Too many leads. Is that a problem? That can’t possibly be a problem. A certain percentage of your leads will close. So clearly, at the most basic level, more leads means more revenue. But more leads also means more work. And for sales agents who may be operating at a level of organization that is less than perfect, more leads may mean more confusion. One problem with funneling increasing numbers of leads to sales agent and expecting them to close more deals is that the human brain isn’t infinitely scalable. There is a point where focusing and finding opportunities becomes difficult. At this point, the law of diminishing returns sets in and hard earned leads are left to rot on the docks, neglected by overwhelmed sales agents.

Here’s how ‘lead confusion’ sets in

Companies using best practices and benefiting from the ongoing research by lead management companies see improvements in speed to contact and closure rates. These improvements naturally result in business owners and sales managers buying and distributing more leads. And why not, data mining and business intelligence have empowered analysts to crack the code of the successful sale. New technologies have given them tools to automate and replicate the processes that support the successful sale. So buying more leads, and expecting a proportional increase in revenue is logical. Until you factor in the human element; the human brain, which has finite capacity, and may not deliver expected results from an increased lead buy.

Tools for clarity

Help is on the way. Lead Management software provides sales agents with tools to manipulate large numbers of leads and process amounts of information far beyond what they can keep fresh in their short term memory. One such feature that some lead management solutions provide is lead prioritization. Lead prioritization is based on proven best practices for high closure rates. It puts leads in the order of “Who needs to be called right now?” The rules that govern lead prioritization differ from industry to industry, but an example of how leads might work their way to the top of the prioritized queue in an insurance company is this:

-Leads with reminders in the next 60 minutes
-New leads
-Leads with the ‘follow-up date’ of today
-30 minutes after the 1st message is left (Contact Attempt)
-2 hours after the 2nd message is left (Contact Attempt)
-The next day after the 3rd message is left (Contact Attempt)
-Every day after the 4th, 5th, and 6th contact attempts/messages are left
-Any lead in the Contacted/Call Back, Pre-Qualified or Awaiting Decision statuses that have not been touched within the last day
-Any lead in the Win-Back status with a future Policy Renewal Date (X-Date) in the next 30 days
-Any lead in the Future Follow-up status that has not been touched in the last month

Lead Prioritization focuses your efforts on the hottest opportunities. It is fully configurable so you can tweak your prioritization rules to make them fit your own patterns of opportunity.

Tags: Lead Management