Lead Management: How to Build & Execute an Effective Strategy
Husam Jandal
World-Renowned Digital Marketing Consultant and Business Strategist - Helping Businesses Drive Growth Through Innovative Digital Marketing and Business Transformation Strategies
People are finding your company online and submitting forms, and your sales team is eager to start reaching out to them. There’s just one problem… only some of them are ready to become clients. Others need more nurturing before they're ready, and some aren't a suitable fit for your company. The flood of leads is starting to overwhelm your sales team, and they’re not sure which leads to focus on. Occasionally, leads are lost or forgotten.
This situation often happens in expanding small and midsized organizations. Many small business owners attempt to address the issue by increasing their sales teams, or at the very least, they fantasize about expanding once the sales revenue starts coming in. But despite appearances, these are not people problems. In fact, increasing your personnel while you're dealing with these difficulties may make things worse and result in needless spending. You need a solid lead management strategy to manage them all and speed up the sales process.
Lead Management – What is It?
The process of gathering, analyzing, and monitoring contacts that may eventually turn into clients—also known as "sales leads" or "leads"—is known as "sales lead management," "leads management," or simply "lead management."
What Sets Lead Management and Lead Generation Apart?
The process of drawing potential customers to your business is known as lead generation. Lead management is what happens with potential customers after your business learns about them and has their information.
Lead Management Advantages for Your Business
According to Ruler Analytics , lead generation is the most crucial objective for nine in ten marketers. Brands are also willing to make significant investments in the lead-generation process. According to the Integrated Marketing Association , a median business services company spends $132 to generate a single lead. Yet, according to?HBR , around one-quarter of organizations never reply to leads at all, and a quarter of organizations take longer than 24 hours to make contact. In the interim, the likelihood of connecting with the lead, much less closing a deal, diminishes.
A strong lead management strategy will help you:
Lead Management Tools
People often want to know if they really need a CRM . The answer is a resounding "yes." CRM software, which stands for customer relationship management, makes it easier to ensure that your leads don't fall through the cracks, automates numerous tasks, and offers valuable insights that will help you close more sales.
Most of this page assumes that you currently have a decent CRM or want to use one as part of your strategy because they are so crucial.
I'll cover tools in more detail when we examine the five stages of lead management, but to start, your team will perform better if you have the following tools as part of your CRM or sourced separately:
5 Stages of Lead Management
A traditional lead management process works similarly to the digital marketing tree . Each aspect builds on the previous steps. You don't have to implement all five stages at once. Instead, perfect the first one before moving on to the next stage. The result will be a robust lead ecosystem that combines the best of operations, sales, and marketing to improve conversions and boost ROI.
1. Lead Generation
Getting quality data from your lead collection sources into your lead management system is the main goal at this stage. Once more, if you're using a solid CRM, leads and the information they supply are imported automatically into your software.
If you're auditing and improving your lead management strategy, consider your answers to the following questions to see if you need to improve. Be aware that if marketing has yet to do its part or operations haven't given marketing useful lead collection and analytics tools, the sales department may be unable to provide data or answers.
What’s our view-to-contact conversion rate?
View in this statistic refers to the total number of times a user views a page, and contact refers to the user's inclusion in your CRM, typically as a lead. Some companies will also use the term "visit-to-contact," which describes the total number of sessions a visitor spends browsing the page. The most crucial thing is to pick a metric and use it consistently while measuring.
Here, every business will be unique. Higher numbers aren't necessarily better because quality typically declines as quantity increases. You might discover, nevertheless, that some pages consistently outperform others by a significant margin. For example, if you engage with referral partners and design specific landing pages for them, those people are primed to work with you, and conversion rates will be much greater. On the other hand, an unoptimized website will often have a conversion rate of less than one percent. Increasing your view-to-contact conversion rate by one percent or two percent may be optimal in these cases. Here, you can compare several pages and benchmark against yourself.
How are we generating leads?
Can we identify the precise sources, campaigns, and content generating them?
Where are our lead opportunities?
Do some campaigns, sources, or content generate fewer leads than they should?
2. Qualification and Segmentation of leads
Lead qualification and segmentation aim to categorize the leads that enter your CRM. This will be your second step if you are starting your lead management strategy from scratch. During this stage, you’ll divide your leads or new contacts into categories based on their behavior or level of readiness. Your teams should collaborate to identify the appropriate groupings and the actions and attributes that define those groups. Is age relevant, for instance, to lead behavior? Industry? Role or job title?
You can fully automate qualification and segmentation, provided you're obtaining good data throughout the lead generation and capture phase, and it enters your CRM sensibly.?
The following questions will help you assess whether you need to focus on qualification and segmentation if you're refining your process.
Can we distinguish between sales-qualified leads and marketing-qualified leads?
A lead that expresses interest in your product or service but isn't quite ready to purchase is known as a marketing-qualified lead (MQL). An MQL will occasionally download top-of-funnel content (general information pieces, how-to guides, listicles, etc.), sign up for your newsletter, attend a webinar, or engage with your company similarly.
A lead that exhibits readiness to buy is known as a sales-qualified lead (SQL). An SQL may occasionally request a live demo, trial, or download bottom-of-funnel content (case studies, tips for comparing products, demos, etc.).
Sales representatives should contact SQLs. They risk losing the lead's attention or, at the absolute least, wasting the rep's time if they contact an MQL too soon. However, given enough time and the proper care, an MQL might eventually develop into an SQL.
Does the sales team spend a lot of time speaking with leads who aren't qualified?
Without additional nurturing, marketing-qualified leads are unlikely to convert, and unqualified leads are not likely to convert at all. As a result, you can usually determine if your sales staff is wasting time talking to unqualified leads because they are rejected during the call, if they are receiving the runaround from those they are calling, or if prospects stall.
Can you tell which leads are ready to begin your sales process?
Your system should be able to spot signs that someone is about to purchase by observing their behavior. These signals will vary depending on the business but frequently involve actions like downloading bottom-of-funnel information, asking for a consultation, or asking for a trial.
What are our segments?
There are numerous techniques to segment leads. You can categorize them, for example, based on their location, occupation, firm, need or concern, income or revenue, persona, interactions with your organization, and more. By doing this, you can personalize their journey, encourage MQLs to advance to the SQL stage, and close more deals with SQLs. Your staff should be aware of the lead segmentation process and the rationale behind it.
Keep in mind that your segments may change with time. For instance, you may begin by collecting only the most basic information from leads on your lead capture forms, then ask them for more information as they proceed through your funnels. Using this strategy, you can increase form submissions and gradually create strong lead profiles.
Does the marketing department send out mass emails that receive little engagement or have a high rate of unsubscribes?
According to Accenture , 91 percent of consumers feel they are more likely to buy from companies that make offers and suggestions that are relevant to them. Nearly half of all consumers have abandoned a website and purchased elsewhere due to poorly chosen content.
The same is true for email. However, you'll see it more in relation to unsubscribes and low engagement. This means that your ability to personalize a lead's experience or provide them with content that is pertinent to their needs will significantly impact your ability to sell to that lead in the future. You can only accomplish it through effective segmentation.
3. Lead Nurturing
The main goal of lead nurturing is to turn MQLs into SQLs by delivering them specialized or customized information. You can reuse your evergreen content and distribute it to particular segments if you have website analytics set up and can tell what performs best for each group.
Ask yourself the following questions to see whether your lead nurturing stage requires assistance.
Are we automating nurturing campaigns?
Your nurturing emails can be automated if your segments are well-created and your CRM or email campaign solution offers automation. Your marketing and sales teams don't need to contact leads or send nurturing emails manually. If you still need to automate your nurturing emails, evaluate your current technology to determine if you can and create some workflows to test it out.
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What are our email click-through and open rates?
The average open rate is 21.5 percent, per Campaign Monitor research. Typical rates vary by industry, with retail having the lowest percentage at 17.1 percent and education having the highest percentage at 28.5 percent. In addition, the click-through rate in the retail sector is 0.7 percent, while it is 4.4 percent in the education sector. To determine if you're on track, look at the industry benchmarks. Your lead nurturing additional work if your campaigns aren't functioning as well as they should.
What is our unsubscribe rate?
According to Campaign Monitor, the average unsubscribe rate is 0.1 percent. Again, there is some variation, with some industries reaching as high as 0.4 percent and many averaging around 0.1 percent. If your unsubscribe rate exceeds that of your sector, it suggests that you send individuals content unsuitable for their current stage or needs. Review your lead nurturing content to see which pieces are repelling readers and replace them with more appropriate content for their needs.
Do our MQLs become SQLs?
Since everyone has a varied level of sales preparedness, there is no set rule or benchmark, but at least some of your MQLs should start evolving into SQLs. You can improve your processes to see if there are methods to get more people to go forward or to get them to move forward more quickly if you know what is effective for the ones that advance into the SQL stage. If you're having trouble making headway, consider adjusting your nurturing workflow one campaign at a time to observe if the outcomes increase or decrease, and then proceed with the most successful campaign.
4. Lead Distribution and Scoring
Lead distribution, or routing, is the act of assigning leads to a specific rep. Lead scoring refers to determining which leads your salespeople should prioritize. Most CRMs can assist you with scoring and distribution duties; nevertheless, you'll need to provide the CRM with the relevant scoring criteria.
The following questions will help you decide whether adjustments are required if you already score and distribute your leads using a CRM to some extent.
Does our sales team always know which leads to contact?
Even if you have a massive sales team, the number of sales that can be closed is finite. Because of this, it makes more sense to keep your team leaner and simply have them focus only on leads who are more likely to buy.
At its most basic, lead scoring involves assigning leads a numerical value indicating their purchase readiness. That way, your sales team can focus on leads with higher scores.
While many CRMs and campaign management tools will score leads automatically for you, the scoring won't be specific to your organization or industry. You can start with it, but you should also consider any similarities your converted leads have as well as information from leads who did not convert to clients. Use this data to add or subtract points based on behavior and assign greater point values to actions that have more weight in the likelihood of closing the sale.
Do leads always go to the correct representative?
You might want to send leads to salespeople based upon:
Fortunately, various lead assignment methods are available, and most CRMs will enable you to select the most appropriate one based on your preferences.
When sales representatives have leads to follow up on, how are they notified?
Automated lead distribution, lead scoring, and lead follow-up notification are all possible. Choose the notification method that works best for you. Some CRMs can send an email, a pop-up message, or a message through the team's chat platform, or they can use other methods. Other applications will simply add the lead to a queue. Look at your CRM's capabilities and speak with your present salespeople to find out which ones are likely to work best.
Does the sales staff overlook leads?
If any SQLs are being overlooked or not receiving the proper follow-ups, your distribution strategy needs to be adjusted. First, find where leads are getting lost, then put protections in place. Consider using a different notification technique, for instance, if leads are getting lost at the start of the workflow. In addition, if salespeople forget to follow up on leads because they are busy, think about setting up a reminder system.
5. Evaluate Your Success
Your SQL just bought something. Celebrate, then measure your success. If you're setting up your goals and selecting KPIs for the first time or conducting an audit of your lead management success, the following questions can be helpful.
What are the KPIs for our lead management?
Every business will have a different set of objectives and, as a result, will gauge success differently. The following is a list of some KPIs you might want to monitor:
Decide how to track and monitor KPIs and how your team measures progress.
Are we evaluating the effectiveness of lead management as a whole and each stage separately?
The more comfortable you are with your data, the simpler it will be to identify gaps in particular stages. Review each step as well as your overall lead management plan.
Can we calculate the return on investment for lead management activities?
It’s hard to justify incorporating anything into your activities if you can't show the benefit it has for your business.
Is our current process moving leads through their journey?
You can monitor the progress of leads and the time they spend in each step with a modern CRM.
Can we tell which activities are turning leads into customers?
Which procedures, materials, etc., have a more significant impact on consumers and purchases? Look for ways to replicate effective practices and eliminate any actions or materials that can cause delays or cost you leads.
Is the lead management strategy making things easier for the team?
Your staff is more likely to adhere to procedures and protocols the easier things are for them to do. Automation can be quite beneficial in this area.
Best Practices in Lead Management
A few best practices can help boost the efficiency of your lead management approach in addition to addressing and improving the five steps mentioned above.
Consider Your Business When Deploying or Modifying Stages
Generally speaking, it's better to implement these stages in the specified order. However, changing the order is acceptable if you believe you'll achieve better or quicker outcomes by addressing them in a different sequence. It's okay to skip through to stage five, for instance, if you already feel confident in your lead management approach but are still evaluating its effectiveness.
Include Operations, Marketing, and Sales
Every member of your team will have a different viewpoint and can have suggestions on how to implement or improve processes. Additionally, your team is more likely to accept and adjust to these changes if you involve them more.
Regularly Examine and Improve Your Lead Management Process
This is not a one-time deal. Make little modifications as you go and adopt the changes that help your team manage leads more easily, increase efficiency, or improve conversions.
Improve Your Lead Management Strategy
As a digital marketing consultant with a business background, I believe sales and marketing teams must be aligned with processes such as lead management. This ensures that each initiative is connected to a business goal and that you get a return on investment from each activity. That can be tricky to do if you’re not sure you’re using the right technology or how to organize your team and workflows for success. If you want to get the most out of your leads, I'm here to help. Feel free to reach out for a complimentary consultation.
You can also read this article on my website: A Beginner’s Guide to Lead Management: Setting the Stage for Success .
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