About the Telemarketing Prospect Statuses

In telemarketing a prospect can have one of the following statuses:

• Open. This is the default status when a prospect is assigned to a telemarketing queue. When an attempt is made to contact the prospect, the prospect is moved to another view. Prospects must move out of the Open view quickly.

• Call Attempted. An agent has attempted to reach a prospect but is unsuccessful. For example, it might be because of a wrong number or no answer. If a followup date or time is arranged, then a prospect can appear in both the Call Attempted and the Pending Follow-Up views.

• Contacted. A contact attempt has been successful and a conversation has taken place. However, the agent has neither qualified nor disqualified the prospect at this time. A prospect can appear in the Contacted view and the Pending Follow-up view simultaneously.

• Disqualified. An agent has enough information, either without having a conversation or as the result of a conversation, to disqualify the prospect. The prospect is not sent to the Sales Department and does not appear in any other Call Center view. The prospect can be kept or recontacted for future marketing campaigns.

• Qualified. An agent has enough information, either without having a conversation or as the result of a conversation, to qualify the prospect as a lead and determine that the prospect can be sent to the Sales Department. The qualified prospect does not appear in any other Call Center view.

How a Prospect Changes Status

A prospect can move forward on any of the following paths but can never move backward. A prospect can remain in one status if no further action is taken. A prospect who is disqualified can respond to another offer, enter the call center process again and be qualified.

The following list demonstrates the sequence of status changes:

• Open, Call Attempted, Contacted, Qualified

• Open, Call Attempted, Contacted, Disqualified

• Open, Contacted, Qualified

• Open, Contacted, Disqualified

• Open, Call Attempted, Qualified

• Open, Call Attempted, Disqualified

• Open, Qualified

• Open, Disqualified

Telemarketing Status for List Segmentation

A prospect status is a prospect insights category attribute, which is available for use in target list segmentation. Depending on your defined disqualification reasons, you might want to contact some disqualified prospects at a future date and reestablish contact with them.

The Marketing and Telemarketing Departments work together to define a list of disqualification reasons customized to their business practices. These disqualification reasons can determine future marketing activities or call campaigns and are set up by administrators. For more information on disqualification, see Disqualifying Prospects.