One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your list of leads is not to keep them organized. If you can’t keep track of who you called, who scheduled an appointment, who is a good candidate, and who isn’t, collecting and converting leads is going to be a very tedious and difficult process for you.
The truth is, our marketing efforts are ongoing. This means that the ideal situation would be for your list of leads to constantly grow while you’re consistently following up and converting them into loyal patients.
In order to help you out, I’m about to share how to organize your leads effectively so that nothing slips through the cracks (and you don’t miss out on an opportunity).
How to Organize Your Leads, so Nothing Slips Through the Cracks
To get as organized as possible, we need to start with the document that you’re using to collect your leads in the first place.
If you’ve collected your leads through ground marketing (e.g. an event or a sign-up sheet left at a business), your leads’ contact information likely lives on a piece of paper or your iPad (if you’re collecting them at a live event).
No matter where those contacts are, the first thing you need to do is to compile them into a master document of leads.
Your master document of leads can either live on a Google Sheet, Google Doc, AirTable, or any platform or software of your choice.
The point of the matter is that you need to have this master document so that you can keep track of your growing list of leads, when you followed up with them, and where they are on the journey to becoming a loyal customer.
Now here’s what you need to include on your master document of leads to stay as organized as possible.
Your Lead’s Name
First and foremost, what you need to include on your master document of leads is your lead’s name. If you are missing this field, you wouldn’t know who you’re calling and how to address them.
Preferably, you’ll have both your lead’s first and last name, so make sure to set your sign-up sheet to collect both your lead’s first and last name.
Where You Found Your Lead
The next category you need to have is the location where you found your lead. If you are ground marketing at the YMCA, for example, you want to list “YMCA” in this section. Oftentimes, your ground marketing efforts extend beyond one location. This is why this category is so important.
Knowing where you found your lead will help you when you’re making that first follow-up call. It’s important to remind your lead where you met so that they can recall the event in which they handed their contact information over and the incentive that they signed up for.
Date You Obtained Your Lead
Just as important as where you found your lead is the date you found them. You want to give your lead as much information on how and when you met them when you make your initial follow-up call.
Knowing when you obtained your lead will also serve as a personal reminder as to how hot your lead currently is. For instance, a lead that you met a day ago will likely be more interested in your services than a lead you met three months ago. By that point, they might have already found a different dentist, or their needs might have changed.
Having the date of when you obtained your lead clearly marked will encourage you to follow up with them as soon as possible.
Your Lead’s Phone Number
You can’t follow-up with your lead if you don’t have the means to. This is why having your lead’s phone number on your master document of leads is crucial. All you need to do is transfer your lead’s phone number from your sign-up sheet. Just make sure to double-check that you have the right number copied.
Optional: Your Lead’s Email Address
This isn’t always necessary, but if you’re capturing emails on your sign-up sheets, you’ll want to make sure that you have your lead’s email address on your master document of leads as well. This is especially handy if your lead just doesn’t pick up their phone. That way, you can reach out and follow-up via email as a last resort.
The Date You Plan to Call Your Lead
Indicating the date in which you plan on calling your lead is an important piece of information to have. Not only does it help you plan and schedule your follow-up calls accordingly, but it also helps to keep everyone on the same page especially if you have multiple people managing these follow-up calls.
As I suggested in this post, it’s best to set aside a specific window of time to batch your follow-up calls. This means several leads on your master document of leads will share the same follow-up date.
The Next Follow-Up Date
Whether you’ve hit a voicemail on your first follow-up call, or you managed to secure an appointment for your lead, and you need to follow-up with them with an appointment reminder call, having a “next follow-up date” section on your master document on leads will keep you on track to where this lead is on their journey to becoming a patient.
In this section, you’ll want to be as detailed as possible. Enter the date in which you plan on following up with them and why you’re following up with them. All you need to do is simply enter the date you plan on following up with your lead again, followed by the reason for your call. This could be “Reached voicemail” or “appointment reminder.”
Production Completed By Patient
Your master document of leads won’t just have contact-specific information. You’ll also want to keep track of your conversions by having a “production completed by patient” section. Here, you’ll want to note how much the patient spent on their treatment.
This helps you keep track of the quality of your patients. It’s also a great way to reference your conversion rates. This also helps you see trends with Ground Marketing. For example, let's say you are getting a lot of leads from a location but notice all the leads tend to not produce any good results OR you notice a location always brings in fantastic patients with high production. This will help you to determine if you should double down on a location or let it go.
Additional Notes
Finally, no great document is complete without a section for additional notes. This is where you’ll jot down any good-to-know information regarding your lead or converted lead. Having an additional notes section will help you and your team by providing any additional information you need to know about your lead/new patient, so don’t leave this section out!
The Importance of Organizing Your Leads
As you can see, creating an all-encompassing document where you have all the necessary information of your leads can alleviate a lot of stress when it comes time to follow-up with them and schedule appointments.
It’s also an incredibly helpful tool to reference, especially when your leads are incommunicative. Say for instance, a lead you found at your local coffee shop doesn’t answer and never scheduled an appointment. Luckily, you’ve made a note of where you found your lead. This means that chances are you’ll see them at that same location again when you’re there next.
Having this master document of leads, you can then reference when it was you tried to reach them and if you were to bump into them, you can speak to them in person about all the steps you took to reach them. If their response is something along the lines of “I was just so busy,” then you can go ahead and schedule their appointment right there and then.
The moral of the story is this: Having an organized, master document of leads is the key to have an effective follow-up strategy so that nothing slips through the cracks, no opportunities are missed, and you know exactly where your leads are on their journey to becoming a loyal patient.
