The survival of any business depends on its ability to procure new customers, and companies can spend a significant portion of their budgets pushing their products or services to consumers. Every time a company generates a lead it is essential that somebody follows it up so that inquiries become sales. To do this, a company needs an effective system in place for sales lead management.
Why Sales Lead Management Is Important
It is estimated that almost half of customer inquiries lead to a sale, which is significantly higher than other sales method. But of course for a sale to be made, somebody within the company actually has to get in touch with the customer. This is where many businesses go wrong.
Conservative figures show that at least 35 percent of the leads generated by marketing efforts are never followed up. In some companies it is believed that this figure is more than double. When a customer shows interest in a company’s products but never get a response, this damages the professional reputation of the business and drives consumers to competitors.
So why are so many leads ignored? In most cases, the leads are not followed up because they have been wrongly assigned or not recorded at all. Businesses, both large and small, desperately need an effective sales lead management system to streamline operations. This can raise sales in tandem with minimal customer acquisition costs.
How Does A Lead Management System Work?
An effective lead management system should capture every customer inquiry which comes in. These leads should then be ranked on their strength, so that follow ups can prioritized by the likelihood of a sale. This is particularly useful when inquiry volumes are high, as the chances of a sale drop dramatically if over 48 hours elapse before a call back. It is essential that a company reacts quickly if the lead is hot.
After the leads have been assigned a rank they will either be sent directly to the sales team to action them, or a customer services representative will review the information and manually assign each lead to a sales person. After leads which have been designated as “hot” have been reviewed, cooler leads can be followed up. These can still generate a sale if handled professionally.
To monitor the success of the leads and track the progress of the business, most customer relationship management programs offer the facility to generate reports. Knowing which leads led to a successful outcome and which inquiries were unproductive can help a company to refine their approach and increase their number of sales in the long term. The reports can also be used to check whether the business is keeping on top of their leads within the ideal timescale, as the program will show how many new leads have come in and how many have been followed up.
Following up an inquiry quickly and professionally means that there is a high likelihood of a desirable outcome. To ensure that your business is making the most of its leads, it is worth investing in an excellent lead management system.