February 3, 2012 — As many of you may have seen, we just announced a significant milestone in Leads360’s evolution, a $15M series B round from Volition Capital and Rustic Canyon Partners. We are very excited about what this means for our customers and partners as well as Leads360’s future and wanted to share the back story on the B round.

Why we raised the money?
Simply put, we are seeing unprecedented demand for our software, and want to capitalize on this by investing in building out our team, our product and our marketing efforts over the next several years. That’s because as our product offering and the market has evolved, what we do adds value to a quickly expanding number of companies.

Back in 2004, when Leads360 started out, our software was designed to help companies efficiently manage leads that they were buying from companies like LowerMyBills and LendingTree. Over the past few years we have seen a few things occur:

1. Companies that were buying leads have realized they need a better approach to manage all of their sales opportunities, not just internet-bought leads. Now more than half the leads we help manage are generated by the customer organically. 
2. A large number of companies that sell to consumers have realized that CRMs like Salesforce, Oracle and SugarCRM are extremely poorly suited to their needs. We recruit companies on a daily basis who are better able to manage their sales process with our software either instead of or alongside their existing CRM systems. 
3. Consumer sales organizations are far more successful when their sales platform is tightly integrated with their telephony systems. Our sales telephony platform, Dial-IQ, has been exceptionally well received by the market.

What made Leads360 a good investment opportunity?

We were fortunate to have many highly-regarded investors interested in Leads360. Here are a few of the things that made Leads360 a very attractive growth company.

Sales automation for companies that sell to consumers is a large and under-served market -Leads360 is the market-leading solution

In 2010, US companies spent approximately $35B on advertising aimed at generating consumer leads according to the Direct Marketing Association. Leads360 has the market-leading solution designed specifically to help these companies to convert those leads into customers.

Companies that sell to consumers need software that helps them track, interact with and convert their prospects. Unfortunately there are very few software solutions designed to do this. While there are a lot of companies that provide “sales automation” software that provides this type of functionality very effectively for companies that sell to businesses (good examples are Salesforce, SugarCRM and Oracle/Siebel); selling to consumers is very different. Big CRM is a bad solution for consumer and small business sales teams. In a consumer sale, due to short sales cycles and a need to work a much larger volume of prospective customers per salesperson, speed of response, tight sales process definition and multi-channel prospect nurturing are much more important than they are in the business-to-business sale. Unfortunately we see a lot of companies misguidedly purchasing a CRM solution and then spending a huge amount of time and money customizing the solution to handle a consumer sales process; functionality the Leads360 has right “off-the-shelf”. With our new funding we intend to generate broader awareness among companies that sell to consumers about how our products help their sales teams be more successful at converting consumers into customers.

 Our telephony platform (Dial-IQ) has created a huge amount of value for both us and our customers
At the beginning of 2011 Leads360 released a comprehensive outbound telephony solution called Dial-IQ. We saw the opportunity to build a more intelligent dialing system than any that had previously existed using the data we had access to in the sales automation platform to place calls at the appropriate time and from the most “qualified” sales rep.

Dial-IQ has exceeded our wildest expectations in terms of the value it has had to our customers and the number of customers we have gained as a consequence of the platform.

Our average Dial-IQ customer achieves a 77% increase in conversion within 90 days of turning on Dial-IQ and about a third of our entire customer base has already opted to use Dial-IQ as their sales telephony platform.

Large enterprise customers are adopting the Leads360 platform at an unprecedented rate
We have seen a very significant increase in demand for our product among Fortune 1000 companies over the past 18 months. This is partly due to a significant re-engineering effort on our platform to deliver the functionality that very large, often highly dispersed sales teams need to be more effective. What we have built is deeply configurable, highly scalable and easily integrated into a complex enterprise-scale technology infrastructure. We wish to pursue large customers with even greater vigor on both a domestic and international stage going forward. To that end we will be expanding our enterprise marketing and sales efforts considerably and building out deeper channel relationships as a consequence of the funding.

How we chose our new investors
We’ve had an outstanding experience with Rustic Canyon Partners whom we raised our $5.25M A-round from in 2007 and were excited but not surprised they were keen to participate in our B-round. In looking for our lead in the B-round we had a pretty tight set of parameters about which investors we wanted to raise money from.

• They had to have a singular focus on growth stage Software as a Service companies and
• We were looking for a clear track record of helping businesses cross the $100M revenue mark.

Choosing Roger Hurwitz from Volition Capital was a very easy decision for us. He brings an amount of experience to the board about what it takes to build a world-class SaaS business that we have come to recognize as being exceptionally rare.

What all this means
We have a product that is in a league of its own at automating and accelerating sales for companies that sell to consumers by phone and email. We are very excited to have the capital necessary to make that fact common knowledge and to continue building out our world class product, team and strategic partnerships.

But the establishment and adoption of best practices doesn’t have to be relegated to showing a new guy the ropes and then depending on him relying on himself beyond that. Best practices can be enforced across an entire sales organization by adopting a lead management system. Lead management differs from CRM in that it is laser focused on the task of turning prospects into customers. This being the case, it has different core functionality that is based less on tracking a customer relationship and more based on contacting leads converting a sale for the first time.

One of the real strengths of lead management software is that it enables sales managers to adapt their best practices in response to the needs of their sales staff and changes in market conditions. Best practices can take shape in a number of ways. Examples include; the number, timing, and content of automatically sent marketing emails; automatic contact schedules for leads, i.e., when uncontacted leads become ripe for another contact attempt; and content of sales scripts. Intelligent lead assignment strategies can also be tweaked to ensure that the right leads are being assigned to the right sales agents.

Leaving the establishment of customer relationships to the various strategies of individual sales reps isn’t necessary. Using lead management software, it is possible to enforce proven sales strategies that ensure that no leads are ignored, and every lead benefits from a sound contact strategy.

#1 – Five reasons why for-profit schools are here to stay via @washingtonpost – In this column, Jay Mathew’s begins his look at the future of for-profit education with a clear and definite bias against the institutions, and initial reluctance to review the book titled “Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy” written by Kaplan’s Chairman, Andrew S. Rosen. While the book didn’t shake Mathew’s feeling completely, he noted “Rosen convinced me that for-profit educational ventures are here to stay.” He went on to detail five reasons why. http://wapo.st/sSAwCQ

#2 – The Mortgage Battlefield of 2012 via @NatlMortgagePro – John Walsh offers up his predictions for the embattled mortgage industry from the frontlines of the struggle, including continued low rates and the reemergence of innovative products. http://dlvr.it/12P29W”

#3 – Experts 2012 Rate Outlook via @MortgageNewsMND – Rob Chrisman gives an overview of mortgage rates and industry predictions based on outlooks from industry experts Freddie, Fannie and others. Predictions anticipate a similar year to 2011, with HARP 2.0 and expected low interest rates throughout the year likely to have a positive impact. http://tinyurl.com/cwl8zfe

#4 – Three Ways Insurers Will Compete on Data in 2012 via @insurancetech –  highlights how analytics is likely to change insurers approach to underwriting, claims, and risk management in 2012 http://ow.ly/87ZXG

#5 – Health care reform you can expect in 2012 via @Bankrate – The piece looks at what patients, doctors, and insurers should expect from the pieces of the affordable care act going into law in 2012. http://bit.ly/zuUE7U

#6 – Insurance Veterans’ Forecasts for 2012 via @ijournal – The piece discusses the future of the industry in the coming year with nine different industry leaders to get a better grasp on what to expect. http://bit.ly/yjGcS0

#7 – 3 Key Challenges Facing Agents in 2012 via @ijournal – In this podcast with Bob Rusbuldt, CEO of Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Bob articulates what he believes are the three biggest challenges facing independent agents and brokers in 2012. http://bit.ly/z6gNSb

Contacting leads quickly involves several steps being taken at a high speed:

1. Receive the lead from the lead source

2. Distribute the lead to a sales rep who is best suited to do business with them

3. Ensure that a Sales Rep acts contacts the lead immediately

Using Lead Management Software guarantees that these steps are taken as quickly as is possible. There is no better way to improve your prospect service than by using the right tools for the job. In this case, the right tool for the job is a lead management solution with an integrated lead dialer. Using a CRM for lead management will yield substandard results. Prospect Service is an art and science all its own. Being the first on the phone with a prospect is an important first step in changing the prospect into a customer. Speed to contact is important, but it’s not the total solution. Intelligent lead distribution that pairs sales rep to prospect based on expertise, licensure, or other criteria helps make sure meaningful connections are made.

If you have resolved to grow your business this year, Lead Management should be on your radar.

• “We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.” -Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross
• “Chance favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur
• “Whether You Think You Can or Can’t, You’re Right”–Henry Ford
• “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
• “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
• “Big team little me.” – author unknown
• “Forecheck, Backcheck, Paycheck!” – Gil Perreault
• “Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.” – J. Paul Getty
• “Only one thing counts in this world: get them to sign on the line which is dotted.” -Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross
• “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• “Show me the money” – Jerry Maguire
• “Sell, sell, sell, my kids need money for college.” – David Villarama
• “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” – Steven Wright
• “Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” – James Baldwin
• “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
• “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense” – Matt Wolcott @Leads360!
• “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” — Author Unknown
• “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”- William Jennings Bryan
• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” – Amelia Earhart

So it is useful to draw a distinction between marketing lead management and sales lead management. Lead management from a marketing perspective may very well involve generating the leads. Or it may involve buying them. In any case, Marketing has its own area of responsibility around leads that has very little in common with how Sales is responsible for leads.

A Google search for “Lead Management” may return Marketing Automation and Demand Generation solutions that have features for Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Scoring, more. These solutions are designed to help marketing teams generate and score leads. But also returned by a “Lead Management” Google search will be Sales Lead Management solutions. These solutions will have features like Lead Dialers, Lead Distribution, Lead Prioritization, and more. These features help sales teams contact, qualify, and close more leads.

When looking for business software, it is important to be crystal clear on which part of the process you seek to improve. Not every solution that calls itself Lead Management solves the same problem. If the problem you are trying to solve is that you do not have enough leads, and your marketing efforts are not panning out, then a marketing automation and demand generation solution may be right for you. But if your issue is not a lack of leads, but too few of them are being converted by your sales team, than a sales lead management solution like Leads360 is the solution for you.

She highlighted the turmoil in the mortgage industry the past few years, essentially undergoing one of the largest regulatory over-hauls in 40 years since the labor and wage turmoil. Large lenders are now subject to laws, rules and regulations in all the states they do business. This of course creates complexity for the lender but also for the consumer, with increasing stacks of paperwork required for submitting a loan.

Amidst this heavily regulated climate, exemplary customer service is critical, the end goal being to create a lender-for-life relationship, and it all starts with that first touch point.

If a customer is on hold for 10 minutes or pressing buttons to try to get on the line with a loan officer, the experience could lead to an abandoned call. Or if the call connects a customer looking for a Veteran Loan with a loan officer lacking product expertise, again the customer may lose confidence in doing business with your organization.

In any consumer industry, achieving call-back times of less than one minute and connecting incoming calls to the right customer service rep quickly is easier said than done, and requires sophisticated business rules and automation to help take the guess work out of the equation.

Leads360 and Dial-IQ intelligently routes calls based on attributes assigned to the customer service agent and the incoming lead to make sure when a customer is contacted by a loan officer it’s a good match. Leads360 and Dial-IQ together offer an intelligent way to handle leads with sophisticated skill-based routing, lead prioritization, lead nurturing, scripting and more built right into the system. To learn more visit www.leads360.com.

Sending emails has the benefit of keeping your name in front of prospects. But increasingly, emails that seek to do nothing more than maintain brand visibility are having the opposite effect in the prospects inbox. Indiscriminant email blasts that offer no valuable information are rightly viewed by prospects as spam. Marketing emails must be sent at strategic intervals and contain useful information.

The same is true of SMS messages. Since marketing SMS messages are less common than marketing emails they are more likely to be read.  But they are also more likely to be seen as an intrusion, so it is even more critical that they contain something useful. And at 160 characters, that can be a challenge.

But the real challenge is to coordinate all of your attempts to reach a prospect into a single strategy that is based on proven best practices. Emails and text messages need to be sent at strategic intervals. Phone contact attempts and voicemails need to be executed at a schedule in accordance with proven best practices. Using a lead management solution it is possible to weave all of your communication attempts into a single contact program. And the best part is that all emails and SMS messages are sent automatically. Prioritization of calls is also done automatically and can be configured to work in conjunction with the emails and SMS messages.

Leads are automatically prioritized to the top of the call list when they are due for a call. Lead logs give the sales reps a heads up that an email or SMS has been recently sent and user scripts can reference specific content in the emails. This cross-channel communication approach enables sales reps to convey to prospects that they are being contacted by someone who is paying attention to their individual case. Not being spammed and randomly receiving phone calls.

The expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP 2.0) is a powerful opportunity for lenders to demonstrate their value and build or earn customer trust. With a well managed marketing, nurture campaign, lenders can attract and retain customers.

Fool-Proof Your HARP 2.0 Sales Effort
Qualify and focus on the right opportunities: Start with the first critical phase of sales, quickly identify, qualify and focus on the right opportunities. This might include mining your Loan Origination Software for existing customers that may qualify for refinance under HARP 2.0, you’ll also want to mine your Leads360 database for aged leads that may not have qualified before but are eligible under HARP 2.0.

Stay top of mind: With a potential three plus months between December 1st and when lenders will begin processing HARP 2.0 applications, it is important to stay top-of-mind. Lenders will need to capture, track and nurture a large number of direct mail leads, web leads and sourced leads, with fool proof automation. With Leads360, administrators can include drip emails and even text messaging to go out based on the status of the lead so the lead is never left untouched for too long.

Prioritize and close loans: In addition to nurturing, sales-process workflow is critical to ensure priority leads are called first and new leads don’t go un-touched for too long. Leads360 enterprise edition has built in sales process workflow that can be customized to meet specific needs.

Today Leads360 published a toolkit based on best practices of some of our largest customers in the mortgage industry. You can download the toolkit here.