System and method to evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how sales leads were handled including providing training to improve salesperson effectiveness and followup reporting to monitor sales efforts and training

• US 8,756,086 B1
• Filed: 08/17/2009
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CallSource Incorporated (Real Estate Communication Services, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CallSource Incorporated (Real Estate Communication Services, Inc.)
• Inventors: Feldman, Jerry, Powers, Mark, Leiboff, Elliot
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B.
• Application Number:
  US12/583,230
• Time in Patent Office: 1,765 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/8, 705/9, 705/10, 705/11, 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A system evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how the sales leads were handled. Providing a detailed computerized system to provide reports to customer'"'"'s managers to advise them how effective a given advertising program or medium was in generating sales leads and to advise them how many responses were genuine potential customers interested in buying the product or service. Also providing a system to monitor how sales lead were handled by sales personnel including evaluation on how a sales call was handled and if a sales lead was successfully completed as a sale.

Claims

1. A computer system for improving a client business managed by salespersons and sales teams, comprising:

a. a computer processor;

b. a display;

c. a memory system having instructions which when executed, cause the computer to perform multiple programs to evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how sales leads were handled including providing training to improve salesperson effectiveness and followup reporting to monitor sales efforts and training, said programs;

d. said programs analyzing performance of each of said salespersons, each of said sales teams and said business, and further capable of assigning and managing leads which are optionally forwarded to an external lead management program;

e. said programs assigning a series of local and/or toll-free telephone numbers to a client or said client business of a provider which provides said system to thereby determine specific sources of marketing of said client business, said provider assigning and placing a unique telephone number in each source of marketing or advertising;

f. said programs routing, tracking and recording calls to or from clients or prospective clients, including automatically converting Internet leads to telephone contacts which are thereby captured, managed and reported;

g. said programs determining which calls are mistakes or people seeking free advice as opposed to potential clients, wherein calls representing sales opportunities are separated from other types of calls which are removed to allow for a cost-per-lead analysis by marketing source and a closes-per-lead analysis by a salesperson; and

h. said programs performing when said client or said client business having an inbound call from dialing a local or toll free number assigned to a source of marketing for said client business or said client which has been set up in a database of said system, said system routing a call according to a telephone number of said client, or said client business, said system further providing a check feature function which reports, via ad-hoc Internet access and/or scheduled e-mail delivery a day, time and duration of each call, identifying said source of marketing in which said telephone number has been listed, wherein a name and address of said potential client being determined by a reverse lookup from said telephone number of said potential client in addition to a geographic location and neighborhood demographics being reported to each of said client.

2. The computer as claimed in claim 1, said programs further comprising:

capturing and automatically replying to said leads submitted via Internet, and identifying by captured data, customers or prospective customers who contact said business multiple times, even if by multiple means such as via Web, telephone, or personal appearance.

3. The computer as claimed in claim 2, said programs further comprising:

assigning a specific sales person to follow up each of said leads and user-defined rules establishes how and when reminders are delivered to said salesperson and a manager of said sales person.

4. The computer as claimed in claim 1, said programs further comprising:

a first subprogram for said client or said client business who has called said inbound call with a notice of recording saved in a compressed and digital format.

5. The computer as claimed in claim 4, said programs further comprising:

a second subprogram for a human or a speech analytics software to review said recorded calls to thereby determine a portion of said recorder calls which are valid business leads that are further forwarded to said internal and/or external lead manager programs.

6. The computer as claimed in claim 5, said programs further comprising:

third subprogram for said client or client business to display call in at a fourth subprogram with a detailed recorded data of said call, including day, date, hour, marketing campaign, caller telephone number, and when available, caller name and address, wherein each of said salespersons are capable of correcting a default data and entering additional qualifying information into the lead record for said client or said client business.

7. The computer as claimed in claim 6, said programs further comprising:

a fourth subprogram for sales business in an automobile dealership, when a prospective customer calls said automobile dealership by using said third subprogram, an email is generated and sent to said dealership thereby advising said dealership of said prospective customer and a source of advertising that generates a lead.

8. The computer as claimed in claim 7, said programs further comprising:

a fifth subprogram to take a message from said potential customer.

9. The computer as claimed in claim 8, said programs further comprising:

a sixth subprogram when there is an absence of an available salesperson, said subprogram directs said potential customer to a voice mail.

10. The computer as claimed in claim 9, said programs further comprising:

a seventh subprogram wherein a special greeting to said potential customer is generated to assure said potential customer that the customer'"'"'s inquiry will be answered.

11. A computer system for improving a client business managed by salespersons and sales teams, comprising:

a. a computer processor;

b. a display;

c. a memory system having instructions, which when executed, cause the at least one computer to perform multiple programs to evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how sales leads were handled including providing training to improve salesperson effectiveness and followup reporting to monitor sales efforts and training;

d. said programs analyzing performance of each of said salespersons, each of said sales teams and said client business, and further capable of signing and managing leads which are optionally forwarded to an external lead management program;

e. said programs assigning a series of local and/or toll-free telephone numbers to a client or said client business of a provider which provides said system to thereby determine specific sources of marketing of said client business, said provider assigning and placing a unique telephone number in each source of marketing or advertising;

f. said programs routing, tracking and recording calls to or from clients or prospective clients, including automatically converting Internet leads to telephone contacts which are thereby captured, managed and reported;

g. said programs determining which calls are mistakes or people seeking free advice as opposed to potential customers, wherein calls representing sales opportunities are separated and recorded from other types of calls which are removed to allow for a cost-per-lead analysis by marketing source and a closes-per-lead analysis by a salesperson; and

h. in said analysis there is included a human or a speech analytics software to review said recorded calls and thereby classify performance of the respective salespersons based on a client questionnaire with the respective scores, wherein classifying criteria are client-defined and assess how effectively said salesperson established a report, gathered and shared information, overcame objections, controlled said call, and devoted time to a sale or appointment, said scores are placed in a database of said system wherein data are presented in a form of a salesperson performance report card, so that ranking is performed based on scores in each location or region for a given client business, or ranking is performed based on scores of each salesperson so that each salesperson'"'"'s individual skill gaps are identified and specific training and coaching are recommended.

12. The computer as claimed in claim 11, said programs further comprising:

recording and reporting results of performance in said database, reports are generated based on ranks for a given business community, reports are generated based on ranks for the respective salesperson, said reports are displayed on a web page on a monthly basis accessible to the respective salespersons and sales teams or sent via emails to the respective salesperson.

13. A computer system for improving a client business managed by salespersons and sales teams, comprising:

a. a computer processor;

b. a display;

c. a memory system, comprising instructions, which when executed, cause the computer system to perform multiple programs to evaluate the effectiveness of a given advertising source in generating sales leads and monitoring how sales leads were handled including providing training to improve salesperson effectiveness and followup reporting to monitor sales efforts and training;

d. said programs capable of analyzing performance of each of said salespersons, each of said sales teams and said client business, and further capable of assigning and managing leads which are optionally forwarded to an external lead management program;

e. said programs assigning a series of local and/or toll-free telephone numbers to a client or said client business of a provider which provides said system to thereby determine specific sources of marketing of said client business, said provider assigning and placing a unique telephone number in each source of marketing or advertising;

f. said programs refer routing, tracking and recording calls to or from clients or prospective clients, including automatically converting Internet leads to telephone contacts which are thereby captured, managed and reported;

g. said programs determine which calls are mistakes or people seeking free advice as opposed to potential customers, wherein calls representing sales opportunities are separated and recorded from other types of calls which are removed to allow for a cost-per-lead analysis by marketing source and a closes-per-lead analysis by a salesperson from classifying performance of the respective salespersons based on a client questionnaire, wherein the respective scores are generated so that each salesperson'"'"'s individual skill gaps are identified and specific training and coaching are recommended in accordance with said program; and

h. said programs gather scores on an individual salesperson from said memory system in conjunction with said salesperson to determine what courses need to be taken based on said scores, if one of said courses is found, a completion date for said course is assigned to said salesperson, if said course is unavailable, a course work is provided, followup is performed to determine if said salesperson completes said course work and a manager of said salesperson is notified by an e-mail, these steps are repeated until said courses are completed and a data is sent to said database of said system, so that said system generates a knowledge based program report of said salesperson, which is displayed on a web page or e-mailed to said client and the appropriate management level person or persons.

14. The computer as claimed in claim 13, said programs further comprising:

a hosted, learning management program system, which is custom branded to match a website of the respective clients or client businesses, said hosted, learning management program further providing a unique web page for each of said clients and salespersons featuring a digital photograph of each of said salespersons, various customizable fields, plus a list of all required or recommended training associated with job titles/positions of employees of said system, wherein said job titles are capable of being imported from human resources or payroll systems of the respective clients so that training requirements are automatically updated, therefore said web page of said system indicates a required completion date and completion status of each course, if said client elects to use a training content of said system, a self-paced course can be launched directly from said web page by clicking a button beside a course title, and instructor-led courses are capable of being scheduled by clicking a calendar button.

15. The computer as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

said salespersons are given pre- and post-learning tests to be sure they have learned the respective course materials, so that completion certificates are provided to management to advise said management which salespersons have or have not completed training and how each salesperson scored on pre- and post-learning examinations.

16. The computer as claimed in claim 13, wherein the computer further comprises programs automatically importing training from outside the computer and adding ad hoc classes by clients.