Tutorial for the Lead Manager in CMS 2.5

(Updated March 2011)

What's New In 2.5:

• Calendar Module
• Action Plans
• Current Mode and System Mode
• Date Range Searching
• More about what's new in the CMS 2.5 Lead Manager

Shortcuts to Tutorial Sections (below)

These links will carry you down the page to the relevant sections, named according to the names of the tabs in the lead manager.

• Agents
• Action Plans
• Leads
• Groups
• Documents
• Campaigns
• Auto Responders
• Tools

 

(1) View of main tabs in the Lead Manager UI

 

The 'Agents' Tab

This is where you, the “Super Administrator”, may manage the list of agents and their info and permissions. You can also use this area to contact the agents, to assign action plans to them, and to setup their signatures and auto responders. (Note that the agents can edit most of this info themselves, as well.)

 

(2) View of "Manage Agents" section

 

If you are just starting out, you will not have any agents in the system yet. You need to add them by selecting "Add Agent".

Creating an Agent

After you click on "Add Agent", you'll see the following fields to fill out:

• Username / Password – These are the login details that the agent will use to login to the lead manager. You will set a different login for each agent.
• First / Last Name – This name will appear in emails sent by the agent through the system, and it is also used in the "agent manager" module, if you have it.
• Email – This is the agent's email address, used as the recipient address when you (as super admin) send them messages via the system (see below) and is also the address used as the sender when the agent sends emails to his/her leads.
• Default timeframe – This controls the default view of how the agents' leads are displayed when s/he logs in.
• Timezone – This controls the time that the agent sees for their leads.
• Page Limit – This controls how many leads are displayed on a single page at a time when the agent is looking at their assigned leads.
• Is Admin – This should be left to its default, "No", unless you want the agent to be able to have the same access and privileges that you do.
• Signature – This will be used in emails sent by the agent through the system.
• Add Signature to Emails – If this is set to "No", the signature will not be used.

Managing an Agent

By selecting "Manage Agents", you can "Edit" an agent's details (listed above), and you can also view their stats, described below:

"Summary" tab:

• # of Assigned Leads – Refers to the number of leads assigned to the selected agent, regardless of those leads' status.
• Action Plans – Displays a list of the action plans to which the agent is assigned.

"Edit" tab:

This page allows you to edit all of the same fields shown during the "Add Agent" phase (see Creating an Agent above).

"Leads" tab:

Here, you can see a list of the leads assigned to the agent (when you are logged in as an agent), or a list of leads not yet assigned (when you are logged in as an administrator).

You will also see some statistics about the lead — these are described below:

• Name – This is the name the lead entered when they filled out a form on your site (usually the IDX registration form).
• "V" column – This column shows how many times the lead has "visited" your website. If you click on this number, you will see a breakdown of which pages on your site the lead visited during each session, and on which dates they visited.
• "F" column – This column counts how many properties in your IDX the lead has marked as a "Favourite". If you click on this number, you will see those favourite properties, as well as a list of the lead's recently viewed properties. Note, you can also delete selected properties from their list of favourites (so be careful with that "delete" button).
• "S" column – This shows how many searches the lead has saved. Click on the number to see the list of saved searches, or to create a saved search for the lead.
• Date – Shows the date of the lead's registration.
• Status – With one exception (see below), the "Status" attribute simply provides a manual flagging system – a quick, basic way of distinguishing leads according to their place in the process.
  With the exception of "Rejected", none of the statuses actually does anything, except to be an indicator. In other words, you could ignore the statuses, or switch them around randomly, and nothing would happen. However, if an agent selects "Rejected" as a status for a lead, that lead will be unassigned from the agent and will be assigned back to the super administrator.
  Suggested use of statuses:
  • A lead who is "Pending" has not been contacted.
  • An "Accepted" lead has been accepted by the agent and has been contacted.
  • A "Rejected" lead is un-assigned from the agent, and assigned back to the super administrator.
  • A "Closed" lead has been successfully processed. Note that the lead's status in the system is not affected in any way by having their status changed to "Closed". They will still receive emails sent to any "groups" they're assigned to, as well as saved search notifications, etc. (so it is recommended that you delete their saved searches and remove them from groups, if they buy a home with you).
• Email – You can select one or more leads and click on "Email" to compose a message to send to those leads' email addresses. This is the only button on the bottom row that is visible to agents as well as administrators.
• Delete – Allows an administrator to remove the lead from the system.
• Assign To – Allows an administrator to assign the lead to an agent. Remember to hit "go" or the assignment will not resolve.
• Add to Group – Groups are explained in the "Groups" section below. Remember to hit "go" or the lead will not be added to the group.

The 'Action Plans' Tab

This is where an administrator may create a series of tasks for an agent to complete for each lead that is assigned to them. For instance, the agent may be required to phone or email the lead right away, or to setup a saved search for them, etc. Such tasks can be preset to be "due" within a specific number of days, weeks or months after a lead has been assigned.

Manage Action Plans

This is the main menu page for the Action Plan manager and may also be viewed by selecting "Manage Action Plans" underneath the "Action Plans" tab. This page allows you to view, edit, and/or delete the action plans that you will be assigning later.

To view which agent(s) are assigned to each action plan, click the "View" button (Note: clicking on the name of the action plan itself will also take you to the action plan view). To edit or delete action plans, click the "Edit" button to edit and to delete, click the "X" button.

Create a New Action Plan

This is the right page for when you want to create a new series of tasks. To access this page, either click on the "Create New Action Plan" link within the yellow box of the Action Plan manager, or mouse-over the "Action Plans" tab and select "Add Action Plan".

Once this page has loaded, you will be presented with a "Title" field to enter in the name of your "Action Plan" and a window for inputting the action plan "task". Enter a task that the agent should complete for each lead, and then set up the delay for when the task needs to be completed. The delay is based on how many days, weeks or months may pass after the lead is assigned, before the task will be considered overdue.

To add additional "tasks" to the action plan, click the "Add New Task" button at the bottom of the page. When you are finished adding tasks to your "Action Plan", click the "Create Action Plan" button at the bottom of the page. To remove tasks from an "Action Plan", click the trash icon "" within the "Task Details" window. When you're finished, click the "Save Action Plan" or "Create Action Plan" button to save the changes to the "Action Plan".

Assign an Agent to an Action Plan

To assign an agent to an action plan, do the following:

• Go to the Action Plan Manager (please refer to manage action plans on how to get here).
• Select the Action Plan you would like to assign by clicking on the Action Plan title or the "View" button.
• Once the Action Plan view has loaded, click the "Assign this action plan to" drop down box and select the agent you would like to assign this action plan to and then click the "Go" button.

The 'Leads' Tab

This is where an administrator or an agent can search for leads that are in the system, manage them, email them, etc. When a lead registers through the front end, they will be displayed here.

It's important to note that an agent may only search for and display leads that they are assigned to (only if you are logged in as admin and have the view mode set to "System Mode", can you see all leads).

When the mouse is hovering over the "Leads" tab (these options are also available along the right side of the page) the following actions may be performed:

• search for leads by date (such as "Today's Leads", "This Week's Leads", and "This Month's Leads")
• do a more specific search ("Search Lead")
• send a mass email or single email ("Email Leads")
• "Add a Lead" (this is useful if your lead used the phone, instead of registering on the site, and you want them entered in the system)

() A view of the "Leads" section

 

Search for a lead

When the "Leads" tab is first clicked, you will be taken to a page that displays all of the new leads (today's leads). You can view all of the leads assigned that day, or if you like, you may also conduct a search for a specific lead or group of leads (as noted above, your ability to see the leads will depend on whether you're logged in as an agent or as an admin).

Outlined underneath the "Leads" tab and along the right side of the "Leads" page are a basic set of options to search for leads by date such as "Today's Leads", "This Week's Leads" and "This Month's Leads", as well as a custom date range feature located along the right side of the page. The calendar on the upper right hand portion of the page also provides the ability to conduct a search by day, week or month.

Custom Range Search

To do a "Custom Range" search, click on the field below the "Custom Range..." on the right side of the page. If you click on the blank area to the left of the "to" in the field you will be prompted to enter in the beginning date of the search and if you click on the right side of the "to" in the field you will be prompted to enter in the ending date. Once you have completed the "Custom Range" press the "Go" button.

Search Leads

The "Search Leads" page allows you to conduct a more refined search, such as searching by first or last name, email address, or even by phone number. This page also allows for more broad based searches such as a lead's status, a lead's group association, or date range. Once you've filled in the desired search parameters to search for a lead, click on the "Search Leads" button on the bottom of the page. If you press the "Search Leads" button without any search parameters defined, all leads assigned to the agent will be displayed (Note: If you are logged in as admin, by clicking on system mode you may view all leads regardless of who they are assigned to.)

Managing Groups of Leads

Whenever lead search results are displayed (this occurs when one clicks on the "Lead Management" tab, the "Leads" tab or when a search is explicitly conducted), you will be able to perform certain group-based actions to help speed up your ability to manage leads. Such actions include: emailing leads, deleting leads (admin only) and assigning leads to groups.

To conduct a group action:

• Check the checkboxes beside the names of all the leads that you'd like to conduct the group action upon. If you would like to select all of the leads, check the checkbox beside the "Full Name" header at the top of the search results list.
• Now click on the action that you would like to perform on the checked leads.
  • To assign the leads to a group for example, click the "Add to Group" button at the bottom of the search results page, select the desired group (requires that you have created a group; see "Groups" in the section below) and then click the "Go" to the right of the "Add to Group" button.
  • You can also click on "Email" to send a blast email to all of the selected leads — see below.
  • Or, if you're logged in as an admin, click on "Delete" to remove the selected leads.

Email Leads

This action provides the ability to send out email to a group of leads at once. This tool can be quite handy for when you want to send out information such as newsletters on a specific day, or market updates, an office phone number change, etc. To send out a mass email, you will need to do the following:

• First, put your mouse over the "Leads" tab and click on "Email Leads". There is also a link on the right side of the page.
• With the "Email Leads" page loaded, enter in the sender name and email address (this is pre-populated from the agent details page). It is important to note that the sender email address should use an account based on your domain's name such as agent.name@mydomain.com. If an email address from another domain is provided, the sender will default to something like info@mydomain.com when the email is sent.
• Now select the list of leads who will receive this email by clicking on the "Recipients" drop-down box. This box allows you to select leads based on their status, who they are assigned to, and by their group association.
• Once you have selected the recipients of the email, the email creation is much the same as outlined in the lead email section.
• Once you've written or selected your email, you can either send the email right away, or choose to send it at a later time by checking the checkbox "Send this email at a later date and time" and then selecting the date and time that you would like the email to be sent at.
• Click on the "Send Email" button.

Add a Lead

This feature allows an agent to add a lead to the system without going through the front end of the website and filling out the registration form (which would send out a registration email upon completion). To add a lead to your system, do the following:

• First click on the "Add a Lead" link located beneath the "Leads" tab. There is also a link on the right side of the page.
• Now fill in all the pertinent data for the lead, such as the agent you would like to assign the lead to, the lead's status and their contact information.
  • Password - If you leave this field blank, the lead will not be added as a registered IDX user. Instead, when they encounter registration options on the website and enter their email address, the system will recognize them and will ask them to supply a password, at which point they will become a registered IDX user.
  • Subscribed - This option determines whether the user should receive automatic or mass emails. If they are not subscribed, they will still receive emails sent directly to them by the admin. However, they will not receive emails sent to their group. Nor will they receive auto-generated emails such as drip emails or even saved search emails.
  • Notify Agent on Saved Listing - If this is set to "Yes", the assigned agent will receive notifications when the lead "favorites" a listing.
  • Groups - If you have created "Groups", you can add the lead to one or more groups, here.
  • Contact Information - All of these fields are for your own reference and will not "do" anything with the information you enter.
  • Comments - This, too, is simply for your own internal reference.
• Once you've filled in all of the lead's pertinent details, scroll down to the bottom of the "Add Lead" page and press the "Add Lead" button.

Manage a Lead

To view and perform actions for any specific lead, you will first need to select the lead from the main menu of the lead manager. You may also select a lead from the results of a lead search. To do this, simply click on the lead that you would like to manage.

Lead Summary Tab

This is the default page that is displayed when a lead has been selected for viewing. This page displays all of the necessary details, including the lead's stats such as join date and comments.

Lead Edit Tab

This page allows you to edit a lead's details as well as their status, subscription status, and their group association. You may also post any comments about the lead, here. Once you have finished editing the lead to your satisfaction, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Edit Lead". (For details about each of the fields on the "Edit lead" page, see "Add a Lead" above.)

Lead Notes Tab

This page displays all of the notes that have been created for the lead since the registration date. Notes may be added manually through the "Add a New Note" function, and they are also automatically generated when email messages are sent through the website backend or auto responder.

The "General", "Phone", and "Email" selection options here are merely for your reference, should you wish to use them.

Lead Messages Tab

This page, which is only available if your site has the "Control Panel" product (included with all LEC's and available for any site with a custom IDX), provides the ability to send short plain-type messages to a lead via email. If you would like to send a stylized (HTML coded) email, please refer to the "Lead Email" tab of this tutorial.

To send a simple message to the lead:

• Enter a subject title for the email in the "Subject" field
• Type up the message of the email in the "Message" field
• Click the "Send Message" button to send the message.

Once you've sent at least one message to the lead, the message history will appear, here, and you can review them, delete them from the lead's profile, etc.

Note that the agent's signature will not appear in the email, as it is intended to be a "sent from the sytem" kind of message.

Lead History Tab

This page displays all of the actions performed by the lead, as well as all actions performed on the lead, such as editing the lead and the date and time of when the action occurred.

Lead Listings Tab

This page displays a list of the lead's recently viewed listings (with a link to the listing itself) as well as a list of saved favorite listings.

Lead Searches Tab

This page displays the lead's saved searches, as well as providing a means for you to create saved searches for the lead.

To create a saved searched for a lead:

• Click on the "Create Saved Search For This Lead" button.
• When the "Property Search" page appears, fill in the search parameters that you would like saved for this lead.
• Once you've filled in the necessary search information, scroll down to the bottom of the search form and type in the name of the search in the text field beside the "Save Search for User/Lead" button.
• Now click on the "Save Search for User/Lead" button.

Each created saved search can be edited or deleted by clicking on the "Edit" or "Delete" buttons. The "Edit" search functionality is much the same as creating a saved search, but you will press the "Update Search" button instead, once you have finished editing the saved search.

Lead Visits Tab

This page displays a list of pages (listed by date) that the lead viewed while visiting your website, including the url of the referring page (the one that linked the user to your website (including search engine links).

Lead Email Tab

This page provides a means to send an email to a specific lead through the backend of your website.

To send a lead an email, do the following:

• Fill in the sender name and email address (this is auto-populated to send as the logged-in agent).
• Choose a template (optional). For help with templates, please refer to the "Templates" section of the tutorial.
• Choose a pre-built message (optional). For help with pre-built messages, please refer to the "Documents" section of the tutorial.
• Choose whether or not the email message is to be written in HTML. By selecting "Yes" to HTML, you will be able to add styling such as fonts and images to your email messages, but it also increases the likelihood of the email getting hidden in the lead's spam folder (go to "How to stay out of the Junk folder" for more information).
• Enter the "Subject" of the email message.
• Now enter the message you would like to send.
• Once you've finished entering the email message, check the "Send this email at a later date and time" (if you would like) and then click the "Send Email" button.

Lead Reminders Tab

This page allows you to create and manage reminders that are specific to a lead. When a reminder is created, it is posted on this page, and when the time is reached for the agent to be reminded of the action to be performed for the lead, an overdue reminders message will be displayed (for the agent) on the main "Lead Management" or "Leads" page.

To add a reminder:

• Click the "Add New Reminder" button
• Now select the "Reminder Type" that will be displayed with your reminder. The "Reminder Type" is a visual aid to discern what kind of action the agent will need to perform to complete this task. You may also add your own "Reminder Types" by clicking the "Manage" link next to "Reminder Type".
• Now that a "Reminder Type" has been selected, enter in the details of the reminder in the "Reminder Details" field provided.
• Once the details have been entered, enter in a date for when the agent will be reminded and then click the "Save Reminders" button.

If you would like to remove or delete a reminder, simply click the reminder's trash icon and then click the "Save Reminders" button to finalize the removal of the reminder.

The 'Groups' Tab

A "group" is a category for putting leads into. It allows for faster and easier organizing and maintaining of leads.

You can even put leads into multiple groups. So in that sense, "groups" are not the same as folders.

Before we get into the "how-to", let's imagine some examples of situations where the "group" option is useful. Let's say you created separate groups for each of the following types of leads:

• "Sellers"
• "Buyers - $300-400k"
• "Condo buyers"
• "Sellers - Asking price > $1M"
• "Warmest leads"
• "Canadian buyers"
• "Have brought to showings"
• "Past clients"
• etc.

Remember, leads may be placed into multiple groups, which means you can have a lead who is in the "Condo buyers" group as well as the "Canadian buyers" group.

With the leads organized into groups, you can create blast emails or drip campaigns relevant to those groups. For example, let's say your state or county recently passed a motion to encourage investment in vacation homes by foreigners. You could mention this in a blast email to your "Canadian buyers" group. Or, you could create a "buyers - $300-400k" group. Then when you get a new $350,000 listing from a seller, you could send an email to that group, to promote the listing to them.

To learn how to send an email to an entire group, please refer to the leads section of the tutorial.

Viewing Your Groups

• To view your Groups, click the Lead Management Tab
• Under the Lead Management tab, click "Groups"

 

(1) View of the Groups tab under Lead Management

 

NOTE: If you are just starting out, you will not have any groups in the system yet. You need to add them by selecting Add Group.

Adding a Group

To add/create a Group, put your mouse over the Groups tab and click Add Group. You'll see the following fields to fill out:

• Group Name - This is the Group's name, for your own reference (the leads will never see this name).
• Description - This describes what the group is about, and the the type of leads that are in it.
• Once you fill out the Group Name and Description, click Add Group and the Group will be created.

Managing Groups

To manage a Group, hover your mouse over the Groups tab and click Manage Groups. Or just click the Groups Tab and the Manage Groups form will display.

The Manage Groups section lets you: 1) view the Leads in each Group by clicking on the number of leads in the Group (this will bring you to the leads section of the Lead Management tab), 2) view which agent created the Group, and 3) edit/delete that Group.

Editing Groups

To edit a Group, you can click on the Group's name or click the blue Edit button beside the Group name. After you click the Group name or Edit button, youll see the following fields to fill out:

• Group Name - This is the Group's name. This defines the Group and how you will search for it.
• Description - This describes what the Group is about, and the the type of leads that are in it.
• Once you fill out the Group Name and Description, click Save Group and "Success" will appear.

Deleting Groups

• First, return to the Manage Groups screen
• Press the red 'X' button next to the Group you want to delete
• A pop-up message will appear, asking you to confirm that you'd like to delete this Group. Press 'OK'.
• If you did everything correctly, it should say "Success".

The 'Documents' Tab

This is where an agent may add, edit or delete email templates and documents to be used later for email messages to leads. The templates let you create a header and footer for your emails (great for making a company branded email), while the documents act as pre-written emails to be sent on multiple occasions. There is also a categories functionality to help you organize your email documents.

Manage Documents

The document manager is where you may view, edit or delete categories, documents or templates. To get to the document manager, click the "Documents" tab under the "Lead Management" tab.

Add a Category

To add a category for your email documents, click the "Add Category" link found on the right side of the page. Once the category creation page has loaded, enter the name of the category you'd like to create. A description field is also provided to help you to remember which kinds of email documents are contained within the category. Once you've finished entering the category information, click the "Add Category" button.

Add a Document

To create an email document that can be sent to multiple leads or agents, click the "Add Document" link found on the right side of the page. Once you're in the document editor, you can enter a name, select a "Category" for the document to belong to (this is for organizational purposes only) and then type or paste the contents of your email document. There is a link under the "Category" drop-down box to allow you to alternate between a plain text format and the html format for your email document. Once you've finished creating your document, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Add Document" button.

Add a Template

To create a template to be used in conjuction with your emails, click the "Add Template" link found on the right side of the page. Once you're in the template editor, enter the name of the template, and the header and footer that will essentially wrap around the body of the email. It is important that the body callout ("#body#") remains in the template, as that is the code to include the body of the message in the template. Once you've finished creating the template, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Add Template" button.

Still not sure about what an email template is for? Think of it like a signature that gets sent out automatically with all of your emails. However, instead of being merely a signature beneath your email body, the email template allows you to create elements (text/images) to go above and below your email body. You've surely seen examples of this, like when you receive an email from a business and the email looks almost like the business's website, with navigation buttons and a masthead. Yours doesn't need to be so elaborate, but the option is there!