A prospect is a customer who is linked to a prospect record. Often a prospect comes from a list of names that you rented for promotional purposes, but it may also be a former subscriber whose subscription has been purged. In either case the prospect is linked to a list code that identifies the source of the name. There are five ways to create a prospect name in QuickFill.
You can key the name using the 'Add prospect' transaction. Usually you will only want to do this when you have a limited number of names to enter.
When purging expired subscribers you can elect to retain their names as prospects. Use the 'Purge subscriptions' update on the 'Updates' menu to do this.
You can use 'Import prospects' found under 'Import...', on the 'Other' main menu option. Using this method requires that you convert your input file to QuickFill's prospect file format. The QFConvert application which is supplied with QuickFill can assist you greatly in doing this. Click here for detailed instructions on importing prospects.
You can key the names off-line using any database program that can write dBASE files. This includes Microsoft Access and Visual FoxPro.
A prospect name is always linked to a mailing list code, so before you enter any prospects you should define a list code for the names by selecting 'Lists' under the 'Marketing' submenu of the 'Definitions' menu.
A name can be entered into QuickFill several times, resulting in a single customer record that is linked to several subscription or prospect records.
Example: Say that you get the name John Jones from a list you rented from BusinessWeek in March 1997. You enter Mr. Jones as a prospect linked to the list code 'BUSWEEK97'. In response to your promotional efforts, Mr. Jones agrees to subscribe to your publication Boosting your Business, so you enter a new order to publication code 'BYB'.
Note: customer numbers
When you enter Mr. Jones as a subscriber you don't have to key his address all over again. Just enter the customer number (which should be on the label of the promotional piece you sent him) and QuickFill will fill in the address data for you.
Some time later you rent a list from Changing Times that has Mr. Jones on it. You enter his name again, this time as a prospect linked to the list 'CHTIMES98'. When you send a promotional mailing to the Changing Times list you exclude current subscribers to 'BYB', so Mr. Jones doesn't get any unnecessary solicitations.
At this point if you were to look up Mr. Jones's name in QuickFill, you would see that he is a subscriber to 'BYB' and a prospect from the 'BUSWEEK97' and 'CHTIMES98' lists.
By this time you feel you have exhausted the usefulness of the 'BUSWEEK97' list so you purge all the names on that list. Mr. Jones's name however is retained because he is a current subscriber and because he is still a member of the 'CHTIMES98' list. Only the 'BUSWEEK97' prospect record is deleted.
Now Mr. Jones changes jobs and he asks you to change his address. When you make the change using the address change transaction, it will affect both his subscription and his entry on the 'CHTIMES98' list. Any promotions you send to that list will go to the new address.
More time passes and Mr. Jones's subscription expires and is not renewed. You purge the expired subscriptions to 'BYB' and link them to a new list named 'BYBEXP97'. Now when you look up Mr. Jones you will see that he is a prospect from the 'CHTIMES98' and 'BYBEXP97' lists.
In 2002 you purge the names on the 'CHTIMES98' list. Mr. Jones still stays in the database because he is a member of the 'BYBEXP97' list. It is still possible for you to promote that list and try to induce him to re-subscribe to 'BYB' or one of your other publications.
Only when you purge the 'BYBEXP97' list will Mr. Jones's name finally be removed from the system.
A prospect name may optionally be linked to a specific publication. This is useful for controlled circulation publications where it is necessary to indicate for which publication the prospect has qualified. There is no advantage in linking a prospect name to a publication unless you have QuickFill's Audit System.