Kimberly Grimms — August 2, 2019 — August 2, 2019
Business is about revenues and driving better ROI. To generate revenue, you need to have sales. To sell something, you should have buyers. To have customers, well… therein lies the challenge.
As time passes by, the marketing landscape changes fast. Strategies that have worked before might not work now; so they must be evaluated and re-evaluated for you to stay in the competition in your industry. Most believe that more lead conversions result in higher ROI; this is why a lot of marketers search for the best lead management tools they can use. After all, it can be argued that increasing sales is not always about generating new leads; rather, by maintaining the leads you already have and keeping them coming back to you. Doing so will not only increase the quality of your leads, but it will also help you lessen your marketing expenses since your loyal leads can refer you to new users who might be interested in trying out your products and services.
What about converting your potential lead to an actual lead? Here, conversion rate optimization strategies come into play. Before we define what conversion rate optimization (CRO) is, let us first define conversion. Conversion, as Moz defines it, “is the general term for a visit or completing a site goal.” This goal may be to make a sale, signing up for newsletters, or downloading an app. CRO, according to Moz, “is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take the desired action.” It is about finding out what your visitors do on your website, knowing what stops them from converting and fixing this problem.
There are different factors why your visitors are not converting into leads. It might be because of competition in your industry, a change in your consumer’s expectation for customer experience, to name two. While all leads are important, priority must be given to leads who are ready to purchase. Leads who are not ready to make a purchase should be nurtured towards readiness. The goal is to make your prospects become customers.
In this article, we will discuss lead management strategies you can try, identify areas for improvement, and lead management software and tools you could use to help you enhance your game and optimize your ROI.
What is Lead Management?
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Think of a funnel. The top of a funnel is wide, and it narrows towards the bottom. Sales are like that. At the top, you have your leads or potential customers. In the middle, you sift your leads and reach them, to find out if they are legitimate prospects. This is also the stage where you engage with them to turn them into customers. At the bottom of your funnel is your paying customer—the lead who availed of your products and services. This whole process of converting your leads into customers is called lead management. Simple as it may sound, it is a complicated process that changes.
Lean Management Strategies to Try
Manage Lead Information
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Observe your visitors and their behavior on your site. This will help you get an idea on what they’re looking at, their status in their buying journey, and the probability of them buying your product or services. Having valuable insights into your lead’s behavior will give your marketing people an idea on which marketing tactics and campaigns best communicate to them. This will help your sales representatives personalize their sales efforts to successfully turn your lead into a customer. If it seems overwhelming for you to manage your lead information, it will not hurt to try using lead management software to lessen the weight of your work.
Score Leads
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A lead score permits you to assign values to the demographics of your lead and/or your lead’s behavior on your website. The scores generated will give you an idea who among your leads are ready to move into sales and who need to be nurtured into making a purchase soon. A higher lead score will be given to a lead who is likely to purchase a product or service from your company. Having a lead scoring will help you understand the interest levels of your lead and determine which leads to weed out. VanillaSoft is one of the best lead management tools you can use for lead scoring.
Sort Leads According to Buyer Personas
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Leads are different and will earn different lead scores. It is best to sort them based on your buyer personas; doing so will increase your lead management CRM. Buyer personas are a detailed sketch of a customer. It may include characteristics, motivations, needs, wants, and preferences. Identify how the products and services you offer can satisfy the objectives of your persona. Refine your persona, as the marketplace evolves. Remember that a lead may not perfectly fit a specific buyer persona you create.
Distribute Leads
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Once you have sorted your leads, distribute them to your marketing or to your sales representatives, depending on their score and personas. Your leads who are ready to buy should be assigned to sales representatives who can assist them through their buying journey until they make that purchase. Leads who are not ready to make a purchase should be assigned to marketing representatives. These representatives have the goal of persuading them through persona-specific contents see why they must avail of your products and services.
By efficiently and effectively distributing your leads to the right representatives, you are making sure that none of your leads go to waste and that all leads are being taken care of. It improves your lead management CRM, as it ensures that your assigned representatives can contact and engage with your leads, making them more likely to buy from you.
Nurture Leads through Persona-specific Contents
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Persona-specific contents will make your leads feel that you are customer-oriented. Since buyer personas have unique needs and requirements, approaching them with accurate content that meets their needs will make them more likely to avail of products from you and trust your brand. This will increase the conversion rate on your website. For example, your lead who is not ready to make a purchase might still be in the research phase. If your representative can nurture that lead by sending relevant content such as product overview and promotional offers, then it could help influence their decision. Note that even when your leads become customers, you should still nurture them and make loyal customers out of them. You can do this by offering content that features other relevant products and services they could avail of in the future. These could also be related to their previous engagements with you. You can also ask for their feedback to help improve your strategies.
Consider the media through which your lead engage in social media, email, mobile, and others since you want to ensure that they will actually receive your content.
Observe and Adjust
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Lead management is continuous and ever-changing. Diligently observe the business conditions and market signals, and make adjustments based on the trends. Lead-management operation and strategies should be evaluated at least once a month, to ensure that you are on the top of your game. Moreover, the information you generate form your lead management CRM will provide you with up-to-date statistics regarding the quality and quantity of your leads as well as the efficiency of your website.
As mentioned, you can and must add feedback and suggestions from your customers to improve your relationship with them. This will tremendously help improve your strategies, drive better customer experience, and increase your ROI.
Lead Management Software to Try:
Lead management can be overwhelming. Lead management software and tools can be very beneficial in ensuring the efficiency of your strategy. Here are five lead management software that can help you with your lead management CRM:
HubSpot Sales
HubSpot Sales is an all-in-one software geared towards generating leads, increasing revenues, and exceeding customer expectations. This software can be used for free by
your lead management team. You can start using this software for free as an individual salesperson and USD400 a month for sales teams.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a simple and easy-to-navigate CRM designed for high-velocity teams. This software is known for its ability to depict where leads come from. Its analytics and report system are very detailed and organized. If desired, it can also use different filters to summarize your data, giving you the freedom to organize your results, based on your objectives.
You can avail of Freshsales’ 21-day free trial. After which, you can choose among the four paid options they offer, with prices depending on the scale of your business. An annual payment option is also available, which can save you money compared to paying monthly.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is one of the easiest sales tools to use. This software is customizable, depending on your preference; and you can choose to stay logged in constantly to make sure you can observe how your lead management is working. Pipedrive sorts your leads and helps you approach each type of lead effectively without wasting too much time. They offer three options with varying prices, depending on your needs and budget. The most popular is the Gold option which costs USD29 per user if billed monthly. Paying annually will give you a 17% discount.
Pardot
Pardot is B2B marketing automation and lead management software. It is known for enabling marketing and sales teams to set up, deploy, and handle online marketing campaigns to improve ROI. It is available in three package options to power your marketing pipeline.
Oxyleads
Oxyleads is also a B2B data and lead generation software. Using it will enable you to build contact databases on functioning emails of companies and contacts you are targeting to engage with. They have four pricing options which can be paid monthly or quarterly.
Conclusion
A lead management strategy varies from business to business. Lead management CRM should be flexible and can easily be adjusted to suit your business goals and objectives. When choosing a lead management software for your business, know your needs and budget, first. Then, make sure that the software you choose is efficient in delivering your goals and objectives and is worth your money. You can also opt to find a reputable marketing agency to help you maximize your business’s ROI.
When thoroughly thought out, your lead management strategies could produce significant savings and time for your business, yield to a good collaboration among your marketing and sales teams, and help you gain and maintain customers.
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