1. Jump to page-navigation
  2. Jump to content

Everything we know about the lead business from everyone at the Leads360 family. From online lead providers like LowerMyBills.com to Mortgage Lead Management best practices. We'll tell you what we know and what we've learned.  

Two out of Three

Link | Spread The Word!

This service industry marketing blog posted today on the top three sales lead management best practices.  Their top three (not in this order) are:

-Lead Response
-Lead Nurturing
-Manage Leads with a CRM

Two out of three ain’t bad.

In terms of lead response, the best practice they advocate is that inbound calls should be answered on the first ring, and never go to voicemail. That is solid advice. But to take it a step further, how would this approach be applied to leads that come in not over the phone, but from an online form. Using lead management software, it’s possible to get a prospect on the phone within a minute of the lead submitting their request.  Some lead management software providers are integrated with as many as 1400 lead providers, and have distribution capabilities to route leads to specific sales agents using rules based distribution programs. Answer quick when they call you. And call quick when they submit an inquiry. In both scenarios, quickness is key.

The best practice this article suggests following in terms of lead nurturing is to call a lead 7-8 times over a 20 day period. Again, solid advice. According to recent research, six call attempts over two weeks is the optimal calling strategy. Beyond those limits, the likelihood of making contact diminishes to the point that the effort doesn’t justify the return.  Lead nurturing isn’t just about trying to make contact, but also includes drip email campaigns. Using the right lead management software makes lead follow up effortless. Automatically triggered emails keep you in touch with your prospects; and lead prioritization puts the lead right at the top of your queue just when it is the right time to reach out to them with a call.

The third best practice recommended in the article is that leads should be managed with a CRM. This is an all too common misconception. CRM is a great tool for Customer Relationship Management. But CRM is not the most effective tool for managing leads, i.e., prospects who are not yet customers. Prospects and customers are two entirely different categories of individuals and need to be approached as such.

If you read the original article espousing these lead management best practices, you’ll see that there are no references to the specific tools to help you execute these best practices. This is probably because the tools do not exist in a CRM. Lead management software is built specifically to turn prospects into customers. Lead management software makes it easy any sales agent to act on their every lead with speed, process, and persistence.

Pass the Beans!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogplay
  • email
  • Faves
  • FriendFeed
  • LinkedIn
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • PDF
  • Ping.fm
  • Posterous
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Got Something To Say? Post A Comment!

Preview Comment