Lead management is a fundamental part of successfully running a business. Let’s look at what features of this type of software will enable you to grow your business.
What Is A Lead?
A lead is an individual or business that has expressed interest in a particular product or service by sharing some of their personal information, usually via a form. This information can be anything from an email address, full name, mobile phone number, company, city and whatever else the form has asked for. This information is used to communicate to leads and initiate the first touchpoints of a sales process, with the intention of turning the lead into a potential client.
What Is Lead Management Software?
Lead management and customer relationship management (CRM) software are closely related. But lead management software has a stronger focus on the management of the sales pipeline, and CRM software focuses more on the storage of customer information and the history of what customers have done.
Lead management software
You’re probably wondering – ok then, which one do I need? Until you have 100s of leads per month of a minimum ticket value, you only really need lead management software. This is because only a certain percentage will move through the immediate stages of your sales process for a number of reasons – it could be that it’s not the right time at the moment or that they just wanted to hear more about your offering. Having the right features so you can hone in on the numerous stages of your sales pipeline will allow you to uncover more insights and value around the entire process of how your business sells.
These key insights range from time in the sales stage, win vs loss rate, close rate, deal length and number of meetings per closed deal. For example, identifying the number of meetings per deal will allow you to break down which stages take the most time and create opportunities to identify inefficiencies and take corrective action.
Enjoy Zero Lead Leakage Using A Lead Management System
Lead management software uses intelligent pipeline tracking that provides a high level of sales customisation to perfect the stages of your sales process, so you can effortlessly accelerate your sales journey.
Using QikChat in parallel with your lead management software can enhance this process by speeding up your lead response time, given responding to leads within the first minute increases conversions by 391%.
Using advanced scheduling software like QikChat gives your business the quickest way to speak to your leads. This B2B software platform allows teams of all sizes to assign, schedule and speak to their potential customers instantly from their main digital channels – giving a massive boost to conversion rates and productivity.
As the lead comes in through the digital channel of choice, the assigned team member’s calendar is immediately shared with the lead, allowing them to book a meeting with just one click. Making sure your leads won’t leak – from right after the lead is captured through a form and covering all lead management stages.
Top Lead Management Software
How To Choose The Best Lead Management Software
Why Do You Need A Lead Management Software
Lead Management Software Features
You may have noticed that most CRM and lead management software have similarities, you don’t need all these features at once but making sure you have the right ones is all you need to worry about at the beginning. The best lead management tools have a feature that can break down the sales process into pipeline stages of the lead journey. These stages include:
- Presentation
- Demonstration
- Contracts
- Billing
- Deal status
Coupled with some basic customer relationship management contact storage features, one of these core CRM features is being able to create custom static and active lead lists so they can be automatically added onto different marketing channels.
What Does Lead Management Sales Software Offer?
Lead management software has a lot to offer, but its overall function is to make sure all leads are placed at accurate stages of your pipeline, so none are missed.
Below is a short list of features that your lead management software should have
Lead capturing and scoring
Leads can be captured by using standardised webforms that can be placed on your website, then added onto a lead list, to prevent leads becoming lost. Before they’re added onto this list, each lead is scored, based on the criteria configured in your lead management software. This enables you to prioritise leads based on the highest score, minimising the time it would usually take to manually prioritise leads without a feature like this.
Reports and dashboards
With the right lead management software, you’ll be able to measure any touchpoint throughout the sales process. Being able to extract data on these various stages will accelerate the speed of the sales process. Closing more deals, quicker – and who doesn’t want that!
Core system integration
Most lead management software providers can be easily integrated with other common platforms used in this ecosystem. Whether it’s task management apps like Trello or customer support like Zendesk, these integrations can be used out-of-the-box, with no third-party tools needed for these platforms to work together.
Lead distribution
Most lead management software distributes leads based on the score it receives from the feature mentioned above. This lead will then be allocated to the team member assigned to then initiate communication. This is a pretty typical feature – and it’s essential!
Marketing automation
Small parts of marketing automation functions have become an integral part of lead management software, primarily in automating the movement deals in pre-defined stages.
As deals move down the stages of your customised sales process, numerous metrics will be placed in those stages. The most important metric is the probability of closing, represented as an assigned weighting between the various sales stages, expressed as a percentage. As deals move down these stages, the quality of your pipeline will become crystal clear and you’ll then be able to make a clear evaluation as to what deals will turn into paying customers, and when.
The Building Blocks Of Your Business
And there you have it – a run-through of what lead management software really is, and why it matters. This type of software is the building blocks of any business, giving you a platform of storage and insights to achieve your goals.
Using advanced scheduling tools like QikChat, that enhance the lead management process, will give you a competitive advantage, removing the risk that after just five minutes, the odds of connecting and qualifying with the lead drop 80%.
Let’s be honest, managing leads and converting them into high-paying potential clients is difficult. But with the right choice of lead management software, this task – that’s responsible for the growth of the business – becomes much easier.
