Every enquiry called back fast, and the right ones sent to sales

The challenge

The platform helped Australian businesses with large workforces pay staff correctly under awards. It handled the award rules for things like overtime, weekends, and late nights, alongside scheduling and timesheets. That made it a strong fit for industries such as trades, healthcare, aged care, and labour hire.

As Google Ads and display campaigns grew, the business got more enquiries, and more of them came from people it didn’t know, rather than through referrals. Some were a great fit. Others were too small, weren’t covered by awards, or were just asking questions.

Every enquiry went straight to the sales team of three, who had to work out which ones were worth their time. There was no shared view of what a good lead looked like, and no agreed way to share leads out. Bigger deals were more attractive to work on, so smaller enquiries could wait, and how leads were divided became a source of friction.

My approach

I wanted to take qualification off the sales team’s plate and make the handoff to sales predictable. That meant agreeing who the business wanted to work with first, then building the process and the system around it.

I worked with the sales and marketing managers to define a qualified lead:

• A registered Australian business, with an ABN
• About 20 or more monthly active users, our measure of staff on the platform
• Staff covered by awards, so the platform solved a real problem for them
• A need in the near future, and a wish to speak with sales rather than just ask a question

What I built

A qualification call within minutes. We brought in a marketing and sales coordinator, who sat in the marketing team and called every new enquiry. We set a target to call every enquiry that came in during business hours within about 15 minutes. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that companies that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as those that waited even an hour longer. On the call, the coordinator checked the enquiry against the criteria and found out what the business needed.

Automatic routing in HubSpot. Qualified leads were assigned to a salesperson automatically in HubSpot, based on calendar availability. We connected each salesperson’s calendar to HubSpot, and the prospect then booked their next call with that salesperson. This replaced the back-and-forth over who should take which lead.

Disqualification reasons. When a lead didn’t meet the criteria, the coordinator recorded why, such as too few staff, no ABN, or no need right now. These were kept separate from lost reasons, which applied later, once sales had worked a deal. I also reported on lost reasons, and one came up again and again: a missing integration with a popular accounting platform. I shared that pattern with management so it could be weighed up against the product roadmap.

Sales reporting. I built HubSpot dashboards showing how many leads each salesperson had, how quickly they followed up, and the size and value of each opportunity.

Results

• Every enquiry got a fast first call. Business-hours enquiries were called within about 15 minutes, while the prospect still had the problem in mind.
• Sales spent less time sorting leads. The coordinator handled the first call, so the sales team only spoke with businesses that met the criteria and wanted a conversation.
• Leads were shared fairly and predictably. Routing was automatic, so there was less decision-making and less friction over who took what.
• The business learned why leads didn’t fit. Disqualification and lost reasons showed which enquiries weren’t right for the platform, and what was costing the business deals.

Source: Oldroyd, McElheran, and Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011.

What I’d measure earlier next time

• Speed to first sales call, from qualification to the first conversation with sales, tracked from day one.
• Conversion before and after, from enquiry to qualified lead to closed deal, so the change in sales time and win rate is easy to show.
• Feedback from the sales team in a regular check-in, on lead quality and how the routing was working for them.