This is why you need visibility of your pipeline in real-time

In residential care, some Admissions managers say that if they don’t get back to a potential resident in 24 hours, they have lost them! Forever.

So, how long do you have to respond to a new enquiry? 

New enquiries are just the beginning of the pipeline that will (hopefully) lead to an admission or sale at the end, and each one is equally valuable.  

Unfortunately, for most providers gone are the days of ‘resident waitlists’ when supply exceeded demand. Now providers who are staying ahead of the industry have honed pipeline management processes with systems to support the team and systems that provide real-time transparency so they can be responsive across cross-functions.  

The pipeline process starts with ensuring you have enough enquiries, then doing what you can to convert them to a sale, as fast as you can. Providers are grappling with developing new processes, and systems to ensure this pipeline process is as smooth and effective as possible, and a system that provides real-time information is key. 

We get asked the following all of the time:

• What system will my leads be managed in?  
• What are the expectations for follow-up by who and with what, and when, and how exactly? 
• What is our nurture approach for a lead who isn’t ready now considering timing, frequency, and which channel?
• How can I track where potential customers are in the pipeline? 
• How do I track exceptions for example when a lead hasn’t been followed up for a while? 
• How do I track what is/isn’t working across my marketing campaigns? 
• What is the process to transition a customer from pre-sale to post-sale?
• Who owns that transition to ensure the customer experience is maintained?  

Tracking is a key consideration when it comes to effective pipeline management. Good tracking allows for full visibility of what gets measured and done.  Most importantly, the usefulness of the information is only as good as how up to date it is. 

As a Mirus Admissions client you have the visibility of your up to date pipeline 24/7. Some helpful tips: 

• Ensure all new enquiries go into Mirus Admissions. This can be managed by reception teams and health professionals who can enter enquiries direct into their own website forms, even if they don’t have access to the CRM at that moment in time 
• Update all follow-up actions in the Activity Log so you and your team know where things are up to at all times
• Close old enquires/evaluations and archive them (you can always bring them back down the track without losing any information for example if you have a great idea for a re-targeting campaign). 

Natanya Full is Head of Mirus Admissions at Mirus Australia and with her team, she supports Mirus’s clients in building their customer profile, with crystal clear visibility of pipeline and sales activities and focusing on marketing to attract and retain residents and service recipients via Mirus Admissions. 

Strength in numbers, Is the short answer. Please get in touch with us to find out more about Mirus Admissions or please connect with Nat via LinkedIn or take our free assessment to understand how future ready your organisation is? or please ask about our Sales + Marketing Diagnostic.