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MARKETER’S
GUIDE TO
Qualifying, Routing,
and Scoring Inbound
Calls to Optimize Sales
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.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
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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.
ow leads get assigned: This may also vary from
H
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.
Pre-Call
Marketing
Drives
Phone
Leads
Step 1
Qualify
Step 2
Route
Step 3
Score
Post-Call
Optimize
Marketing
for What
Works
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 3
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.
Pre-Call
Marketing
Drives
Phone
Leads
Step 1
Qualify
Step 2
Route
Step 3
Score
Post-Call
Optimize
Marketing
for What
Works
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.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 4
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.
8%
19%
52%
21%
2013 Call Mix
Service / directions / other basic info calls
Short calls
High-quality calls, new leads
Accidental calls
Figure 1:Inbound call mix shows that only 19% are considered high value.1
IVRs Are Multi‑Purpose
Reengage 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.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
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Step 1: Qualify Incoming Callers Before Passing to Sales
IVRs Can Also Assist With More Complex
Call Qualification
Filtering 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
CASE STUDY
DialogTech Helps
Sq1 Increase Calls by
75% for Global HVAC
Manufacturer
Agency 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:
■■
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 Reports
IVR 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.
■■
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 & Analytics
Sq1
Figure 2:Analyzing abandon rates can help you understand IVR
effectiveness and where improvements can be made.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 6
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.
Pre-Call
Marketing
Drives
Phone
Leads
Step 1
Qualify
Step 2
Route
Step 3
Score
Post-Call
Optimize
Marketing
for What
Works
Route Calls to Specific Agents or Groups of Agents
A 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,
Multi-agent ringing: Ring several agents’ phone
work, and cell phone simultaneously to ensure
numbers at the same time. The first agent who
that the call is answered.
answers gets the call, even if they are working
Specific ring order: Ring an agent’s phones in
from home.
a specific order, such as work phone first, cell
■■
■■
■■
Top performing agents: Ensure your
phone second, home phone third, etc.
best‑performing agents receive the most
Sequential agent ringing: Ring multiple agents
calls by routing a higher percentage to them.
in a pre-determined order, based on who is
currently available to speak.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 7
Step 2: Route Incoming Callers Optimally to Increase Sales
Route Calls Based on Schedules
and Locations
Does 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:
■■
Route Calls Based on Marketing Source
You can route calls from different marketing sources
individually by incorporating unique call tracking numbers
(more on call tracking later). Options include routing
calls by:
■■
online, or mobile ads.
Business hours: Route calls based on when you
are open for business, or send to a specific agent
■■
IVR for qualification, a specific agent, or even
Weekends: If you have agents available over the
a voicemail box.
weekend, direct incoming calls to them, or capture
calls with a custom message or voicemail box.
■■
■■
company, callers can be transferred to the most
experience a higher volume of calls during holidays;
appropriate person or team.
if so, call routing can ensure agents are reached
■■
■■
Marketing campaign: If you have targeted
marketing campaigns running for multiple
Time zones: If you have offices in multiple time
products or services, route inbound calls
zones, callers can be routed to the location nearest
to agents based on their expertise for
them or the one currently open.
■■
Web page: If you have pages on your website
dedicated to a specific product or part of your
Holidays: Depending on your business, you may
wherever they are.
Search keyword: Depending on the keyword
searched online, callers can be routed to an
or even a voicemail box during off hours.
■■
Ad: Route inbound calls from different offline,
each campaign.
Customer location: You can route callers based
on their geographic location, whether they are
■■
Or any other source driving calls to your business.
calling from a mobile or landline phone.
The Mobile Office
BYOD 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.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 8
Step 2: Route Incoming Callers Optimally to Increase Sales
Understand Call Routing Effectiveness
With Web-Based Reports
Use Geo‑Location to Route
Calls Based on a Caller’s
Location
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.
Smartphones 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.
Figure 3:Reports on call activity from your campaigns can help you
determine best strategies for routing calls.
CASE STUDY
Sleep Train Uses DialogTech IVRs and
Store Locator to Treat 2 Million Callers Right
Sleep 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 Bradley
Telecommunications Manager
Sleep Train
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 9
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.
Pre-Call
Marketing
Drives
Phone
Leads
Step 1
Qualify
Step 2
Route
Step 3
Score
Post-Call
Optimize
Marketing
for What
Works
What Does It Mean to Score Callers?
Score Call Quality By Monitoring Duration
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.
The 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.
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.
Figure 4:Call duration reporting offers insight into what campaigns
are working.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 10
Step 3: Determine Caller, Agent, and Campaign Scoring
Keyword Spotting for Automated
Quality Scoring
The 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.
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 Dean
CEO
BitCadet
Figure 5:Keyword spotting reports can score agent and call quality
for you.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 11
Step 3: Determine Caller, Agent, and Campaign Scoring
Call Recording for Proving Call Value
Hearing 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 Cycle
At 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 Spotting
Score 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.
■■
Figure 6:CRM integration allows you to track phone leads through the
entire sales funnel.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 12
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.
Pre-Call
Marketing
Drives
Phone
Leads
Step 1
Qualify
Step 2
Route
Step 3
Score
Post-Call
Optimize
Marketing
for What
Works
Pinpoint Where Callers Originate
Integrate with the Applications You Use
If 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.
Integrating 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.
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.
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 13
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 Steps
Call 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, 2014
2. BIA/Kelsey Local Commerce MonitorTM (LCM), Q3 2013
3. Gartner report on Bring Your Own Device, May 2013
Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales
| 14
About DialogTech
DialogTech 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 Us
DialogTech, Inc.
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606
dialogtech.com
866.837.6521
twitter.com/dialogtech
facebook.com/dialogtech
DialogTech, DialogTech logo and Voice360 are trademarks
of DialogTech. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
© 2015 DialogTech