Prospects

Prospect records store contact info for potential customers.

PROSPECT MARKETING
Calling Lists | Form Letters | Mailing Labels

Website Links
Accounting Software | Business Management Software | Lead Tracking Software

RELATED TOPICS
Address Book | Contact Reports | Customer Accounts | Sales Reps

When to Use Prospects

Enter Prospect records for any potential customer who has not yet made a purchase from you or used your services.

HINT-- Use Customer Accounts for anyone who has made a purchase from you. Use the Address Book for other people who do not have an account record.

Entering Prospect Records

To enter a Prospect record, follow these steps:

Choose Prospects from the Income menu.
Click the New button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Fill in details about the item.

QUICK SETUP HINT-- You only need to fill in the Name field. All other fields are optional.

Data Fields

Enter the following info for each Prospect record:

Name-- Enter a brief name for the prospect.
HINT-- the Name field appears in menus in other records that refer to Prospect records.
Full Name-- Enter a complete name for the prospect.
HINT-- the Full Name field appears in printed forms.
Contact-- If the account is for a business, enter the name of a contact person.
Daytime Phone-- Enter a daytime phone for the prospect.
Evening Phone-- Enter an evening phone for the prospect.
Fax-- Enter a fax number for the prospect.
Address-- Enter the address where you'll send marketing information. Type the street information into the first box, then city, state and zip code or postal codes into the other three boxes.
HINT-- Goldenseal uses separate fields to make it easier to find prospects by their city, state or zip code.
E-mail-- Enter the prospect's email address.
Comments-- Type in any comments you may have about the prospect.
HINT-- You can enter key words in this box to make it easier to find groups of possible clients.
Created-- When you create a new prospect record, Goldenseal automatically assigns a creation date.
Record Number-- Goldenseal automatically assigns each prospect a unique number. To change the numbering system, choose Record Numbering from the Options menu.
Type-- Enter the type of prospect. You can classify records any way you'd like with the Address Book Types list.
Source-- Enter where this person heard about your company (for example, from a referral, an advertisement or a trade show). You can classify sources any way you'd like with the Prospect Sources list.
Referral Class-- Use the popup field to enter the type of account that referred this prospect.
Referred By-- Enter the account who referred this prospect.
Sales Rep-- Enter the employee who will handle this prospect.
Allow One Time Names-- Turn on this checkbox if you use this record for miscellaneous contacts that you'll type in for Appointments or the Contact Log.

Calculated Fields

The Prospect record shows two calculated fields:
Last Contact Date-- The date of the most recent contact with this record.
Number of Contacts-- The number of contacts so far. This number is calculated from the number of contact records you've entered for this prospect-- including Appointments, Contact Log records and Estimates.

Status Field

You can use the Status popup field to mark any Prospect record as Active, Hot, Dormant or Inactive.
There is no functional difference between the different Status values, but you can use the Find command to locate records with any type of status.

Use the Flag and Printer Flag buttons at lower left to mark this record for reports and printing.
Use the Form Type button at lower left to switch to a simpler layout.

Optional Fields

Use the Custom Layouts command to add any of the following optional fields:

Include in Starter File-- Add this field to the layout if you want to include some Prospect records in a starter file 'clone' of the company file.
Time-- Add this field to record the time when you entered each record.

HINT-- You can also add custom fields to store any other information about your prospects.

Converting To a Customer

To create a Customer account from a Prospect record, follow these steps:

Click the Convert To Customer button.
You'll be asked if you're sure you want to create a customer. Click OK.
Goldenseal will automatically create a Customer account with the information in this record.

Viewing Contacts

To view contact records for this prospect, click one of the buttons in the right side of the record layout.

Click View Appointments to see Appointments with this prospect.
Click View Contact Log to see Contact Log records for this prospect.
Click View Document Log to see Document Log records for this prospect.
Click View Estimates to see Estimates for this prospect.

Entering Contacts

To enter an appointment with this prospect, click the Enter Appointment button.

To enter a call, email or letter from this prospect, click the Enter Contact Log button.

Using Prospect Records

Use the Find command to locate phone or address information for any prospect.

You can print mailing labels or phone sheets for any Prospect records with the Print Forms command.

Calling Lists

To see a compact list of prospects and other address book entries, choose Contacts from the Report menu, and choose the Prospect List submenu.

HINT-- To change the items included in the reports, choose Custom Layouts from the Options menu, and choose the Reports submenu.

Form Letters

To create a simple form letter that includes name, address, or other information, follow these steps:

Choose Custom Layouts from the Options menu, and choose the Printed Forms submenu.
To make a customer mailing, choose Customers from the Transaction popup menu at the upper left corner of the window. To make a mailing for prospects, choose Prospects.
Click on the Text tool, and enter any text that will be the same for everyone.
Click on the Field tool, and add any data fields that will show on the page-- for example, name and address.

To make a more complex form letter, use a word processor that includes mail merge features. To export data from Goldenseal to use in a mail merge, follow these steps:

Choose Export from the File menu, and choose One Transaction Class.
In the Export dialog, enter Prospects into the Export From popup field, and choose the items you'd like to include. Click OK.
Enter a name for the export file. Click Save.
In the Field Order dialog, choose the fields you'd like to export.
Click OK.

Mailing Labels

To print mailing labels, choose Print Forms from the File menu, and choose the Mailing Labels submenu.

HINT-- To change the label size or layout details, choose Custom Layouts from the Options menu, and choose Reports from the submenu.