What’s the Problem?
Last week there was an interesting post on the SLMA blog. The SLMA asked all of their new members what were the biggest problems they were facing. There were five answers that generated the most responses. The problems break down 55%/32%/13% into three main categories: Generating Leads, Working Leads, and Calculating ROI. Click here for the full breakdown.
Each of these problems can be helped by lead management software. The first category of issues, Generating Leads, coming in with 55% of responses is not the primary focus of lead management software. There are some tools and solutions that can be leveraged to generate more leads, but this is not the core feature set of lead management software. What LMS can provide as a way of generating more leads is a custom form generator that enables you to create web forms that can be easily embedded on different landing pages on your website. Admittedly, this is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to generating new leads. The purpose of this feature is really to ensure that leads captured on your website are followed up on in accordance with best practices. So it pre-supposes that you have a search marketing strategies in place.
The other two categories, Working Leads and Calculating ROI are problems that lead management software was developed to solve. Together, these two received 32% of the responses. The two answers that were listed under the rubric of working leads were “Managing Inquiries” and “Working with Sales Management on Follow-up.” Managing Inquires includes ensuring that leads are contacted quickly and followed up on consistently. Lead management achieves these goals with an intelligent distribution engine that works in conjunction with a lead dialer to make get sales reps on the phone with leads within minutes of leads inquiry. Automated Drip Marketing Emails and Lead Prioritization make sure that prospects are followed up on appropriately both via email and on the phone.
The third category, Calculating ROI, received 13% of the responses. Lead management software offers you a clear view of the performance of all of your lead sources and sales reps. The reporting features are easy to use and comprehensive in their scope. If you want to review the efficacy of any aspect of your lead management strategy, it is easy to create a custom report to do so. You don’t have to stop at questions like, “How well are my lead sources performing?” You can drill down to view performance data on every aspect of your business and answer questions like: “How well are my lead distribution strategies working?” or “What percentage of leads from a given lead source are qualified by one sales rep versus another?” Running reports helps you gain insights that can help you manage your sales team better and get better results.
Lead management software solves a lot of the most common problems.
