Every company, especially builders, should have a contact management system. A more advanced contact management system allows you to manage the relationships of your customers and is referred to as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In any of these types of systems, one should have defined codes for all contact types, and stages of those types. 

The list below is a basic list.  For example, It can be even more sophisticated to include a code denoting the source from which the lead came.  From the list below, instead of 08-B, one could have subsets such as 08-B-Web and 08-B-News, denoting a source of web and newspaper respectively.  The idea is always striving to push a prospect to a number 1. At a glance one can understand where in the buying process a prospect is, simply by looking at the number. For example, with the list below, a 9 is not as good as a 7, and a 7 is not as good as a 5, and none of them are as good as a 1.  

Be careful not to use terms that are subjective in their identification, without the clarification.Not every team member will think of terms such as “interested” or “immediate” in the same way, so those terms must be defined for whatever works for your company.  The term “immediate” must be defined by a number of days so you entire team is using it the same way. Otherwise, your reports are meaningless. 

Keep in mind your codes can, or even should, be alpha numeric.  In the list below, Do Not Contact could be replaced with a high number, near the end of your total number, such as 99-DNC.  The "Bought Elsewhere" could be numbered 98-BE, and so on. In this residential construction specific example, a number 1 is the highest goal.  Having a numerical system so anyone can have an immediate feel for how important and relevant each contact (prospect) is, ultimately, will tie back in to your sales goals, and your profitability.  

01 - Homeowner (Closed and in communication Post Closing/Settlement and is in warranty)
02 - Buyer Active (Communication Prior to Closing/Settlement)
03 - Design Center (Communication Re: Selections)
04 - Under Contract (Newly under contract, but not yet approved or not a Buyer Active yet)
05 - Be Back (2nd or multiple visits scheduled and kept)
06 - Onsite Appt. (Appointment scheduled and kept)
07 - A Prospect (Immediate Buying Interest (<90 days)- are ready, willing and able, but not a 6 or a 5 yet)

08 - B Prospect (3-6 Months Buying Interest, maybe 2 out of 3 of an 07 prospect)
09 - C Prospect (6-12 Months Buying Interest, maybe only 1 out of an 07 prospect)
10 - D Prospect (D for delayed. Still active, in process, on a long term follow up schedule)
11 - Web Lead (Registered via our website, but has not yet been engaged or qualified)
12 - Unassigned (The default people type code for all leads, not coming through the web)
13 - Buyer Cancelled (Communication post Contract Canc., is back to being a prospect, but held out as a separate type of prospect)
All- (This is not applied to prospects. It is used for campaigns to all contacts)
98-BE (Bought Elsewhere)
99-DNC (Do Not Contact, aka Dead)

This list is a basic list. For a more comprehensive list please contact Erik Cofield, VP Sales and Marketing for BuildTopia. He can be reached at ecofield@buildtopia.com