Technically, lead management covers just about everything to do with your lead generation program, from the advertising you use, to how well you convert visitors on your website, to how many sales you close – it’s all part of the management process.
In general terms though, the importance of good management is that you ensure that you are getting the most from the marketing that you are doing. There’s no point in going to the trouble of spending time and money on trying to attract new business if prospective customers keep slipping through the holes in your lead management systems.
Thankfully, by using a combination of technology – like effective customer relationship management (CRM) software, good planning, and some old fashioned attention to detail, you can ensure that you get the very best from the marketing and promotion that you do.
But what should you be looking for and planning for?
Businesses lose prospective sales through two reasons:
The first purpose of managing leads is to ensure that nobody leaves because we have neglected to do our follow up. Part of that is simply being well-organized and having a system in place – these are the bare essentials and any good CRM system can help you achieve that.
Organization and clear systems mean that you will not lose any potential customers through disorganization or an inability to follow up. Even with organized systems however, at each phase there will still be potential customers who choose not take the next step – i.e. the second reason businesses lose prospective customers.
An effective customer relationship manager can help you find the holes where you are losing potential customers – and help identify how to fix them.
Assuming you’ve got the ‘neglect’ angle covered, every time that you ask the customer to make a choice there will be some people who choose ‘no’. For example, when you advertise, the customer has the choice as to whether or not to respond – by visiting your website for example. This is a choice on their part and they may choose to go elsewhere.
When you ask people to sign up for your newsletter or download your special report they can decide against it. When you phone customers in your prospect list they can decide not to contact you about that sales meeting. Finally, once you have the meeting they can still decide to say no to buying your product or service.
If you think about it, someone who becomes a customer might have had to say ‘no’ four or five time before they ever say ‘yes’ to buying your product. The benefit to you is that by the time they reach the point where you close the sale; you know they have a genuine interest in what you are trying to sell them. That’s the great advantage of a planned lead generation system. However, because most good lead generation system will have several steps, you also run the risk of any of those steps breaking down.
Good management will help you identify when that happens. What percentage of your website visitors sign up for your newsletter? How does that compare with 3 months ago? How does that compare with your blog signups? Good lead management will help you find the answers – and allow you to improve your lead generation system to maximize your results.
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Why do you need a lead generating system at all?
Simple, a good lead gen system can:
In this brief overview we’ll consider both the advantages of an effective system and how you can create one for your business.
Lead generation starts with your external marketing, captures initial interest and passes the most qualified and interested prospects through to you.
Done online, it can be not only be hugely effective at attracting qualified prospects but also a huge time saver too.
1. Marketing and Advertising: The First Step in Lead Generation
The first thing to consider when constructing a system that generates leads is where and how to advertise. Offline marketing can include just about anything, from print ads to direct mail. Effective offline marketing needs to attract attention and lead the prospect into the first stage of the system – your website. Again, the point is to attract attention and then lead people to the first stage of your system.
Where and how to market your business – online or off – should be based on your ideal customer. Where do they hang out? What websites do they visit? What terms do they use to search for businesses like yours? Start with a detailed knowledge of your prospective customer and it’s hard to go too far wrong.
Online marketing can also include any number of tactics, including; search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising (PPC), display advertising and social networking activities. Read my FREE eBook for details on how to do this.
2. Your System Should Be Automated
Once you’ve got your system set up, the system should be left to do its own thing. The less effort it takes to manually run the system, the more efficient it will be. That means automation. More specifically, your automated system should be able to:
3. Your System Should Develop Trust
Your lead gen system should also promote a trusting relationship between you and your customer. They should be made to feel appreciated and looked after. The better job your system does, the more responsive they will be.Your system should also provide you with a chance to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, which is why so many lead generation programs start with an offer of information. By keeping these simple guidelines in mind, your system will be on a par with the best online. Moreover, you’ll be generating leads with enough regularity, accuracy, and effectiveness to ensure a healthy profit from whatever endeavor you undertake.
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Lead generation software?
Generating leads, managing leads and communicating with those leads can be a messy business for small businesses. So how do you keep it all organized? The good news is that new software alternatives mean that small businesses can use PC-based and web-based lead generation software to generate more sales leads and convert more of those leads into paying customers.
Businesses spend small fortunes on attracting prospects to their businesses through advertising and other marketing methods. Unfortunately, not every customer is ready and willing to buy when you reach out to them. In fact, most consumers will need to be contacted several times before they’re willing to take action. This is even more obvious with bigger ticket items or complicated sales.
Keeping your business in front of your prospects can be complicated and time consuming. So, smart businesses use software to automate the process and help them keep an eye on where their business stands. As an example, here are a few lead generation and lead management software solutions you could consider:
2. Email marketing software helps you to send relevant information to those who opt-in. Newsletters, up-to-date news of your products/service, or discount offers can all be effective at motivating future sales.
3. Lead tracking or analytic tools give you a better insight into website visitors’ behavior that will help in planning and tweaking your advertising and website if necessary.
4. With the use of an automated prospecting system, you can easily identify those who are ready to buy now and put the rest on your follow up list.
5. Sales productivity software helps businesses increase profits without necessarily increasing the amount they spend on sales.
6. Using a good sales and marketing software gives you an overview of sales generated compared to the cost of marketing – helping you improve and focus on the best-performing marketing activities.
Insurance lead generation for most companies is a straightforward process. You start by buying leads or generating them yourself through advertising online and off. Then you start selling.
Simple!
For the consumer however, buying insurance is confusing, time consuming, and tedious. They are afraid to ask someone like you for more information because they believe it will lead to a sales pitch. That means that you don’t get as many leads as you would like. This is unfortunate, because you’re probably the one person most qualified to answer their questions and help them make an intelligent decision.
In short, if you want to place more customers, you need a way of generating insurance leads that sets you apart from the other insurance companies who are targeting those very same prospects. So how do you do that? How do you make yourself stand out?
Starting with the customer in mind, the best method of insurance lead generation is to make it easy for prospects to contact you and find the information they’re looking for – without fear of the dreaded hard sell.
It might sound crazy but if you want to generate more insurance leads the smart thing is to…
… give your prospect the information they want, with no strings attached.
Providing content that answers your prospects queries will attract more prospects – the ones who are put off by the hoops that other agents make them jump through. Secondly it will make you a trusted resource that they will return to. Of course, you’ll also want to gather prospects’ contact details where possible. This is your permission to continue to market to them over time. To encourage prospects to give you this permission you’ll often need an incentive.
In your insurance lead generation process, the first step could be to create a special report that covers the key points your prospect should be aware about before buying your kind of insurance (life, auto, income disability, home, etc). The report should cover basic dos and don’ts and give him advice about what to expect when purchasing your insurance product. Then, at the end, you should include a simple way for them to get in touch.
Many times he will call you to finish what he set out to do – buy insurance. If not, you can still go back to route one and call them. Even if this does not lead to an immediate sale, you’ve started a relationship and are now one step ahead of your competitors.
Many prospects still don’t buy immediately, even if they need what you’re selling. Things happen. They get busy. Other life events take attention away from buying insurance. So what else should you do as part of your insurance lead generation process?
Simple. Follow up with them. By joining your mailing list the prospect has given you permission to keep in touch. You want to stay top-of-mind and ask for the sale as many times as needed until they become a client or ask you to stop contacting them. Depending on what contact information you have, you can stay in touch by phone, email, mail, or a combination of all three.
Ideally, you will automate this communication to save you time and allow you to focus on fresh leads as they come through. You’ll find by being consistent and communicating with lukewarm prospects over time, those that don’t buy now often buy in the future (or do other good things like refer business to you).
Now that you have a mailing list of prospects interested in insurance, you can cross-sell them other lines of insurance. For instance, if the first reason they contacted you was about information on Life Insurance, you can now offer information on purchasing Income Disability Insurance. Also, if you only focus on one line of insurance (for example, Business Owner Policies), you can partner up with another agent that specializes in a different line of insurance and split commissions.
Many agents use the leads they buy poorly. They buy them and wait days to call the lead back. When asked why, many say that they were busy or at appointments when the leads were emailed to them. Don’t let these leads go stale.
Have an assistant or sub-agent call them back immediately. If too much time passes the prospect’s enthusiasm dies and their level of interest disappears, making a sale harder or impossible. Chances are they’ll also be contacted by other agents. If you don’t get a sale right away, remember to encourage them to join your mailing list (again using free info as an incentive). This can provide a long list of prospects to contact in future with new offers or simply keep in front of until they’re ready to buy.
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Email marketing solutions, specifically permission-based email marketing, can be hugely effective at helping you build your business. Email can be used to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and help turn prospects into buyers.
However…
In most cases, the email program that you use on your desktop will not be up to the job. You’re going to need professional email marketing software.
So what should you be looking for?
Every email marketing solution is slightly different but there are key features that you should look for when choosing a supplier.
Here are our top thirteen:
One point not mentioned here is price. Price is important but when you’re looking for a good email marketing solution it shouldn’t be number one on your list.
Having said that, most services that are suitable for small businesses don’t cost a fortune anyway. Prices tend to start from under $20 a month for small lists and go up from there – depending on the size of your list and features you need.
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Can effective email marketing campaigns win you more business?
Yes!
Email marketing can be a great way of getting more customers – so long as you don’t fall into the trap of spamming. Email marketing is best when it’s used to keep in touch with people who’ve already shown an interest in your product or service. Targeting these kinds of people with email can help promote new products and services, close sales and create interest.
So how can you use email effectively?
There are many ways of using email campaigns to build customer relationship and create brand awareness, including;
However, one of the most effective ways of using email marketing is with an auto-responder program.
An auto-responder program allows you to create standard emails in advance, which then get sent out to customers or prospects at a pre-set time. You’ll need a form on your website where people can sign up for your newsletter or emails. Once they hit the “submit button” their email address is sent to the auto-responder. The auto-responder will then start sending the pre-written emails at your chosen time increments. For example, you can have an email message set to be sent immediately, so that once the lead signs up, they receive a welcome message from you.
Using auto-responders, you can create an entire sales cycle that runs automatically.
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A good customer retention program can help you reduce the costs of marketing your business. It is always more expensive to get a new customer than to keep an existing one happy and ready to buy again. Existing customers are more trusting of your offers, more willing to listen to your communications, and like the idea of dealing with a solid, regular supplier. Existing customers are your most likely source of new customers too – through referrals and positive word-of-mouth.
Attracting new customers is expensive. You’ll have advertising costs, sales costs and staff time costs to consider. New prospects are harder to convince and it takes a lot more effort to weed out the serious buyers form the ‘tire kickers.’
So why then, do you spend more time and money chasing new business? In this article we’ll outline what a customer retention program is and what it should look like – as well as how it can help your business in more ways than you’d think.
Some programs often use incentives to reward and encourage customer loyalty over time.
For example, you could consider any of the following programs:
1. Discount programs
2. Loyalty programs
3. Card-based programs
The purpose of these kinds of programs is to encourage repeat and long-term business by introducing (normally progressive) price discounts. For products and services that compete on price – like air travel, grocery items or insurance – incentive models work well.
Incentive and price-based programs can be hugely effective where price is the most important thing. But sometimes price is not necessarily the most important thing – service levels, personal recognition and quality can all be deciders.
Contact based programs (often termed Customer Relationship Management or CRM) focus on dedicated communications channels – like customer newsletters. These are often combined with incentive and reward based programs as described above.
Before you even consider a retention program you need to make sure you’ve got the basics covered – excellent customer service and high quality products or services.
Of course, a strong retention program should be a part of every business but if you don’t have the time or expertise to develop, implement, or manage one yourself, you should consider bringing in an outside firm to help.
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