify

Step 1

Route

Step 2

Score

Step 3


Works

Post-Call

Step 3: Determine Caller, Agent, and Campaign Scoring


CASE STUDY

DialogTech Helps BitCadet Increase Leads for Client by 208% and Sales by 89%Agency BitCadet used Google PPC and email campaigns to drive web traffic and call conversions for VersaTube. Here’s how they did it:

■■ Used DialogTech’s call tracking to tell which search keywords, ads, and email blasts were driving inbound calls – and which weren’t – and optimized campaigns.

■■ DialogTech’s call conversion data was integrated with web conversion data in Google Analytics so BitCadet could prove their full value to the client.

■■ Calls generated in the morning were automatically routed to every east coast agent’s cell phone at once – first one to answer got the lead.

■■ Calls in the late afternoon and evening went to agents on the west coast.

■■ BitCadet then used DialogTech to record conversations between leads and VersaTube agents to measure call quality and agent performance.

■■ DialogTech helped BitCadet increase calls to the client by 208% and sales by 89%.

“DialogTech’s reporting data on sales agents’ call activity and the audio recordings of each call was a real eye-opener for our client. They were able to measure each agent’s effectiveness, understand why some sales closed and others didn’t, and make improvements to close more deals.”

Dusty DeanCEOBitCadet

Keyword Spotting for Automated Quality ScoringThe best way to score calls is to listen to them, but that simply isn’t practical for most marketers and agencies. So instead, you can automate the process with keyword spotting technology. Keyword spotting monitors conversations between callers and agents for you, listening to keywords you determine best indicate call quality. It then scores the call based on frequency, weight assigned to certain words, and who says them. So think about words that indicate a quality call for your business and use keyword spotting to listen for them. Examples can be words like: “Buy,”“Reorder,”“Appointment,” or “Price.”

Marketers use keyword spotting for many purposes, including:

■■ Determining the quality of phone leads

■■ Whether calls converted to sales

■■ If agents followed approved scripts

■■ Uncovering customer satisfaction

■■ And more depending on desired insights

The keywords and scoring system you use are customizable for each campaign and can also be adjusted to improve accuracy. It’s a great way for enterprises with high call volumes to measure call quality, and for agencies and lead gen services that need an easy way to prove the quality of the leads they send to clients.

Figure 5: Keyword spotting reports can score agent and call quality for you.

Step 3: Determine Caller, Agent, and Campaign Scoring


Figure 6: CRM integration allows you to track phone leads through the entire sales funnel.

Call Recording for Proving Call ValueHearing really is believing, and sometimes when scoring phone leads there is just no substitute for listening to the actual conversation. That’s why many companies record their sales calls as a way to evaluate quality and measure the effectiveness of sales agent performance.

True, manually examining call recordings is not practical for large marketing campaigns with high call volumes. That’s what keyword spotting is for. But call recordings can come in handy when you need to double-check scores from keyword spotting reports or prove to doubting executives that your scoring data is accurate.

Call Tracking and CRM Integration Follow Phone Leads Through the Sales CycleAt the end of the day, the ultimate judge of phone lead quality is whether the caller converted to a sales opportunity or customer. That may be something that can happen on the call, but it might also take weeks or months, even years, depending on the products or services being marketed. So marketers wishing to pass final and definitive judgment on phone lead quality from a campaign need a way to follow each call through the sales cycle to revenue.

To get that data you would first need to use unique call tracking numbers in your marketing that can tie calls back to the specific source and channel that generated them (more on this in a bit). Then you would need to integrate that call tracking data with your CRM system to follow the lead through the sales cycle. While getting final data for campaigns could take time, that data should provide the final word on if a campaign really worked, how it impacted the business, and whether or not it’s worth redoing.

Keyword SpottingScore Call Quality Without Listening to a Single Conversation

Use Completely Customizable Keywords and Scoring Systems to:

■■ Define keywords to monitor and assign a weight based on who used them (caller or agent).

■■ Evaluate calls based on the metrics and keywords you define—specific to your marketing, your industry, or your products.

■■ Analyze and score for industry terminology, branded terms, and unique scripts.

■■ Access rich, detailed reports measuring call and agent quality.

■■ Easily adjust your metrics and re-score your calls to continually find what works.


Optimize ROI by Tracking Calls and Integrating Data

Being able to direct calls differently for different marketing sources first requires the use of a technology called call tracking. Call tracking gives you unique trackable numbers to display in your marketing and on your web pages. And when the data generated is combined with the applications you rely on, it allows you to make improvements to not only your marketing, but how your callers are qualified, routed, and scored.

Figure 7: Call tracking reports offer a visual representation of what marketing generates calls.

Figure 8: Integrating call data in bid management tools helps optimize PPC bids, conversions, and ROI from search advertising.

Pinpoint Where Callers OriginateIf you can’t track phone leads back to their source to see what’s working, your marketing and sales will suffer. Call tracking enables you to pinpoint which ads, search keywords, content, and campaigns are generating phone calls, opportunities, and revenue, and which are not. Then you can work to optimize ROI.

Integrate with the Applications You UseIntegrating call data with your CRM, web analytics, marketing automation, bid management, and other applications enables you to use call conversion data to optimize campaigns and drive more leads and sales.


Pre-Call

Qualify

Step 1

Route

Step 2

Score

Step 3


Works

Post-Call


Conclusion

Marketers are finding that creating effective campaigns and web content that drive calls isn’t enough. True ROI from a campaign isn’t measured in calls generated by your marketing, but rather in new accounts and revenue generated from those calls by your sales reps or clients. So marketers and agencies are now being proactive about how calls they generate are qualified, routed, and scored to optimize the chances those calls convert to revenue. They are implementing processes to weed out the bad calls and route the good ones to the best sales reps to close them.

Next StepsCall DialogTech today at (866) 837-6521 to learn how DialogTech can help you track, score, route, and analyze calls. You can also request a demo of DialogTech’s Voice360™ solution at www.DialogTech.com.

Sources: 1. BIA/Kelsey report on Call Monetization, 20142. BIA/Kelsey Local Commerce MonitorTM (LCM), Q3 20133. Gartner report on Bring Your Own Device, May 2013

About DialogTechDialogTech provides the leading voice-based marketing automation platform, Voice360™, that businesses and marketing agencies rely on to connect, measure and optimize sales calls. Built specifically for marketing and sales, DialogTech’s cloud-based solution helps companies of all sizes optimize marketing spend across all channels, generate and convert more high-quality leads, and acquire more business over the phone.

Known for its unmatched ease-of-use and reliability, DialogTech’s Voice360™ platform has successfully processed over one billion minutes of voice engagement for its customers. Organizations in all industries use DialogTech, including marketing agencies, lead generation, e-commerce, direct response, financial services and insurance, healthcare, automotive, retail and logistics, and SaaS and technology. For more information, visit dialogtech.com.

Contact UsDialogTech, Inc. 300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor Chicago, IL 60606

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DialogTech, DialogTech logo and Voice360 are trademarks of DialogTech. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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MARKETER’S GUIDE TO · What’s more, studies show that inbound calls often convert to revenue 10 to 15 times more frequently than web leads, making them the lead type sales managers