October 2006 Newsletter Today, we will be keeping you updated on latest developments at The Seed and also providing other general business news and advice.

In this edition we look at tips on how to get the most out of lead generation from The Seed, together with an insight into our qualification process and why enquiries are invalidated before they even get to you. There is also news on our ROI calculator, designed to help you demonstrate real marketing results.

We hope you are seeing the full benefits of TheSeed.com to your business, but if you have any comments or feedback on our service please click here and let us know.

October Sales Tip Every enquiry you receive from The Seed has been qualified by one of our customer services team to ensure it is genuine, but what is the best way for you to take this forward and convert it into real business?

The first and perhaps most important step is to telephone the enquirer immediately upon receiving the lead. This acknowledges receipt of the enquiry and lets the prospective client know that you are interested in their business. Customers ensuring a fast response by phone report up to a 200% increase in conversion rates compared to when they simply emailed the enquirer or did not telephone straight away.

Immediate telephoning is effective for three main reasons;
First, it makes a good impression and shows the prospective client that you are interested in their business. Your prospect has made an online enquiry so will be expecting a quick response. By telephoning them back straight away you are more likely to exceed their expectations, make a better impact and be more memorable to your potential client. Not only that, but the sooner you call a prospect back after their initial enquiry, the more receptive they will be to discussing the business at hand.

Secondly, e-mails do not always get through to the recipient. Some people have very aggressive spam filters and without a phone call you have no way of knowing whether or not your email has even been received. Why risk jeopardising the potential new business when a phone call offers immediate contact and makes a good impression on the enquirer straight away. In the time spent waiting for your email to arrive, your prospective new client could have looked elsewhere or have been contacted by a competitor.

Finally, it is not always clear from the enquirer's message exactly what it is that they want. It is often difficult to explain everything in detail in an email, so your initial telephone response should be used to confirm the request in more detail. Find out their exact requirements and discuss the wider business needs before sending out further information or a quote. This will avoid wasting time by sending out something that does not fit their requirements and may open the door to other opportunities. A telephone call is the quickest and most effective way to achieve this.

In summary, act quickly and don't rely on e-mail - use the phone and start building the relationship straight away and it will quickly get results.

What Are Invalidated Leads? As part of our commitment to supplying genuine, high quality leads, many of the enquiries received by TheSeed.com are invalidated by our customer services team and never passed on to the customer. We are currently rejecting around 50% of the enquiries that come through to us, filtering out the poor quality or bogus enquiries in order to maintain quality. Enquiries can be rejected for a number of different reasons.

1) Sellers.
One of the main types of invalidated leads, are those from companies that have no genuine interest in your services, but who are actually trying to sell their services to you via our enquiry form. We receive numerous enquiries each day from companies advertising their own services in the hope that their information will get through to you. Outsourced services in India, for example, or telecommunications companies touting for business. All of these types of leads are deleted immediately to ensure that no poor quality leads are delivered to our customers.

2) Information Seeker.
Information only leads are another type that we reject straight away, for example individuals who are looking for information for research only purposes, rather than with the intent to buy. College students researching projects or competitors researching the market are some of the regular enquiries received by The Seed. Passing on an information only lead to our customers would only result in wasted time and money, a lower return on investment and less chance of our customers acquiring new business.

3) 48-hour Contact.
Our team will also delete any enquirer who cannot be contacted within 48 hours of submitting their enquiry. Every single lead received by The Seed is validated immediately via telephone and no lead will get transmitted through our system without one of our team actually speaking to the enquirer to verify the authenticity of the lead.

We strive to deliver the best quality leads possible to our customers and our strict validation process filters out all bogus and poor quality leads, maximising your chances of developing new business opportunities, acquiring new clients and boosting return on your marketing investment.