Manage Leads

Overview

Qualified leads are an incredibly valuable resource. ZiftONE enables visibility and tracking across the lead lifecycle. This capability allows you to automate lead distribution and easily track ongoing partner interactions with prospects, including marketing touches and pipeline activities, using real-time updates. Channel partners receive leads either via intelligent email workflows or directly within their familiar CRM and SFA systems. You can track the progress of distributed leads across the entire sales cycle all the way through to close to see the amount of revenue each lead generates. Because of this lead tracking, you may need to change a lead's status.

Suppliers may require Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as an email or phone number to create a lead. When the option is enabled not to require PII, it does not remove any PII that the partner chooses to include on the Lead.

In this article, we explain functions related to managing leads in ZiftONE, including registering leads, creating opportunities, exporting lead lists, and assigning leads to sales reps.

Before You Begin

Understand the three different types of leads that can be generated in ZiftONE on our About Leads page.

Contents

Click   to expand each section.

All Leads View

The All Leads area of the partner portal presents the full list of your marketing-generated leads, supplier-distributed leads, and registered leads. You can use the left-hand sidebar to search and filter to find relevant leads.

When looking for leads using the search field, you can search by information such as First Name, Last Name, Email, Company Name, State, Country, Custom Fields from your supplier, and by the Description/Notes that have been pulled through either by the Contact form or your CRM connection.

Below is an example of the search and filter sidebar:

All_Leads_Search.png

Find Your Distributed Leads

There are three primary places to find your supplier-provided leads.

Lead Distribution area in ZiftONE

When lead distribution is turned on, you will have an additional option on your portal menu. Distributed Leads is where you can export, search, or filter the leads distributed to you by your supplier. Select the hyperlinked name of a lead to display its details and accept or reject it. Both options may open a new window where you can provide feedback, explain your decision, or pass the lead on to another user within your partner account or to another partner.

Email

Check your email for notifications of leads. Your supplier may send leads that can be accepted or rejected and you will receive a Lead Notification email when a new lead is distributed to you.

Messages area in ZiftONE

Click portal_settings_icon.png> Messages, in the top navigation of ZiftONE, to find messages about your leads.

Leads that have not yet been accepted or rejected appear in ZiftONE as messages. Select New Lead to see the details of the lead. You can change the status, register the lead, assign it to a partner user or sales rep, or sync it with your CRM.

  • Greyed-out messages have been read.
  • The number of unread messages in your inbox appears next to Messages label in your profile menu. 

Accept and Reject Distributed Leads

Accepting a lead simply means that you intend to follow it up. You can reject a lead for a variety of reasons such as not having enough information to enable follow-up or the lead being sent to the wrong dealer.

The workflow decided by your supplier will determine where you accept or reject leads - these are options are available in ZiftONE:

  • From a Lead Notification email in your inbox
  • From a message in Messages - filter the list to show Message Type of Distributed Lead if required
  • From the Distributed Leads page in ZiftONE

    From the list of distributed leads, click on the name of the lead to open it, then click Accept or Reject. Both options may open a new window where you can provide feedback, explain your decision, or pass the lead on to another unit or partner.

  • Directly from the CRM, if you have an integration

In addition, administrators can specify that all leads distributed from your supplier should be accepted automatically, by enabling Auto-Accept in Settings > Lead Management. For more information, see Lead Management.

Notes

  • Auto-Accept should ONLY be used for partners with CRM integrations.
  • If you are using SalesLink CRM, all leads would push to CRM regardless of the selection for Auto-Accept.

Register Contacts As Leads

Register an Existing Contact as a Lead

You can register a contact with a supplier as a lead. Remember the difference between a lead and contact is the amount of interaction with marketing materials (see About Contacts and Leads).

Here are some tips about contact registration:

  • If the data is required by your supplier, registration will not be processed until all the fields are completed.
  • A contact can be registered more than once either via registration rules or manually.
  • You can register a contact as a lead from Contacts > Selected Contact.
  • You can update a registered lead with a status via Contacts or Leads > Registered Leads > Update Status.

To register a contact as a lead, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
  2. Select a linked contact name from the list.
  3. On the contact details page, click Register as Lead.
  4. Complete the lead registration form. Suppliers design the lead registration forms so the content is unique to each partner. Some fields may be required. The lead will not be registered until all required fields are completed.
  5. Click Register.

Register a New Contact as a Lead

When creating a new contact in your Partner Portal, you can also register them as a new lead with your supplier in a few simple steps:

  1. Navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
  2. On the top left-hand corner, click the Add Contacts dropdown.
  3. Select Add Contact.
  4. Complete the form for your new contact.
    • At the bottom of the form, check the checkbox labeled Register as a lead with your supplier.
  5. Click Save. This new contact will now appear under your Contacts and under Registered Leads.

Manually Register a New Lead

You can register a new lead via the Leads page in your portal. Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Leads or Registered Leads page in your portal. 
  2. Click Register New Lead > New Lead.
  3. Complete the Lead Registration form for your new lead.
  4. Click Register.
    • This new contact will now appear under your Contacts and under Registered Leads.
    • The system will check to see if there are any duplicate contacts or leads matching the information you provided.
      • If the provided email address is a duplicate, the system will pull in the existing contact information for the new lead.
      • If the lead information already exists, the system may block your request to create the new lead. Questions regarding this issue can be directed to your supplier point of contact.

Here are some tips about lead registration:

  • If the data is required by your supplier, you will not be able to complete the registration until all the fields are completed.
  • You can update a registered lead with a status via Contacts or Leads > Registered Leads > Update Status.

Import Registered Leads in Bulk

You can import a file detailing multiple Registered Leads into your portal:

  1. Navigate to the Leads or Registered Leads page in your portal. 
  2. Click Register New Lead > File Import.
  3. Click Upload and select the file that contains the leads.

    These file formats are supported: XLSX (maximum size 1MB), and XLS, TXT, or CSV (maximum size 5MB).

    Use a semi-colon to separate multiple values for a data field.

    You can click Download a template to download a sample file for the import, which gives guidance on the information to be provided, including any accepted values that your supplier has set up for data fields.

  4. If applicable, confirm the general Opt-in Authorization settings for the new leads/contacts.
  5. Click Import.

    portal_upload_leads.png

  6. Map the header columns to ZiftONE fields, to confirm which lead field in your platform's lead records should be populated with the values from each field in the upload file.

    If a column is named the same as a ZiftONE lead field (eg. Email), ZiftONE will add a suggested mapping automatically. You can change it if required.

    Columns with non-standard names have Ignore Column set as a default - they won't be included. You can choose to include the field in the import by selecting a mapping to a field (standard or custom contact field). 

    portal_upload_leads_map_fields.png

  7. Click Upload Leads. The leads are imported. If there is an error in the upload file (for example, missing required data for a lead), you will receive a link to the file with the errors, which you can correct and re-import.

Edit Registered Leads After Submission

Once you’ve registered a lead, certain lead fields will remain editable even after registration. Access to these editable fields depends on your supplier’s settings. For more information, please contact your supplier point of contact.

Edit_Lead_Fields.png

  1. Navigate to Contacts or Leads > Registered Leads.
  2. Click on the Name of the lead you want to edit.
  3. Under Additional Information, click Edit Lead Fields.

Create Opportunities on Leads

If your supplier has opportunities enabled, you can create opportunities from leads in ZiftONE. This notifies the supplier that you are working with a particular company and should receive compensation for it.

Opportunity reporting must be active. See Set up Opportunity Reporting for more.

To create an opportunity from a lead and report it to a supplier, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Contacts or Leads > Distributed Leads or Contacts or Leads > Registered Leads.
  2. Find the lead you want to create an opportunity for by searching for keywords or filtering.
  3. Click the name of the lead to open the lead details view.
  4. If it is not already a lead, select New Opportunity.
    • If you already have an opportunity for the lead, select Update Status to move the lead through different phases of the sales pipeline including Qualified.
  5. You can create multiple opportunities for any lead. You can assign the following opportunity statuses:
    • Prospecting (10%)
    • Needs Analysis (20%)
    • Value Proposition (50%)
    • Id. Decision Makers (60%)
    • Perception Analysis (70%)
    • Proposal/Price Quote (75%)
    • Negotiation/Review (90%)
    • Closed Won (100%)
    • Closed Lost
  6. Opportunities can automatically be reported to a supplier. The supplier can run the Opportunity Details summary to get a list of all the Opportunities you have shared with them.

Export Leads

To export a list of distributed or registered leads, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Distributed Leads or Registered Leads page.
  2. Click the Export button.
  3. In Export Contacts, select the frequency with which to send the email:
    • Send Now - a one off, immediate export
    • Send Daily
    • Send Weekly
    • Send Monthly
  4. Click Export Contacts. The report is sent to your My Downloads area, and will be sent with the specified frequency if you selected something other than Send Now.

Update Lead Status or Lead Information

You can update the status of the lead to move it through the sales pipeline. Additionally, you can offer feedback to your supplier about a lead.

To change lead status and information, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Distributed Leads or Registered Leads page.
  2. Click the name of the lead you want to update. This opens the lead details view.
  3. Click Update Status or Lead Feedback.
    • In Update Lead Status, you can change the status to Open, Contacted, Nurture, Unqualified/Invalid, or Qualified. Updating the status to Unqualified/Invalid or Qualified essentially closes the lead, so leaving feedback is no longer an option.
    • From Lead Feedback, you can provide additional information about this lead or assign it to a partner user or sales rep under the Assign Lead Owner field. You can't provide feedback for a lead whose status is Unqualified/Invalid or Qualified.

Notes:

  • If you have a CRM integration, you will not have the ability to update the lead status via ZiftONE. Lead status updates should be executed within your connected CRM system.
  • Not all partner accounts will have the ability to provide Lead Feedback. This is set up by your supplier.

Add New Deal Information

You can add New Deal information for the lead to move it through the sales pipeline.  

To add Deal information, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Contacts > Distributed Leads, Leads > All Leads, Leads > Distributed Leads, or Leads > Registered Leads.
  2. Click the name of the lead you want to update. This opens the lead details view.
  3. Click New Deal.
  4. From New Deal, you can select the Deal Type. 
  5. In the New Deal modal, complete the information about the Deal

Upload Leads to a Custom Activity

Custom Activities can be configured for non-digital tactics executed outside your portal. For example, a partner or provider may host a webinar, golf outing, or other in-person events that generate leads. In this article, learn how to upload leads in bulk or individually to a custom activity.

Uploading leads allows you to do the following:

  • Demonstrate Proof of Performance to the supplier.
  • Create and score leads generated from non-digital tactics.
  • Associate non-digital lead activities (score, timeline, etc.) with contact records in ZiftONE.
  • Set a lead status for those leads generated from non-digital tactics.
  • Register leads generated from non-digital tactics.
  • Create and Update opportunities for those leads generated from non-digital tactics.
  • If lead settings allow, share lead and opportunity data with the supplier.

You can directly upload leads to a custom activity. This is helpful if you have been to an event and have several names of people or businesses to add as leads.

To upload leads to a custom activity, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Campaigns > My Campaigns.
  2. Click the name of the campaign to which you want to add a lead. This opens the campaign details view for this campaign.
  3. Click the name of an activity.
  4. Upload leads in one of these ways:
    • If you are adding a large number of leads from a CSV file, click Upload Leads.
      1. Browse to select the file to import that has the leads.
      2. Click Upload.
    • If you are adding an individual lead, click Add Lead.
      1. Complete the lead information in the pop-up window.
      2. Click Save.

Assign Leads

You can assign leads to partner users or sales reps who are responsible for following up with the lead and moving it through the sales pipeline.

Marketing Leads

To assign marketing leads to a partner user or sales rep, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Contacts page.
  2. Click the name of the contact you want to assign. This opens the contact details view.
  3. Under Leads for this Contact, click the name of the campaign that contains the lead. This opens the lead detail view.
  4. Click the name of the lead you’d like to assign. This opens the lead detail view.
  5. Click Assign.
  6. Choose a partner user or sales rep from the dropdown menu.
  7. Click Assign.

Distributed or Partner User-Created (Registered) Leads

To assign distributed or registered leads to a partner user or sales rep, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Distributed Leads or Registered Leads page.
  2. Click the name of the lead you want to assign. This opens the lead detail view.
  3. Click Assign.
  4. Choose a partner user or a sales rep from the dropdown menu.
  5. Click Assign. 

 

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