Close for Sales

Your Leads

Your leads are those with your name in the “Sales – Owner” custom field. These are the only leads you should be calling. If another name is in that field, or that field is blank, do not call or email that lead.

Keeping Close updated

Close is used by all departments within FareHarbor. It also contains a huge amount of information that no single person can keep updated. You know your leads better than anyone; it is therefore very important to keep your leads fully updated at all times.

Summary of things to keep up to date:

• Account Tier
• Lead Status
• Contact information (and RE-ORDER)
• Current Reservation Software
• ALL THE THINGS

Update Account Tier

Every single one of your leads (with the exception of Web Developer leads) should have an Account Tier. Account Tier is how we qualify and prioritize leads. Use all the information available to you, including Organic Search, TA # of Reviews, the company’s website, and any information gathered from past conversations to make an educated guess about the size of the company and adjust the Account Tier accordingly. You should re-evaluate the Account Tier of every lead that is newly assigned to you; do not just assume that what is listed is correct

Update Lead Status

Goes without saying. List of lead statuses.

Update Contact information (and RE-ORDER)

• If you find a new contact, ENTER IT.
• If you find out someone is deceased or has left the company, mark it with xxx in front of their name and then move the name to the bottom of the list of names so someone does not accidentally contact them.
• Enter new phone numbers and email addresses.
• Own Close and update anything on any lead you call with (even if you’re moving fast on a ripmaster)

Example of a no-no. Come on Mark! Notice how he spoke with the owner, but didn’t update the name.

Update “Current Reservation Software”

If the current reservation software is different, mark the new one, and then also make sure you post the old software in the description and estimate when you think it might have been switched.

Update ALL THE THINGS

Just own Close. Be thorough and update the lead with any new information you learn, such as changes in Organic Search or TA # of Reviews.

• CNM: Call No Message (called, but hang up before leaving a voicemail)
• MSG: When you leave a voicemail

• SPK: Logged after you speak with someone at the company

  ALSO REQUIRED FOR SPK:

  • Name of person you spoke with
  • Their position / role with the company
  • Are they the correct person to speak with?
  • Who is the correct person to speak with? What is that person’s title?
  • Tiering information: what is their seasonality, best seller items, are they resold by affiliates, capacity of the tours, etc.
  • When they told you to follow up / when is decision maker usually in
  • What is the best way to reach them
  • Did they show interest
  • Any other personal notes (i.e. do they have kids, a dog, how was the soccer game? etc) – ways to humanize yourself

Suggested Columns

Company | Status | Account Tier | Current Res Software | Organic Search | Sales – Notes | Sales – Owner| TA Number of Reviews | Latest Sent Email | Email Last Opened | Latest Call Date | Latest Call Note

Basic Smart Views for AEs

• Draft Emails

  email(status:draft user:me)

• No Shows

  "custom.Sales - Owner":me lead_status:"Demo No-Show"

• Demoed Companies

  "custom.Sales - Owner":me lead_status:Demoed sort:-"Sales - Demo Date" not latest_call_created:today

  Sort by the “Sales – Demo Date” custom field and filter by companies not called today (feel free to remove or copy)

• Closed & OB

  "custom.Sales - Owner":me lead_status:"Closed & OnboardING"

• Full Go Live – this will show you all of the leads in your pipeline

  (lead_status:"Wait for Training" OR lead_status:"Trained - Wait for Live" OR lead_status:"Closed & OnboardING") "custom.Sales - Owner":me sort:"OB 05 Expected live date"

• Email Last Opened

  "custom.Sales - Owner":me AND (NOT lead_status:"Live Customer") sort:-email_opened

How to Avoid Tasks for Calls

The best way to avoid tasks for calls is to create a method for call frequency. This allows the AE to create Smart Views for each frequency and to sort by latest call to see which companies are outside the range. Below are suggested frequencies and examples of what each is used for:

• Calls Every 2 Days – companies where the decision maker has not been spoken to yet, or a company that rarely answers the phone

• Calls Every 7 Days – company that is a great fit and little contact has been made, or a company that has been previously demoed and needs follow up, or a company that needs to be kept warm

• Calls Every 14 Days – company that is a great fit and was a very hard no, company that needs a few weeks when their season slows down, company that is a good fit (not great) but that the AE wants to stay in contact with

• Calls Every 30 Days – company that was a super hard no, but would ultimately be good, or a company that for whatever reason does not like FareHarbor or does not want to use FareHarbor, but believe will eventually close

Add a “Sales – Note” to each lead after speaking to them with a call frequency using Initials and the number (ex. CR7 for Calls Every 7 Days). Then the following Smart View can be used:

"custom.Sales - Owner":me AND ("custom.Sales - Notes":CR7) not latest_call_created < "7 days ago" sort:latest_call

Lead Prioritization

Along with call frequency, AE’s can use Account Tier to prioritize the size of their leads. To get even greater detail with prioritization, it is suggested to mark all leads being worked with A, B, C, or D (see visual below).

• A Leads – relatively easy to close, perfect fits, will make a lot of money (ex. Large boat tour operator that is on Trekksoft, not in their season, and looking at softwares)
• B Leads – relatively easy to close, great fits, will make some money OR not as easy to close, but will make a lot of money (ex. Walking tour that does 50% of their bookings online and is using a Wordpress plugin)
• C Leads – leads that are very hard to close and will make a lot of money OR leads that are hard to close and will make money OR leads that or medium difficult to close and will make money (ex. Small marina that has 6 pontoon boats OR very large skydive operation that takes 90% online booking and wants advanced weight balancing i.e. a feature we don’t have)
• D Leads – leads that are really hard to close and will make money (think longer term projects) (ex. Museum, large organization with numerous resellers, franchise)

Add a “Sales – Note” to each lead after speaking to them with a prioritization using the letters or another format (ex. A, B, C, D). Then the following Smart View can be used:

"custom.Sales - Owner":"me" AND ("custom.Sales - Notes":A) sort:latest_call

Combined with call frequency, AE’s can create Smart Views for each lead prioritization (A, B, C, D) and use the “Sales – Notes” column to see the call frequency. Note that in the below example, T1 is used rather than A.

Smart View Library

Here is the link to the library.

Overview: This is a Close Smart View library for AEs to crowdsource, add, and share Smart Views.

Things to consider:

• Only add Smart Views that will be applicable to everyone. If you have a specific Sales – Notes tagging system, please do not add those Smart Views in the library.

• Double-check that the Smart View you are adding does not already exist on the sheet.

• Add your smartview to the proper tab. Categories are as follows:

  • General Lead Pool Structure
  • Follow-up!
  • Lead Mining
  • Communication per tier
  • Competitors
  • Inter-Departmental

Additional information regarding custom activities

Important Note: Try to think about a lead’s last activity instead of their status.

Custom activity specifics

General clarification

Moving forward, we will make and look up smart views based on confidence levels, opportunities, and more. It will not matter if a company’s latest activity is listed as Demo No-Show or Demo – Lost.

Eventually, we could look at Potential custom activities specifically to establish past activities. (For example, to determine if a lead has ever been demoed.)

If you would normally change the status after speaking to a prospect, apply the same logic but add a custom activity instead of changing the status. (Reverting the status to Potential is an exception! It is entirely redundant.)

Example scenario 1

You get a new lead in your lead pool. The latest activity is Demo No-Show. You speak to the prospect and they agree now is not a good time, but they might be interested in the future.

Instead of setting it back to Potential, simply update the current Demo No-show activity based on the information you have.

Example scenario 2

You speak with a prospect whose latest custom activity is Demoed – Lost. You agree that another demo could be a good idea and set up a time.

In this case, you would add a new Demo Landed custom activity.

Hopefully, this information clarifies and helps with custom activities! If not, please reach out to your manager or Morten and they can advise accordingly.

See Sales Submission Forms for links to update relationships across your leads.

Why do we use Merged Leads in Close?

Merged Leads have allowed FareHarbor to redefine what a “Client” is to our company. In the new definitions, a single Lead represents an entire organization with unified high-level decision-making authority. This is represented through multiple objects, such as Dashboards, URLs, Locations, FHSites – And more as our business expands. A Lead can encompass various business types or models managed within this top-line relationship, even if there are multiple points of contact (POCs) for different aspects of the business. This structure also allows for a complete history of a single Client, including Business Ended, Partner/Affiliate revenue, or future Charter Clients.
Note: Only Merged Leads will be Tiered at the same level of service.

Why do we use Linked Organizations in Close?

Linked Organizations represent structured groups of two or more organizations with separate high-level decision-making, communications, and service levels.
Note: Linked Organizations will NOT be Tiered at the same level of service.

Charter clients can only be linked by one or more of these defined business relationships:

• Franchise: An established brand (Franchisor) grants individual entrepreneurs (Franchisees) the right to operate their own location(s) using the brand’s name, business model, and support systems in exchange for fees and royalties. Often represented in a single website linking to each location. Each location operates a unique dashboard, but adheres to the company’s established standards and practices.

• Shared Corporate Owner (Parent / Holding / Umbrella / Portfolio Company): Distinct brands operate independently under an established shared Corporate Owner or Holding Company who oversees their operations and strategic direction while providing financial resources, governance, and administrative support.

• Shared Web Services/Consultant: Companies that provide specialized services or support to clients, such as acting as a liaison to FareHarbor clients, without holding ownership or influencing decision-making. This relationship focuses on delivering specific expertise, resources, or tools to enhance the client’s operations while allowing them to maintain complete control over their business strategies and decisions.

• Association: Indicates independently operated companies affiliated with a larger organization(s), such as an industry federation or a collective brand, to benefit from shared standards, resources, and recognition while maintaining their unique operations and autonomy. This relationship leverages the collective reputation, support, and governance of the larger entity without imposing the more stringent control typically seen in franchise or corporate ownership models.

Business ended

If you suspect a lead is not operating anymore, be sure to set a task for Lead Generation so we can double-check. Often times the website will be live on another URL or the company will still be active on other platforms like social media. If Lead Generation confirms that the company doesn’t operate anymore, they will change the status to “Business ended” and remove it from your lead pool.

Email bounce backs

If you send an email and it bounces back, please set a task for Lead Generation. They will make sure the email is removed so we don’t keep sending to emails to bad addresses, and they can help find the correct email address.

Better contact information

Utilize Lead Generation when you are working large companies! Our entire Lead Generation team is excellent at digging up better contact information. If you are hitting a roadblock, set a task. Or, if a phone number is dead or not working, set a task.

Note: Before you set a task for better contact information, MAKE SURE you’ve tried ALL emails and phone numbers listed.

• Ask a Sales Manager for approval and be ready to explain why you need this additional phone number. Additional phone numbers should only be requested if you are working at least 100 leads in that country.
• Check this document to see if the country that you’re requesting is on the list

• If it’s on that list, reach out to support@close.com and request a number from that country. They will get back to you and set it up.

  Note: Close cannot set up certain counties without this information. If you request a number and they respond with this information, tell a Sales Manager the country so that we can update this doc.

  Countries that need an address:

  • The Netherlands (We have submitted our address to Close, so tell them to check our account and set you up if they ask for it again)

• Update your email signatures as needed