Lead Management is best described as a customer acquisition funnel that starts with finding new customers and finishes with closing transactions. Every organization requires an effective lead management system to achieve successful customer acquisition. Lead management consists of several critical stages in generating and turning leads in your favor. Steps in lead management include attracting leads.
- Capturing leads
- Enriching and tracking leads
- Qualification of Leads
- Distribution of Leads
- Nurturing leads
It is defined as generating leads, tracking their preferences, assessing activities, and managing them to convert them into beneficial actions. In today’s world, lead management is critical for positively affecting sales and marketing operations that broaden the company’s reach, improve its customer base, and boost revenues.
Key Takeaways
- Lead management is a customer acquisition strategy that begins with discovering new leads and finishes with closing transactions.
- It includes attracting, capturing, enhancing, tracking, qualifying, distributing, and nurturing leads to turn them into customers.
- This process is critical for a company’s sales and marketing operations since it influences reach, client retention, and revenue production.
- Effective lead management aids in handling a rising number of potential consumers as a company grows, ensuring that chances are not missed.
- It makes it easier to maintain healthy connections with existing customers and acquire new ones.
Table of Contents
What is Lead Management?
Lead management includes gathering potential customers, or “leads,” identifying their desire to buy, and applying focused ways to convert them into customers.
A company’s sales and marketing efforts depend on this technique since it helps acquire and retain customers. Lead management efficiency affects a company’s reach, client retention, and income.
Leads are the soul of any business. Leads are potential customers who have yet to purchase. Their curiosity grows when they start a business. They are among the few leads who support your investment. The team receives more leads as the firm grows, making it more challenging to manage and causing things to flood.
This is when lead management comes in. It aims to convert prospects. Lead management is more extensive than traditional advertising and best for internet companies with unique client relationships.
What Lead Management is Important for Online Business?
Businesses generate leads through websites, emails, online ads, offline marketing, cold pitches, events, etc. When lead generation involves several channels, a lead management solution is necessary. Leads Management helps businesses.
If you think a spreadsheet or simple contact database can help you handle lead generation and management, you must understand its importance.
Due to inefficient lead management, many firms need help distinguishing hot leads from cold leads when converting leads to consumers. They overlook vital opportunities to turn leads into loyal customers.
With an effective lead management strategy, you can manage lead data; score leads, maintain communication, and nurture women to convert them into positive activities.
Lead management is to give clients the info they need to move through the channel. When different parts of a business advertising association are not synchronized well, or lead generation prospects need to be adequately qualified, customers may get useless information, and the whole process that would have moved toward conversion will not be productive for your business.
When online presence is essential, firms must efficiently handle leads to reduce manual work and improve customer experience. Lead automation should be part of your lead management system to automatically channel leads to your desired results.
Role of Lead Automation in Lead Management Strategy
When you incorporate lead automation in your lead management strategy, you comprise different touchpoints through which a lead can enter your sales funnel.
It is the most critical factor of lead management for online businesses, as it will put your leads in the right places at the perfect time so they get converted in an automated manner. Lead Automation helps you manage leads from different touchpoints of online businesses, such as
- PPC Campaigns
- Landing Pages
- Websites
- Phone Calls
- Social Media, etc
Lead Automation comprised under Lead Management will help you with
- Collecting leads automatically
- Pairing the correct leads with the best-suited salesperson
- Paying heed upon prioritizing leads that are more likely to convert
Some of the best lead automation tools that will help you in lead management are Zoho, Drumup, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, Socedo, and so on.
What are the 9 Stages of Lead Management?
1. Generation of Leads
This is the very first step of the lead’s management process. In this, businesses use advertising and other strategies to help them procure leads.
To make any business model successful, the businesses must meet their target audiences in a conversion-oriented manner.
The generation of leads is done through multiple means that incorporate online and offline mediums such as webinars, trade shows, PPC ads, inbound marketing, email marketing, and so forth.
Lead automation comes into play here, as it lets the leads automatically fall into the sales funnel from the subscription forms, chats, etc.
2. Inquiry performed by Leads
The administration process of the lead management system begins when customers respond to your lead generation efforts.
By responding, your leads will signal that they are interested in the products or services you offer them.
As a general rule, you will reach this step when one of your prospects clicks upon your links or performs a Google search for the keywords you are targeting in your online campaigns or browsing through your or your competitors’ sites.
So, in this step, you are supposed to find out those prospects looking forward to someone like you to help them end their quest. Your lead management must be proficient enough to gauge customers inquiring about your brand.
3. Identification of Leads
The following step in the leads management process is finding out who your ideal customer can be from the people inquiring about your products and services.
Different analytics tools help businesses in performing such tasks. Some of this analytical data is accessible through Google Analytics tools.
You can find other relevant information by getting the customer to send it to you by using different online or offline means that you had to incorporate into your lead-management system to get the information of your leads.
4. Filtering of Leads
When you have found out the identities of your leads, and you are clear about who amongst the leads can be your customers, you should filter your leads to find the ideal leads that will move forward in your sales funnel.
This step of managing leads will help you determine if the signs and details you received in earlier stages are correct and in your favor.
5. Grading of the Leads
Once you find out the particular personality of your leads, you need to do their screening based on the value they will offer you.
As per their chances of being converted for your products and services, you should perform their grading so you or your team know about the leads that should be given the top priorities in the process.
We all know that leads will finally get converted into customers to boost your sales and increase your revenues, so you need to know about the leads that should be prioritized and targeted almost immediately.
Being aware of the specific inclinations of the leads also plays an essential role in helping businesses run more customized campaigns that have more chances of converting the leads.
6. Distribution of Leads
When you have qualified leads, those leaders must be distributed to the responsible members, such as marketing and sales teams.
You should also distribute leads with your team with specific instructions and data associated with the leads’ particular details.
Leads with the highest chances of being converted should be given to sales personnel who can incorporate strategies to turn such leads accurately and effectively.
7. Contacting the Leads
In this step, the salesperson will genuinely get in touch with the most qualified leads to convert them into customers.
The whole process of contacting leads needs to be channeled in a manner that encourages the leads to give some favorable responses.
Contacting leads should be based on the behavioral traits of leads geared toward your efforts.
8. Nurturing the Leads
In this lead nurturing process, you are supposed to convince those leads with inclinations towards your products and services how you will add more value to their lives.
The leads that respond favorably to the sales contact team should be targeted through the lead nurturing process.
In lead nurturing, lead automation tools and manual follow-ups play a significant role in convincing the leads to opt for your products and services.
Leads that are not interested at the moment, have no budget, or want to consult with the team before purchasing are destined to go through your lead nurturing step.
9. Converting the Leads
At long last, the last step of managing the leads process ensures the leads make a purchase.
You need to provide a convenient and user-friendly interface that can alleviate the process of purchasing your leads.
After completing this process, your leads will get converted into your customers, so their journey from being potential customers to customers will be finished. Now, you must incorporate strategies to transform your customers into loyal ones.
Benefits of Lead Management
- With its help, you will get an effective technique that will adeptly categorize and keep leads safe in a conversion-oriented manner. You can sort out leads in different ways, such as demographics, locations, inclinations, engagements, browsing, etc.
- With the right strategy, you can find the leads, distribute them to the sales team, and convince them to opt for your products and services.
- In today’s time, consumers want an immediate response, and lead management ensures this for you. Using it will allow you to automate your responses when a leader wants to interact with you. In the different steps of lead management, I mentioned how you could automate your reactions as per your leads’ inquiries.
- For businesses with vast sales territories, lead management software offers them a sorted-out progression of leads for the sales funnel. It helps advance the sales staff by distributing leads to the right salespeople to optimize conversions.
Best Practices for Lead Management
As you delve further into managing leads, it’s essential to understand the tools and strategies that drive successful lead management operations. Using customer relationship management tools can significantly streamline your lead management process.
Prioritizing lead scoring in your sales process can help determine the potential value of each lead, ensuring your effort is directed efficiently. Let’s dive into some of the best practices for managing leads:
1. Utilize Software: Software designed for managing leads can automate and streamline the process, freeing up valuable time for your sales team. This software can also help keep track of leads, ensuring they are recovered and noticed.
2. Implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM systems can help manage and analyze customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle. A robust CRM system can improve customer service relations and drive sales growth.
3. Incorporate Lead Scoring: Lead scoring helps prioritize leads by assigning a numerical value to each lead based on specific criteria. This method allows the sales team to focus on leads with the highest potential of becoming customers.
4. Leverage Lead Management Tools: Besides software, various tools can aid in managing leads, such as analytics tools for tracking lead behavior or communication tools for maintaining regular contact with leads.
5. Optimize the Sales Process: Use data and feedback to refine your sales process continuously. Identify bottlenecks, enhance communication, and ensure your team focuses on the most promising leads.
6. Establish Quality Assurance: Ensure your team follows processes and takes appropriate actions with each lead. Monitor customer feedback to ensure quality assurance.
7. Measure Performance: Track critical metrics like conversion rates, customer retention, and sales numbers to determine the success of your lead’s management strategy. This data can help you identify areas for improvement and adjust your process as needed.
Tips to Choose a Lead Management System
1. Understand Your Needs: Before selecting a management system for leads, evaluate your business needs to understand what features and functionalities are essential. Consider the size of your team and the type of leads you manage.
2. Analyze Platforms: Research different systems to find the one best fits your requirements. Consider the user interface, pricing models, customer support, integrations, and other factors.
3. Test the System: Once you have narrowed down your choices, test each system to determine which will give you the most value. Consider user experience, scalability, and customer reviews.
4. Get Buy-In From Your Team: When selecting a leads management system, involve your team in the decision process and ensure everyone is on board. This will ensure everyone is comfortable with the platform and can make the most of it.
Some of the best software that you should use in 2023 are-
Best Lead Management Software in 2024
Choosing the right software for your business is essential for effective lead management. Here are some of the best options for you:
- CRMs like Zoho CRM, EngageBay, and Vtiger are industry standards for managing leads. Check here which are the best CRM programmes and their main features.
- Sales automation tools like Autoklose, Close.io, and Pipedrive make engaging with customers and accelerating sales cycles easy.
- Marketing automation platforms like ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, and Marketo can help create personalized campaigns to nurture leads through the funnel.
- Analytics tools like Tableau, Mode, and Domo let you analyze customer data to understand buying patterns and streamline lead management.
- Drip email apps like Flodesk, VoIP software like Dialpad, and Meeting schedulers like Calendly
Critical components of lead management
Lead management is a process that involves many necessary parts to turn possible leads into loyal customers. It includes a lot of different strategies and analysis methods to make sure that every lead is adequately cared for and led to make a purchase. We will talk about the most essential parts of a solid lead-handling system below:
1. Setting lead priorities
Prioritizing leads is a method for carefully judging and ranking possible customers based on their interests, how much money they have to spend, and how well they fit with the service or product offered.
The main idea behind this process is to help the marketing and sales teams focus on the people who are most likely to buy, making them more efficient and increasing sales.
2. Sorting leads into groups
Classification is the process of dividing leads into separate groups based on factors such as demographics, past interactions, and amount of engagement. This sorting makes it easier to make customized communication plans, which makes marketing efforts more valuable and powerful.
For example, a tech company might divide its leads into groups based on their interest in software and tailor its messages to meet the needs of each group.
3. Strategies for Developing Leads
In this phase, you will build connections with prospects that will last through all the stages of the buyer’s journey. It means carefully connecting with possible customers by giving them helpful information, answering their questions, and keeping them interested with content that fits their needs and interests.
Strategies might include email campaigns or blog posts specifically written to answer questions and meet the concerns of different groups of leads.
4. Keeping an eye on leads and gathering information
Monitoring engagements and reviewing the data gathered during the lead management process is essential to understand how leads behave and make sales tactics work better. These insights can help you determine which engagement methods work best, which lead characteristics make them most likely to convert, and how to improve your marketing strategies for better results.
For example, think about a business that uses data analytics to determine which social media sites are best at connecting with high-value leads. This way, they can use their resources best to get the most out of them.
Lead-management-process
1. Putting together leads
Putting leads together is the first step in managing leads well. It is essential to start campaigns to find and develop possible leads, but collecting and building on them is also important. Lead management is assembling leads from different sources on one platform with necessary information like where the lead came from, campaign details, etc.
2. Following the Leads
Can I have the customer’s email address and phone number?
The answer is no, which is too bad.
Find out if they can help you have a sales talk. It is important to get this kind of information from lead tracking, which is an integral part of lead management.
Lead tracking means keeping an eye on what possible leads do and how they act, such as:
- The pages people visit on your website (for example, if someone goes to your price page, they are serious about buying your product or service).
- Checking the number of opens and clicks on your emails to find out how interested people are in your brand
- You can record your answers to calls, texts, and WhatsApp messages.
It helps when you follow up with someone if you remember what happened, which makes lead tracking even more important.
3. Qualification of the Lead
Lead qualification methods that could better cause about 67% of possible sales to be lost.
When leads that are not ready to be sold are pushed into the system, this is called ineffective lead qualification. So, it is essential to qualify leads based on things like
- A genuine desire to purchase
- The actual ability to buy Fitment (whether your product or service meets their specific wants)
It does not make sense to sell to people who are not going to buy, but it is still essential to keep track of this information (with reasons) for later use. The idea of lead management helps organize this qualification data in a way that makes it easy to find at any time.
4. Giving out leads
Let us say you have a sales team organized by product and area.
How do you choose which lead goes to which salesperson?
This is where giving or delegating the lead role comes in.
As an example:
You might choose to give the lead to the US team if it comes from California. You could also give the lead to Jack if they are interested in a particular product, like Product A. You can guide this process with your own unique rules or logic. The lead management method lets the right salesperson be given the correct lead. This information is then shared with the rest of the team, keeping everyone current.
5. Building up the leads
Taking care of leads, also known as cultivating them, means developing a plan to build long-lasting relationships with them so they can finally become qualified prospects. Many businesses say these lead nurture programs directly lead to more sales.
Best Lead Management Tools
- Zonal Impact: Zonal Impact is all-inclusive field sales management software that uses regional data to improve sales performance and increase the number of sales that can be made. It has many functions, including managing leads, making sales easier, planning sales territories, and more.
- HubNest: HubNest has a set of marketing, sales, and customer service tools that work together. These tools include lead tracking, automation, and data analysis.
- TradeForce: TradeForce is a top customer relationship management tool with solid lead management features like tracking leads, managing opportunities, and automating workflows.
- PipeStream: With visual pipelines, contact management, and activity tracking, PipeStream makes it easy to monitor the sales process. This makes lead management more efficient.
- RejuvenateSales: RejuvenateSales is a customer relationship management (CRM) software that can handle leads, track emails, and do automated tasks to make the sales process more accessible and get leads more involved.
How can companies benefit from effective lead management?
Effective lead management brings a multitude of benefits to companies:
- Clear Insight into Lead Behavior: This stops leads from duplicating and gives you complete visibility into lead actions and stages to get the most out of each one.
- Correctly Qualifying Leads: An organized lead management strategy helps separate good leads from bad ones, which saves time and effort because you do not have to chase down unqualified leads.
- Streamlined Lead Nurturing: A well-run lead nurturing process keeps in touch with possible customers meaningfully over time, increasing the success rate.
When companies use complete lead management, they see an overall rise in sales productivity and conversion rates.
The difference between a lead and a customer
| - | Lead | Customer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Someone showing interest in your brand, products, or marketing content. | An individual who has purchased your product or service. |
| Acquisition Strategy | Strategies like brand awareness campaigns, content marketing, and targeted advertisements. | Tools like discounts, product demos, and trial offers. |
| Engagement Strategy | Brand/product familiarity campaigns and trust-building efforts. | Actions like sharing product updates, collecting feedback, and requesting testimonials. |
| Revenue Potential | Achievable through sales. | Realizable through subscription renewals, upselling, and cross-selling. |
| Sales Probability | A range between 5% and 20%. | A range between 60% and 70%. |
Conclusion!
With Lead Management, a business can find leads, decide their positions in the sales funnel, and convince them to purchase from you.
So, incorporating the management strategies in your business management plan will empower your business to widen its reach by penetrating the most profitable customer bases ready to be converted into loyal customers.
FAQS
1. What is Lead Management?
Lead management means monitoring people who might become customers and helping them do so.
2. Why is it important?
Keeping information about possible customers in order is essential for more sales and faster work.
3. How does it work?
You look for potential buyers, keep an eye on them, and give the ones who are interested in the right salesperson. You then stay in touch with them until they buy something.
4. What tools do you use?
You use CRM software to keep track of your customers, chat programs to talk to them, and analytics software to find out what is working.
5. How can I make Lead Management better?
You should use good tools, teach your team well, find interested customers, and always try to do better based on the numbers.
6. What are the problems with Lead Management?
You can only sometimes tell how much money you are making because many possible customers or people are not interested. Sometimes, the sales and marketing teams need to work better together.
Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Marketing
