Generating leads is top of mind for all organizations, often requiring an integrated marketing plan that spans a variety of channels targeted at specific buyer personas. Some sales and marketing activities consistently result in leads being generated, while others have them trickling in. However the lead was generated, one thing is for certain: a lead is important, and it is essential that your lead management process nurtures the lead, moving them through the funnel to the purchase decision when ready. In this blog, we discuss the lead management process and how your organization can effectively navigate lead nurturing to a conversion.
3 Basic Lead Management Components and Why They Matter
For effective lead management, marketing professionals need to take a few steps to ensure leads are qualified properly and passed to sales at the right time.
1. Define What it Means for a Lead to Be Sales-Ready
To ensure marketing’s leads are being followed up with in a timely manner, it is important to know which leads are the most valuable. To do this, it is critical to define what a sales-ready lead is. Whether it is a certain lead score or meets certain criteria, there should be a universal definition of sales-ready so that marketing and sales are on the same page. This will keep sales excited about incoming leads and also ensure they continue to value the hard work that marketing puts into generating these leads, which enables the support of ongoing marketing programs.
Why It Matters
Sales and marketing alignment can be an overlooked factor in the lead management process. Without alignment and shared understanding of key goals, lead definitions, and communication, leads can fall through the cracks, and opportunities can be missed. Having an alignment on what leads are valuable can ensure a seamless transition between marketing and sales.
2. Qualify Incoming Leads
As leads are coming in, it is important to ensure they are a fit. There are multiple ways this can be done, ranging from quick research to one of the most common tactics, lead scoring. Qualifying leads through demographic and behavioral scoring components provides detail on which leads match your ideal customer profile and are exhibiting behaviors that indicate interest. Having lead scoring set up can help reduce the number of dead-end leads passed to sales.
Why It Matters
Why does lead scoring matter? It is the quantitative process that ensures a lead is sales-ready. With the sales and marketing teams aligned on what sales-ready means and what demographic, firmographic, or behavioral components are most valuable to score, marketing can work to put together lead scoring. Designate a score, comprised of the summation of the demographic, firmographic, and behavioral components, that signals to sales the lead is ready for their outreach. Meet with the sales team every so often to determine if this score is accurate or if there are adjustments are needed.
3. Nurture Leads
Just because a lead isn’t sales-ready doesn’t mean it won’t lead to a sale down the road. So, what should be done with these leads? These leads should be treated with care and entered into strategic nurture campaigns that will help keep your organization top of mind and enable you to build a long-term relationship with them. When they have taken additional steps to show they are ready to be passed on to sales, and potentially adding to their behavioral lead score, marketing can send them on to sales with confidence. If you’re looking for guidance on how to set up and execute a lead nurturing campaign, check out this blog.
Why It Matters
When a lead is generated, they are showing interest in your brand. It is important to then nurture those leads to ensure your brand stays top of mind as they are embarking on their buying journey. They are likely evaluating other brands and solutions, so keeping yours close to the top of the list gives you a better chance of having a sales conversation with them. We’ll share our expert tips on how to effectively nurture your leads in the next section.
Expert Tips for Better Lead Management
1. Segment Your Leads
Not all leads are the same, and that is okay! Whether it is their decision-making role, job title, or budget, there are going to be countless differences between your generated leads. But there are ways to segment the leads based on general commonalities to help target your marketing efforts. For example, is the lead in a decision-making role? If so, you can segment your leads into decision-makers and non-decision-makers. What industry is your lead a part of? If your product or service attracts different industries, you can group the leads by which industry they are in. Why is segmenting important? This gives you a better way to personalize outreach based on their characteristics, making it more impactful.
2. Use Different Channels to Nurture Your Leads
Integrated marketing is our favorite thing to talk about. And if you don’t have an integrated marketing plan to generate and also nurture leads, you are missing out. We’ve got plenty of integrated marketing strategies for you to check out if you are looking for more. The moral of the story is that you must be nurturing leads across different channels. Whether it is email and social media or email, social media, and retargeting, it is essential to market on the channels where your leads are most active and engaged to make an impact.
3. Offer Relevant Content
With segmentation in place and the list of marketing channels to use, you are almost ready to effectively manage your leads. The last piece of the puzzle is relevant content. Segmentation is setting you up for success in offering relevant content. Take into consideration the lead characteristics, especially what pain points they are facing. Offering content that helps bring these challenges to light and offering solutions to resolve them provides your leads with the best possible information when they are considering what brand to purchase from. Content such as case studies are ideal as you nurture leads. They provide quantitative, direct insights from your customers and their experiences. Plus, you can highlight key results that are often influential in a lead becoming a customer.
Need help with your lead management process? Contact Launch Marketing today to learn how we’ve helped our clients achieve great results and how we can help you too!
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