With Internet as a major medium for sourcing of sales leads, Automated Lead Management and Tracking has become a mainstream process for small and medium businesses. In the past, most companies used to track the leads with manually intensive processes and tools such as Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, Outlook or other locally installed contact management software.

Why Lead Management?

When the volume of leads are low, business owners and salespeople can easily keep track of the leads without automation. Also, cost of generating leads was also relatively low. For example, Yellow pages, Newspapers and Local Radio are the common staple of small business advertising.

Now that the consumer market has undergone tremendous changes, traditional advertising and marketing methods are fast losing the importance.

Small businesses and professional service providers such as contractors, realtors / real estate agents, mortgage brokers, insurance service providers, franchisees, spas, dentists and others are switching to digital marketing and advertising. Buying internet leads is a common practice among them.

Internet and Social Media as Lead Sources

Large volume of sales leads originate from Internet Search Engines such as Google and Bing, either directly through their own websites or through third party, independent lead generation and distribution companies. Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs are driving more consumers to the internet to research and purchase products and services online. These online leads cost significant amount of money; if the prospects are not managed, followed up and tracked promptly lot of money can be lost in short period of time.

Automated Lead Management Process

Automation of Lead Management (also known as Inquiry Management) starts with capturing of the leads directly from the website forms (aka landing pages) or lead distribution and posting systems used by lead sellers.

Once the leads are captured in the system, the leads are to be assigned to the sales reps based on the pre-defined distribution rules. Lead Management Systems such as LeadPro247 automates the lead routing process using a variety of rules such as sales territory (geography – county, state, zip code), product or service, etc.

The lead management system can also send automated emails to the prospective customer with introduction / welcome information, product details and the sales agent contact information.

In addition, the system will also send lead email alerts to the field sales reps intimating that a prospect in their area has shown interest in one of their services or products. The sales reps can immediately call up the prospect, even while on the road.

If there is an inside sales team, email lead alerts will go to them automatically. Based on the alerts they could qualify the leads and then inform the respective sales rep accordingly. This process helps prioritizing the sales leads and plan the follow-up activities.

Followup activities by the inside sales coordinators as well as the field sales reps can be updated in the system with brief notes. A suitable sales stage can be assigned to each lead for future follow up. Reminders could be setup along with follow up tasks.

The business owner / sales manager / administrator can view the entire sequence of activities from their computer systems in real time. The lead tracking and management system also includes comprehensive lead tracking and summary reports in the analytics module. For example, leads can be summarized and viewed by Lead Source / by Sales Rep / by Product, etc.

Each prospect’s profile, right from capture to the current stage, can be viewed in one place with all the activities such as email messages sent, followup tasks and notes, telephone calls and personal visits.

When a sale is closed or a prospect is lost, the status can be updated for proper filing and future reference. During the sales process, one or more email messages can be sent to the prospect via event triggered drip email campaigns. This is part of lead engagement and nurturing process.

Online Surveys can also be used to engage the prospects and get feedback during and completion of the sales process.

Lead Management as a Web Based Software

Most lead management services are available as a web based software unlike the traditional server or PC based solutions. Hence the system can be configured in a few hours for a specific business. Using a web based lead management system is much easier than the traditional software. Above all, there is no need for any upfront investment as the fees will be paid as a reasonable monthly subscription.

Lead Nurturing and Continuous Engagement is a key process to increase the lead conversion rate (of new prospects) and convert the recycles leads to sales. Using Online Surveys tool as part of lead management will help assess the interest and buying intent of the prospects. Integrating the online surveys and lead management database will play an important role in such a situation. Survey Invitations can be sent via automatic drip email messages based on the lead follow-up stages and / or activities.

Why Online Surveys

Online Surveys enable the marketers to design surveys, build survey questionnaires using multiple question types, and deploy the surveys online in minutes. The web survey responses can be monitored, analyzed and viewed online in real time.

Online surveys also help survey response completion rates, as the prospects or customers (converted leads) will have increased comfort levels due to the anonymity of the internet.

Online Survey Features

Online Surveys include a number of features to design an effective survey questionnaire. Open ended and closed types questions can be used to frame the questionnaire. The survey pages and information pages can be fully customized and branded to decrease the survey abandonment rates.

Survey invitations can be sent automatically using the built-in Drip Email features. The invitations can also be tracked for clicks, opens and survey completion.

Integration of Lead Management and Online Surveys

An integrated online surveys and lead management tool helps to avoid duplicate database management. The lead follow-up activities and sales stages can be used as triggers for surveys and other follow-up actions. This is not possible, if standalone tools from different service providers are used.

Just as first responders save more lives, marketers and sales professionals who respond to the prospects first have very high probability of converting the leads to customers.

We all know that first responders such as fire service personnel, paramedics, police and doctors value the first hour after an emergency as ‘golden hour’. Actions taken in the golden hour saves countless lives and damage to the properties. Responding to a prospect who has raised his / her hand with an online registration or quote request is no different.

When a lead comes through your sales lead tracking and management software system, make sure that you respond in minutes, not in hours or days. Even if the product or service that you are selling has a long sales cycle, it is essential to reach out to the prospects at the shortest possible time lag. Note that an autoresponder (or drip email)  message sent by lead system is not a replacement for your personal telephone call or email message.

Also, it does not matter if you are selling to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C). Remember that you are selling to people in either case. Decisions are made by human beings, not soul less corporations!

Here are the keys for increasing lead conversion:

• Respond to prospects in Minutes, not Hours or Days
• If the prospects are not yet ready for sale, nurture with resources such as:
  • • Whitepapers
    • eBooks, Presentations, etc.
    • Webinar recordings
    • Newsletters
    • Tutorial Videos
    • Case studies and success stories
• Stay in touch via phone calls and emails with the leads until they are ready to move to the next stage.
• Determine the frequency of touches and use appropriate contact methods

Establishing a process to monitor,  respond and track the inbound marketing leads is a critical requirement in your marketing and sales strategy. Don’t let another lead slip through the cracks by delaying your first response!

Drip Email Messaging is a great tool in the marketers’ resource kit. Most modern Sales Lead Tracking and Management Software Systems include at least some sort of drip email marketing feature to be used as part of lead nurturing process. Advanced lead systems (such as Leadpro247) include a plethora of event triggers and action choices that can be leveraged to send a variety of automated drip email messages. In fact these drip marketing messages blur the difference between the transactional messages and marketing /informational messages. However, marketers have to be cautious and make sure that they are not substituting the drip messages for  personal email one-on-one email messages and follow-up phone calls.

Leading lead tracking systems such as LeadPro247 tightly integrate the drip marketing function with lead follow-up activities and feedback mechanisms such as online surveys. While these features can be leveraged to increase the prospect engagement, the same can never be considered as a replacement for old fashioned phone calls and direct email messages.

Reasons

There are several advantages of personal telephone calls and email messages, especially when the lead is in a warm ot hot stage. Here are some of the reasons:

• Low Delivery rates – Drip email delivery will be much lower than the personal / direct email delivery rate. Important follow-up messages should not be missed.
• Low Open rates – Even if the drip messages are delivered to their in boxes, the email open rates will be significantly less. Though right subject lines and other email header parameters could reduce this issue, a serious / hot prospect should not be left out for any reason.
• Minimal Personalization – Though the email messaging is greatly improved with automated personalization feature, it cannot be equate to the personally hand crafted email messages. A human being can respond much more personally depending on the nature of follow-up and the action which triggers the email.
• Missing Personal Touch – Personal telephone calls can produce significant results when the lead is in the advanced sales stage. By automating the follow-up messages, you miss out a chance for personal interaction and faster lead conversion.

If you are a small and medium business owner or online marketer looking to increase leads and sales, you must be either using a sales lead capture, tracking and management system already or evaluating the lead solutions available in the market. When deploying a lead tracking and marketing automation system, make sure that your websites are integrated with the same in order to capture leads automatically.

Websites as Lead Generation Sources

We all know that internet is becoming the primary source of sales lead generation and prospects land on one or more websites to seek your products or services. if you are driving a ton of traffic to your websites and the prospects are brought to the landing pages, converting the visitors into leads and following up with them is critical for success. It does not matter whether you are in B2B or B2C marketplace, automating the lead capture is an essential step to expedite the lead follow-up processes.

Automating Lead Capture from Landing Pages

I have come across many small business clients who use our LeadPro247 lead management software system, but are yet to integrate their websites where leads are generated. Majority of the customers still capture the lead information on basic forms and email the data to one or more inside sales / marketing team members. They take up their own time and then enter the leads into the lead distribution, tracking and management system.

It is critical to automate the lead capture process by integrating the landing pages (or signup forms or registration forms) with the lead management system. Many consider this integration process a tedious and complex one.

Lead Capture Methods

The leads captured on the websites can be emailed and then entered manually into the system as mentioned earlier. Precious time is wasted in this process delaying the follow-up activity. Any manual entry leads to errors and inaccuracies. And some leads might slip through the cracks and never get into the lead management system!

The simplest and easy method of lead capture by embedding a small code provided by your lead tracking and management system into the landing page. If you do not have the in-house capability to embed the code into the sign-up form, take help from the lead management service provider. Most providers do this for a small fee as it does not take much time. If you are using third party web developers or consultants, some tend to discourage this practice and push back. Don’t fall for their pressure! If they cannot incorporate your request or do not know how to do it with little efforts, then it may be time to look for an alternate service provider!

The industry term used for lead capture specifications is lead posting instructions. There are slight variations in this lead push process. Check with your lead tracking system provider; they would be more than happy to provide you the details.

If you have multiple landing pages or websites, you can pass on the “lead source” from each page to the lead system. The lead source information would be useful in the lead followup process. For example, you can plan different drip email messages to leads collected from each source.

Lead tracking systems will also support capturing leads generated through multiple pages (i.e. sign up form split into multiple pages). Most service providers would be able to help you with custom services in such cases.

If you are lead generation company capturing leads to resell the same to one or more lead buyers, automating the lead capture is first step. You may refer to our blog for more information on lead generation capture and distribution software solutions.

Leverage the lead capture features of your lead tracking system and convert more prospects to customers. Happy selling!

Why use Lead Management best practices and tools? Real estate professionals should leverage the internet and social media for real estate lead generation and lead tracking and management software tools to nurture, engage, follow-up, and convert prospects to customers.

Here is the slide deck from the presentation made by Jonathan Nicholas for a leading real estate organization. He captures the gist of internet marketing for real estate agents and brokers in this short presentation.

Though this presentation is with reference to lead management for real estate professionals, real estate lead generation and internet marketing, these concepts can be used by any marketer / organization generating / buying internet leads such as Insurance agencies and Mortgage agents, brokers and loan officers.

If you are a B2B organization, reaching your sales reps immediately and connecting with the prospects with least delay will help increase the lead conversion rates significantly. If your rep is the first person to contact the prospect, the chances of winning the deal is much higher assuming that you have suitable product to service the lead.

Lead Delivery

It is a fact that B2B sales reps are spread all over the geography and delivering the leads captured via the landing pages almost instantaneously is a critical requirement. This is generally achieved by email alerts and SMS text messages.

However pushing the message with lead information may not lead to the immediate prospect contact, as the sales reps have to proactively read the lead alert messages and dial the potential prospect. With the plethora of devices in hand, juggling of schedules and driving around town, it may not be easy for them to react immediately.

Lead Delivery via Voice

The reason why several large CRM system implementations ended in mere hype and no visible sales increases is well known. All of us know why the sales reps hate CRM systems! Well, these system increases their work load instead of helping them sell more and close more deals. At the same time, they would be glad to listen to their lead administrators and back office secretaries for the simple reason that they speak with them and provide relevant information!

If we can take a leaf out of this practice, and help the sales reps with voice delivery of prospect information received from the internet / marketing center, they would be glad to listen to the message and motivated to take action.

Lead Capture, Distribution and Tracking systems such as LeadPro247 leverages this fact and helps deliver the lead profile information to the sales force using highly advanced text to speech technology.

Voice Delivery Process

In the first step, the lead profile details collected from the sign-up forms, registration sites, and landing pages are converted to voice instructions using sophisticated text conversion algorithms.

Then the system automatically dials the sales rep’s cell phone and reads out the lead information when the picks up the phone.

The system can use round robin or specific lead assignment rules to choose the sale representative to dial out.

If a round robin process is used to make the automatic calls, the rep can choose to accept the lead or push it back to the queue, so that the lead delivery system can dial out to the next rep.

Auto Dialing the Prospect

When the sales rep accepts the lead information, the auto dialer built into the system can also automatically dial the prospect and connect to the next available rep.

This process significantly reduces the efforts on the part of the sales reps and helps them reach more prospects and sell to more customers.

Cost Benefit

Since an internet generated lead can cost from a few dollars to tens of dollars, the incremental voice delivery cost (around $1) is more than offset by increased prospect reach and sales conversion ratio. The voice delivery mechanism, generally provided as a value added service can also be leveraged by B2C customers.

Following sales lead tracking best practices using Lead Tracking Software solutions such as LeadPro247 significantly increases the chance of converting the Lead into a Sale. It is a known fact that over 70% of the prospects are never followed up in time. While employing a lead management software helps to reduce this rate to some extent, using the lead tracking best practices results in high lead conversion rates and increased prospect satisfaction.

Lead Tracking Process

Lead Tracking is nothing but the methodical way of following up with the prospects and recording the lead follow-up activities in the lead management database.

If the sales personnel are not in a position to log the follow-up actions and the results, especially in the case of small businesses, a lead administrator or lead coordinator can update the same in the central database. This practice helps the sale representative in getting an unified view of the lead during the next call or on site visit. Once the sales personnel realize the benefits of of centralized lead tracking, they will start following the process for their own betterment.

Tracking Log

The sales lead tracking log will include the following components, among others:

• Lead Origination / Capture Info
• Lead Assignment Info
• Drip Emails sent to the prospect
• Lead Reassignment or Transfer to another sales rep, if any
• Demo Requests from prospects
• Onsite Visits
• Telephone calls made and received
• Call Back reminders
• Gist of Email communications
• Snail Mails sent
• Marketing Literature fulfillment, if any
• Samples delivered, if applicable
• Movement of Sales Tracking Stage

Visibility to all this tracking information will save considerable time for the sales personnel. The sales support staff (at the back office) can also alert the sales reps based on follow-up triggers.

While many marketers and businesses have started realizing the importance of contacting the prospect at the quickest possible time from the point of lead capture, further follow-up activities have not caught up as required. Deploying a suitable lead management system and adopting simple best practices for lead tracking is imperative in today’s internet centric marketing era.