The first step: a read of your enquiry handover.
What the read covers, what you hold if you stop after it, what it asks of your time, and where each stage hands over to the next.
The handover, not the advertising.
The read starts after the enquiry has arrived. It looks at what happens to each enquiry between the form and the first conversation with a person, using the enquiries you already have.
Receipt, assignment, contact and qualification are different events, and the read keeps them separate. An automated acknowledgement shows that a form was received. It does not show that anyone has spoken with the buyer.
| Question | What the read looks for |
|---|---|
| Did the enquiry arrive? | The arrival time, and the enquiry as the form sent it. |
| Who is responsible? | A named owner, and the time the enquiry was assigned. |
| Has someone tried to reach the buyer? | The time, channel and outcome of each attempt. |
| Has two-way contact occurred? | A meaningful conversation, logged separately from an attempted call. |
| Does the enquiry fit? | A qualification decision and its reason, logged separately from contact. |
| What happens next? | A next action, with an owner and a due time. |
Two measures come out of those answers: speed to lead and lead qualification rate. They are the same two measures Stratosphere uses on every project, and each is stated with its definition and its denominator.
What you hold.
- iThe path an enquiry takes from your form to your team, written out as it runs today, including any point where it stops being visible.
- iiYour contact rate and your qualification rate for a completed group of enquiries. Test entries and duplicates are excluded in view, and recent enquiries whose window has not elapsed are kept apart.
- iiiThe point in the sequence where buyers stop replying, if the enquiries show one.
- ivOne recommended first change, and the measure that will show whether it worked.
Stopping after the first stage is an ordinary outcome. The later stages are not needed for the read to be useful, and nothing in the read depends on a later stage being agreed.
Access, one answer and one conversation.
- iAccess to a recent group of enquiries and what happened to each, from the system your team already uses.
- iiOne person who can say how an enquiry is handled today: who owns it, and the contact window the team works to.
- iiiOne conversation to go through the written read.
The hours are set in writing before the read begins, because they depend on what you already have in place. This page carries no price for the same reason.
Read. Change. Read again.
| Handover | What changes hands |
|---|---|
| Before the read | You give access to the enquiries and name the person who answers for the handover. |
| End of the read | The written read passes to you. You decide whether to stop, or to have the first recommended change made, and by whom. |
| Between changes | Changes are made one at a time. The date each takes effect is recorded, so the enquiries after it can be compared with those before it. |
| Change to the next read | The next group of enquiries is read against the same measures, and the result is set beside the first read. |
Where this sits.
The diagnostic is the first stage of lead development. The handover it reads is the one set out in What happens after an enquiry: fixing the lead handover, and the three stages follow the Operating Loop.
Ask for what the first stage involves, in writing.
Send the business, an email and a phone number. David replies himself with what the first stage would involve for your handover and the time it asks, in writing. Asking commits you to nothing.