October 7th, 2009 → 12:29 pm @ Richard
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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