In a word, yes.

In an on-demand, try before you buy world excluding an email address because it is from Gmail vs. a branded domain is a big mistake.  Why?

1. People try products with personal email addresses be it for their company use or personal use.  The line between the two worlds continues to blur and excluding someone’s preferred method of managing engagement with you is just not smart.
2. You can see who visits, the actions they take, and prioritize them appropriately for sales engagement with LoopFuse regardless of the type of email address.
3. Lots of products have emerged to let you paint a true picture of someone from their email address. Nimble, Rapportive (now part of LinkedIn), Gist (now part of RIM), and even FullContact can give you a quick, on-demand view of someone’s true social profile.
4. The barrier to get a branded email address is extremely low via products like GoogleApps so even if you think you are keeping out less than qualified leads, you aren’t.

What do you think?  What do you do at your company?

Since it’s Friday, let’s enjoy the Who summing this up with “Who Are You?”

We’ve added two new features for our Salesforce.com CRM support and would love for you to check them out.  You can read the full press release about it here.

• LeadFlow Enroller – The LoopFuse LeadFlow Enroller allows users to add leads and contacts into an existing LeadFlow program directly from Salesforce.com.  The plugin also displays the LeadFlow programs active for a lead or contact.  The LeadFlow Enroller is available for download from the Salesforce.com AppExchange and is compatible with all paid LoopFuse OneView accounts.  More details on how it works and setting it up are here.

Download the LoopFuse LeadFlow Enroller from the AppExchange

• Sandbox Connector – The LoopFuse Sandbox Connector provides the ability to create a LoopFuse testing environment to be used with sandbox functionality available in Enterprise and Unlimited Salesforce.com Editions.  The Sandbox Connector is available to all paid LoopFuse OneView accounts.

Request more information about the LoopFuse Sandbox Connector

We would love you to try out LoopFuse here.

To find out exactly what LoopFuse does, click here.

To add LoopFuse to Salesforce.com, click here.

You can follow LoopFuse on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.

The NFL draft started today and Andrew Luck of Stanford was drafted #1 overall by the Indianapolis Colts.  This was one of the biggest unkept secrets ever.  The departure of Peyton Manning, private workouts, and carefully crafted messages in the press from both sides all led to the pick.

So, what can you learn from the NFL draft and apply to your lead management activities?

1. Know What You Need – the Colts knew they needed a quarterback and were in the great position to get one.  If you don’t know what your optimal customer prospect looks like then get busy crafting it.  You can’t find it if you don’t know what you are looking for.
2. Do Your Research – both the Colts and Luck thoroughly researched each other through interviews, workouts, and reams of data.  That led them both to the best decision for each of them.  Make sure you have the information available that your prospects need to choose you and that you have done your best to target and acquire customers that will stick with you over time.
3. Prioritize – all the players entering the NFL draft are great in some way be that as a quarterback, a receiver, or a defensive tackle.  The Colts probably could have made the case for a need in all these positions but they decided that the quarterback slot was the most important one to fill.  So when you look at all the inquiries you get via your various marketing programs, be sure to focus on the best ones first just like the Colts did selecting Andrew Luck.

Be sure to keep an eye on the draft as it unfolds and see the results as they happen on ESPN’s NFL DraftTracker.

We would love you to try out LoopFuse here.

To find out exactly what LoopFuse does, click here.

To add LoopFuse to Salesforce.com, click here.

You can follow LoopFuse on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.

I like to start out by using a traditional flow chart to help me structure the flow before diving in to the LoopFuse Lead Flow module. There are several reasons for this, but writing things down in this format can help you with the following:

• Identify the starting and ending points of a flow. Know where you want prospects to end up.
• Pinpoint areas where data can be collected on the prospect.
• Help clarify steps in the process that may not have been apparent at first glance.
• Illuminate potential problem areas where prospects may fall out of the flow.

Here’s an example of an initial flow chart I made for our FreeView follow up emails. I wanted to see if new users had taken certain steps that were indicative of progress towards conversion and, if they hadn’t done so, prompt them via email campaign to do so or get more assistance.

This first attempt didn’t really cover the full scope of what we wanted a prospect to experience from the time they filled out a registration form. As you can see it got very complicated very quickly and this only covered the sending of the emails. Initially we had envisioned this same flow triggering several times, a few days apart each time, all fed by the same list. Obviously our path to conversion was more involved than that so I went back to the drawing board to get a better overall view of the process. The improved structure of the entire process looked more like this:

We still wanted to cover our follow-up campaigns once a person had signed up, but they needed to be simpler than the 16 branch behemoth I had previously constructed. Also, our sales team had requested a way to track the progress of prospects that needed product demos so we included that in the overall track. Once those initial flows were completed we dropped them in to a “Long Term” nurturing track. Keep in mind that this is just an example of part of our complete flow. The anchor points at “A” and “B” would lead to other flow charts on other pages built out in a similar manner to further define the process.

Lead flows can be as complex or as simple as you need them to be. To help you in your quest to become a Lead Flow Ninja, I’ve put together some tips on the different types of nodes available within LoopFuse.

Conditional Nodes

First of all, keep in mind that with Conditional Nodes you are essentially asking a Yes/No question and getting back either a True or False as the answer. So, for example, if you check to see if a prospect had clicked on a specific Email Campaign link, the Conditional Node will let you branch your lead flow based on the outcome. For the positive branch you can send a follow up Email Campaign encouraging further participation. For the negative outcome you could either Retry the node or send a campaign with additional information to help make a decision, for example. Conditional Nodes are the controlling logic that help you make decisions in your flow. If a prospect does not meet a given condition and you have not used a Negative outcome for your conditional node, the prospect will fall out of the lead flow. You can use Conditional Nodes to check a wide array of states within LoopFuse and Salesforce.com. Check out our documentation for a complete list.

Activity Nodes

These are the nodes used to send email campaigns, export records to Salesforce, insert Activities in to Salesforce, or update Lead/Contact record values. They are used to take action on a prospect so they only have one outcome and can only be followed by one node.  More information can be found on the Help page. Be sure to use the Name and Description fields to help you keep track of what activities are happening.

Pause Nodes

These nodes are invaluable for creating the perfect timing of your lead flow. Without them, you may never find out if someone clicked on a link in your Email Campaign. For example, suppose your flow checks for a link open and then immediately sends out another campaign based on the result. Nodes trigger sequentially so if there was no pause node then you could essentially be running prospects through the conditional node without anyone ever meeting the condition as expected. Adding a Pause node before the conditional gives your campaign recipients time to get your email, open it, read it, and decide to actually click on the link. Sometimes Pausing isn’t enough, however, so you need…

Retry Nodes

These nodes work in conjunction with the conditional node to see if a condition is met. If it is not, adding a Retry as the negative outcome to a conditional will let you retry that Conditional every four hours until the condition is met or the time limit is met. That’s powerful but you have to be careful here. Retry nodes have no follow up so if, after Retrying until the time limit, you still haven’t met the conditional node criteria, the prospect will fall out of the lead flow.

Richard Murdock (@shinyranger) is the Senior Manager of Customer Support at LoopFuse. Our goal is to make sure you have the best experience possible with our products.

We would love you to try out LoopFuse here.

To find out exactly what LoopFuse does, click here.

To add LoopFuse to Salesforce.com, click here.

You can follow LoopFuse on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.

Remember – technology is an enabler. You must understand what you are trying to accomplish (your goals) and how you want to do it (tactics and processes) to have the most success with any of these technology products.

Enjoy!

Looking for lead nurturing examples?  Look no further!

One of the most beneficial things you can add to your sales process is an email lead nurturing campaign to engage with prospects through the middle of the funnel. This is the time between when they have raised their hands as interested in what you do or the problem you solve and actually becoming a customer.  This is also the time it is easiest for them to forget about you or for you to forget about them because of broken sales and lead nurturing processes.

One email lead nurturing example we recommend to every company that is focused on getting people to sign up or register on their web site is detailed below.  This is a pretty straightforward, time-based flow that you can add some sophistication to by further segmenting on how they fill out a web form – location, primary areas of interest, role, etc.  Let’s leave that for later and just focus on a simple registration/sign up lead nurturing flow.

Let’s look at each of the above steps separately:

1. +0 Days from Registration – this is your opportunity to let your company and product personality come through. This is not a system-generated, transactional email. If you have a web-based application, you have already sent a confirmation or activation link. This is your chance to genuinely welcome someone and put your best foot forward.

2. +2 Days from Registration – this is your opportunity to reinforce key areas of your product or service that unlock huge value. If you are web-based application, then highlight the three easy steps to get started, if you are an off-line business then share how best to do business with you (what you need to prepare, what they can expect, etc.).  Remember, make this about them and not about you. Focus on the problem they seek to solve or the outcome they wish to achieve.

3. +7 Days from Registration - now is your time to become top of mind again in case the prospect has gotten distracted, confused, or just lost interest.  Reinforce how easy it is to do business with you or use your product.  Highlight content that is available to help with a focus on short and easily consumed items (videos, blog posts, etc.) If all you have is a 50 page user guide, then get busy breaking it up into consumable pieces and share it in this message.

4. +15 Days from Registration – at this point, let’s hope there is active dialog between you and this prospect from a sales standpoint. This message fits in nicely because it is designed to reinforce the results and overall happiness that other customers have with you.  Again, make this content easily consumable by linking to customer testimonial videos or even just call out quotes from customers.  We all like to see validation from others so this is your chance to show off a bit.  Again, focus on the results and how easy it was to get them with you.

That is about as simple as it gets because everyone goes through the same process and the content should be already available inside your company.  The great news is that setting this up with LoopFuse is really easy and can be done at no (FreeView) or low (OneView) cost.  You’ll begin to see results immediately from open and click rates to responses and engagement.

Don’t lose people after you’ve worked so hard to get them in the first place!

We would love you to try out LoopFuse here.

To find out exactly what LoopFuse does, click here.

To add LoopFuse to Salesforce.com, click here.

You can follow LoopFuse on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.