Lead pools

A lead pool is a shared waiting list of leads that nobody owns yet. A web form can send its enquiries there, and anyone can hand a lead back to it. Salespeople claim the leads they will follow up, and a lead left without activity can go back to the pool on its own, so no enquiry sits forgotten with someone who is too busy.

Where to find it

All of the company’s pools are listed in two places, each with New lead pool and a pencil button to edit a pool:

• System settings › Web forms, in the Lead pools part between Lead rules and Web forms — for administrators, who set up the web forms and the lead rules there too;
• the Leads list’s ⋯ menu › Manage lead pools, which opens the same list in a panel — for anyone whose role may list lead pools.

The list shows each pool’s Name, Return idle leads after and Unclaimed count. Select a pool’s name to open its page. You can also open a pool’s page from the Lead Pool column of the Leads list, the Source section of a lead’s page, or Unclaimed leads in pool in your To do, which appears while a pool you can see has leads waiting.

The pool’s page sits under Leads in the breadcrumb. It shows the pool’s Details (Name, Return idle leads after and Remark), its Unclaimed leads and, at the foot, its History.

Create a lead pool

1. Open System settings › Web forms, or the Leads list’s ⋯ menu › Manage lead pools.
2. Select New lead pool.
3. Give the pool a Name, such as the channel or area it serves.
4. Optionally set Return idle leads after (see below) and a Remark saying what the pool is for.
5. Select Create lead pool.

While you set up a web form, New pool beside its Lead pool list does the same and chooses the new pool for the form. Two people can each have a pool of the same name, but you cannot create two with the same name yourself.

How a lead moves through a pool

1. A lead arrives unclaimed — from a web form whose Leads go to is A lead pool, or because someone returned it. It has no owner and is listed under Unclaimed leads with the time it went In the pool since.
2. Someone claims it. It becomes theirs, as if it had been assigned to them, and counts toward the company’s holding cap.
3. It goes back to the pool when its owner returns it, when it stays idle past the pool’s return rule, or when its owner is deactivated.
4. It leaves the round when it is converted or disqualified. Only open leads — New, Contacted and Qualified — go back to a pool.

Claim leads

1. Open the pool’s page.
2. Under Unclaimed leads, tick the leads you will follow up — up to 50 at a time.
3. Select Claim. The button shows how many you ticked.

The message that follows says how many you claimed. A lead someone else claimed a moment before you is left out and counted as taken by someone else first. If your company has a holding cap, the message also says how many open leads you hold and the company’s limit, and the claim stops at that limit.

Return leads to a pool

1. On the Leads list, tick the leads to hand back.
2. Select Return to pool.
3. A lead that came from a pool goes back to that pool. For the others, choose a pool under Pool for leads that came from none, or leave Only leads that came from a pool to return only those.
4. Confirm. The message says how many leads went back.

Only leads you may edit are returned. Each one becomes unclaimed again, for anyone who can see the pool to claim.

Return idle leads automatically

1. Select the pencil button on the pool’s row in the pool list, or open the pool’s page and select Edit.
2. Set Return idle leads after to a number of days between 2 and 365, or leave it empty for Never.
3. Select Save.

Once a day easySales checks every open lead that was claimed from the pool:

• The lead is idle from its claim or its latest linked activity, whichever is later. A lead with an open task or a future event linked to it is never idle, however long ago it was touched.
• After the number of days less one, its owner is told that it goes back to its pool tomorrow. Logging a call, a note or any other activity on the lead starts the count again.
• On the day itself, it goes back to the pool, unclaimed, and the change is in the lead’s history.

The first time you turn the rule on, leads that are already idle are warned on the first daily check and go back on the next, never without a day’s warning. A lead that was only tagged with the pool, and never claimed from it, is never sent there by the rule.

When someone is deactivated, every open lead they claimed from a pool goes back to that pool at the next daily check, whatever the pool’s rule.

Rules to know

• Most open leads one person may hold, in System settings › Web forms › Lead rules, caps claims for everyone and is checked again at each claim. 0 means no limit.
• Unclaimed leads have no owner, so they are not in anyone’s My leads and nobody gets a follow-up reminder for them until they are claimed.
• Deactivate lead pool in the ··· menu asks you to confirm with Deactivate. Leads that reference it keep the link. A web form that sent leads to it sends them to the person named on the form instead.
• A lead belongs to at most one lead pool at a time.

Permissions

To see the pool list you need Lead Pool List, and to create a pool Add and Edit. To open a pool you need Lead Pool View: with All records you see every pool, with Own records only the pools you created. Edit changes the pool’s details and its return rule, and Delete deactivates it; with Own records only you edit only the pools you created. To see and claim its unclaimed leads you also need Lead List and Edit; returning leads needs Lead Edit on each lead. The holding cap and the web forms need the Manage web forms and lead rules control.

Why it works this way

Pull instead of push. A manager does not have to share out every enquiry. Salespeople claim the leads they are best placed to win — their area, their language, their industry — and the rest stay visible to the team.

The holding cap keeps claiming fair. Without it, the fastest person could take every new lead and follow up none. With it, each person works a manageable number before claiming more.

Idle leads come back, with a day’s warning. A new enquiry goes cold quickly. Returning untouched leads lets a colleague pick them up, and the warning gives the owner one more day to log the call they meant to make.

Work faster

• Start from the To do. Unclaimed leads in pool opens the pool with its count, so you see new leads as soon as they arrive.
• Log every touch on the lead. Calls, notes, tasks and events linked to the lead keep it yours; see Activities.
• Plan the next step. An open task or a future event on the lead stops it being returned while you wait for the customer.
• Send a website form straight into a pool. See Web forms.

Examples

Claiming after a show. The pool “Home Show enquiries” holds 40 unclaimed leads from a web form. Lim & Co’s Most open leads one person may hold is 30. Mei Tan holds 26 open leads, ticks 6 and selects Claim 6. The message says 4 of 6 were claimed, and that Mei holds 30 open leads against the company’s 30. That afternoon Mei converts two of them and claims two more.

An idle lead goes back. The pool’s Return idle leads after is 7. Daniel Koh claims a lead on Monday 3 March and logs nothing. On Sunday 9 March, after six idle days, Daniel is told that it goes back to its pool tomorrow. Nobody touches it, and on Monday 10 March it is unclaimed again; Siti Nadia claims it that morning.

Handing leads back before leave. Before two weeks of leave, Siti ticks the five open leads that came from the pool and selects Return to pool. They go back to “Home Show enquiries” for the others to claim.

Common questions

• How do I create a lead pool? Select New lead pool in System settings › Web forms, or in the Leads list’s ⋯ menu › Manage lead pools. You need Lead Pool Add and Edit.
• Where is the list of all lead pools? In System settings › Web forms under Lead pools, and in the Leads list’s ⋯ menu › Manage lead pools.
• Where do I set how many leads one person may hold? In System settings › Web forms, under Lead rules: Most open leads one person may hold.
• Where do I set how long before an idle lead goes back? Edit the pool — the pencil button in the pool list, or Edit on its page — and set Return idle leads after.
• Why could I claim only some of the leads I ticked? Someone claimed the others first, or you reached the company’s holding cap. The message after Claim says which.
• Does logging a note stop a lead being returned? Yes. Any activity linked to the lead starts the count again, and an open task or a future event stops it while it is planned.
• What happens to the leads of someone who leaves? When they are deactivated, the open leads they claimed from a pool go back to it at the next daily check.
• Why do I not see the Unclaimed leads section? You need Lead List and Edit as well as Lead Pool View.

Related

• Web forms
• Leads
• Campaigns
• Convert a lead