Twelve Conversations, Zero Consistent Data

You work a housing sector trade stand for eight hours. You speak to twelve procurement managers from registered social landlords, housing associations, and local authority housing departments. Each conversation goes differently. One person mentions they use Northgate and outsource all annual print. Another is running everything internally on Capita IBS and has no idea what they pay per page. A third has intelligent single enveloping at less than 25% and knows it is costing them.

By 5 PM you have business cards, notes scribbled on the back of flyers, and a mental impression of which conversations were worth following up. You do not have structured data. You do not have a consistent record of which host systems are in use, which departments generate the highest mail volumes, or whether the person who seemed most interested actually consented to follow-up communications.

That is the problem this template solves.

What a Qualified Lead Actually Contains

The qualification structure here runs from general interest to granular operational data — and the progression of the form is the qualification funnel.

The first three boolean fields — interest in communications transformation, interest in the 22% mailing cost reduction, interest in a personalised projection — are the opening conversation committed to a record. A Yes on all three is a warm lead. A Yes on cost reduction interest but No on the personalised projection is someone who is interested in the concept but not ready to share operational data. Recording the specific combination, rather than a general "interested" note, creates a follow-up strategy that is specific rather than generic.

The host application field — Northgate, Capita, Civica, Orchard, Aareon, Capita IBS, or Other — is the technical qualifier that determines integration complexity and sales path. An organisation on Northgate has a completely different document output architecture than one on Civica. Knowing the host system before you walk in the door for the follow-up meeting means you can present a relevant integration story rather than a generic pitch. The QR code scan field capturing contact details at intake means this host system information is attached to a named, contactable person rather than a generic enquiry.

The departments and volumes fields are the pain discovery layer. Arrears Management, Tenancy Management, Rent Management, Service Charge Management, Responsive Repairs Management — each generates a different type and volume of outgoing communications. A housing association with 8,000 stock units where arrears management is the highest-volume communication department has a very different mailing cost profile than one of the same size where planned maintenance drives the bulk of outgoing mail. Total stock units owned/managed captures the scale variable that determines whether a 22% saving projection is a compelling number or a marginal one.

The Print and Postage Audit Fields

The print and postage sections are where the operational data gets granular enough to build an actual projection. Annual print versus adhoc print, internal versus outsourced, per-page cost in GBP — these fields capture the inputs that make a personalised savings calculation possible rather than a generic percentage claim.

Intelligent single enveloping percentage is the single most revealing operational field in the entire template. An organisation achieving less than 25% intelligent single enveloping on a 10,000-unit stock base is paying for a significant number of separate mailings to the same address — arrears notices, service charge statements, and rent demands going out in three separate envelopes to the same tenant on the same day. The cost of that inefficiency is calculable from the per-mailing postage figures captured earlier in the record.

The electronic delivery support question — native host output, converted output, or externally created communications fed into email, portal, or DMS — maps the prospect's current digital maturity. An organisation feeding native Capita output directly into their tenant portal has different needs than one with no electronic delivery pathway at all. The follow-up conversation, and the product positioning, needs to be calibrated to that starting point.

Stand Feedback Closes the Loop on Event Effectiveness

The banner and flyer rating fields with free-text improvement suggestions are the event marketing audit that most vendors skip entirely. Running a stand at a housing sector conference costs real money: stand space, graphics, staff time, travel. Capturing structured feedback from every conversation about how the marketing materials are landing gives you data to improve the next event rather than opinions from the stand team, who are too close to the materials to evaluate them objectively.

The prize draw preference — iPad Mini, Nexus 7, or a time-limited XLPrint license — is itself a qualification signal. A prospect who selects the software license as their prize preference is more engaged with the product than one who selects the iPad Mini.