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Lead Management Software Buyer's Guide
Table of Contents
- » What is Lead Management?
- » What is Lead Management Software?
- » What are the Top Features of Lead Management Software?
- » What are the Benefits of Lead Management Software?
- » What are the Things You Should Consider When Choosing a Lead Management Software?
- » How Much does Lead Management Software Cost?
- » Conclusion
Looking for lead management software but don’t know where to begin and how to buy a great system? You’ve come to the right place. This blog will take you through everything about lead management software, including its features, costs, and benefits. We will also explore factors that make up a good lead management tool for you to select the best system out of the lot.
Does your business sell products or services?
Regardless of your answer, the ultimate goal, more often than not, is to widen your customer base and clock in more revenues. And to do that, you plan to optimally utilize your marketing and sales funnels as every business does. But it is often seen that despite implementing all the marketing strategies effectively and putting in the best sales efforts, you miss your desired target.
The reason?
Poor lead management. Yes, you read that right!
Contrary to what you may think, lead management is a significant process that lays the foundation for boosting sales. That, in turn, is critical to meeting your business expansion dreams. And lack of tact or planning in lead management can cause financial, as well as reputational, losses to your business.
That is one of the primary reasons many businesses have turned to lead management software. But before we explore that, let’s first get the concept of lead management right.
» What is Lead Management?
Let’s say you have recently started your venture of an apparel store. People have flocked to your store, given the market buzz. And you are having some super busy hours of the day.
The catch is that your store offers only formal clothing for both men and women. Now more than half of the crowd gathered at your store is unaware of this fact. Thus, they keep enquiring about men’s/women's casuals and kids' clothing. That keeps two of your sales guys busy. Meanwhile, a small percentage of people are actually there to buy formals but are waiting for their turn since you and the only other attendant are busy catering to other consumers.
What happens next?
The long wait would frustrate your consumers, driving them off to your competitors. The remaining of your consumers leave without shopping in spite of having browsed and tried some pieces from your collection. That too after the best efforts by your salespersons in convincing them to make a purchase.
What we see here is a classic incident of a lack of lead management. You could not cater to the interested set of consumers since you were busy trying to sell to the ones uninterested in your products from the very beginning.
This example indicates how important it is to focus your energies on the right consumers genuinely interested in your offerings. And not keep attracting any or all consumers blindly to your business. In a nutshell, this is exactly what lead management helps you do.
With a well-thought lead management plan, your sales team knows where each prospect stands within your sales funnel. That, in turn, enables them to create a personalized action plan of customer acquisition & engagement in a way that drives sales. The result is an efficient conversion process that is both smoother and repeatable.
In simple words, lead management definition can refer to organizing incoming leads from multiple channels to identify your potential customers who would generate business for you. It tells you which leads deserve the investment of your time, money, and resources.
» What is Lead Management Software?
A standard sales process would have your business gather leads from multiple sources, including website forms, emails, and social media. The next step is to manage these leads: identifying sales-ready leads from the ever-growing list of leads, followed by nurturing and converting them into deals. Now imagine doing all of that manually. It becomes a time-consuming and hectic process, which you have to do over and over as a business.
A lead management solution with its integrated technologies simplifies and automates, to a certain extent, this entire lead management process for your business.
From qualifying leads to analyzing and nurturing each of them, the system is designed to streamline the lead-to-consumer lifecycle throughout the sales process.
Using the software, your sales team can capture and track leads from a single place till they either achieve successful conversion or get rid of the unwanted leads from the system.
Think of lead management software as your centralized platform for lead management, lead data organization, lead scoring and segmentation, performance reports and analysis, and a repository of communication between your leads and sales team.
» What are the Top Features of Lead Management Software?
While different lead management systems provide varying sets of features, there are some common critical features found in all of them. Here is a list of those:
- Lead capture
One of the essential lead management software features, automated lead capture, helps you identify & gather leads from across your sales channels. This includes website forms, emails, landing pages, and social media. Using this component, it becomes possible for you to gather vital details of your prospects, such as their name, buying preferences, and contact details, and store them all in one place.
The data captured can then be used to carry out targeted marketing campaigns.
- Activity tracking of leads
You might have the best sales team. Yet it is practically impossible for your sales representatives to keep track of every single client interaction they may have. That increases the chances of losing out on many opportunities. That’s why lead management software for small businesses includes lead activity tracking in its offerings.
With activity tracking of leads, you can monitor your opportunities as they move through the funnel of your sales process hassle-freely. Besides, you can store all the crucial details in the system, from recording details of your in-person chats to telephonic communication to emails.
The best part? You don’t need to ask customers or prospects to repeat the details of their requirements/preferences. Simply log into the system and access the data you need.
- Lead scheduling
The bigger the organization, the more the clients. Hence, there is a greater chance of delayed follow-ups and missed responses. A problem that the lead management system solves with its lead scheduling tool.
With the scheduling capability, your sales representatives can schedule responses to qualified contacts and send auto replies for product or service inquiries on time. They can also set follow-up reminders. That ensures no opportunity that enters your business database slips away.
- Lead scoring
Picture this. You gathered a list of prospects from a networking event which you forwarded to your sales team. The team, despite acting upon the list immediately, fails to sell your products & services. Wondering why? Because you skipped the process of lead scoring - an important part of the lead management cycle.
Since the manual technique can get cumbersome, every decent lead management solution offers a lead qualifying and scoring function. In simple words, the system would score the leads based on their interests in your offerings. As a result, you can distinguish hot leads worth your investment in a pool of opportunities, prioritize the same, and begin conversion efforts on time.
- Smart routing
Manual routing of your business leads not only takes much of your time but is also prone to errors. Besides, failure to contact the leads on time can cause significant losses. That’s where reliable lead management software can chip in to make all the difference. With its smart routing feature, the software allocates every opportunity to its best-suited sales representatives automatically using the preset determinants. That ensures each lead reaches the right personnel, making way for a prompt follow-up or response and more potential for conversion.
- Lead nurturing
Keeping all your leads engaged and interested in your offerings, irrespective of the stage they are in within your sales funnel, is easier said than done. However, using a trusted lead management tool makes it simpler with its robust lead nurturing functionality. The tool, using powerful segmentation, lets you cater to your leads according to their interests, history, and preferences. That helps you establish an authentic bond with all your clients to keep them coming back to your business.
- Automated integrated marketing
A lot of the leading lead management systems streamline your marketing efforts through their integrated, automated marketing functions. The software can integrate consumer information for you dynamically, accelerating your marketing campaigns to fulfill your sales goals.
- Communication tools
Since it is important for your team members to have seamless internal communication, almost all the best lead management systems include powerful communication tools. Whether it is relaying information about prospects or keeping each other updated, prompt interactions among team members facilitate a coherent sales process.
Apart from that, many solutions also pack in an external communication facility. That means your sales guys can interact with clients from the same platform, eliminating the hassles of switching between different tools.
- Reporting & analysis
Simply gathering and managing data won’t take your business anywhere. Hence, smart analytics and reporting make for one of the common features found in lead management software. Thanks to this capability, you can track your conversion rates, acquisition statistics, and other critical metrics as frequently as you require. It provides you with actionable insights on how your campaigns & lead efforts are performing and where you need to improve.
» What are the Benefits of Lead Management Software?
Using lead management software makes your sales funnel super-efficient and organized. And it doesn’t stop there. The system brings with it a host of benefits. What those advantages are, let’s dive in deeper to discover.
- Assurance of effortless lead capture
No matter how proactive your salesperson might be, it is nearly impossible for them to capture and record leads from multiple sources accurately. There is a strong potential of leads falling through the crack. However, a lead management system removes that risk with its systematized and automated lead capture functions. Whether it is online sign-ups from multiple channels or in-person leads, the tool ensures your pool of opportunities is always in place.
- Ability to distinguish between sales-ready & unfruitful leads
Lead management software packs in an immaculate filtering process that helps you qualify to lead faster and more effectively. In other words, you can recognize which leads are ready for your salespersons to chase and which ones require more nurturing. It helps you and your sales team to steer clear of investing your efforts in converting leads that are not yet ready to become your clientele.
- Strategic lead nurturing
With a lead management tool, you know the stage each of your leads is in, at any given moment, in your sales funnel. That helps you nurture them accordingly with thorough customization, say, through email marketing, personalized offers, or interaction on socials. It helps prospects in the beginning stages of a buyer’s journey, increasing the likelihood of them becoming your customers.
- Powerful lead tracking
An effective lead management solution comes in with a robust tracking mechanism. That enables you to monitor all the leads entering your lead database from multiple channels in a hassle-free and tactful manner. By continual tracking, you can improve the experience of your opportunities which, in turn, boosts the conversion possibilities.
- Time saver
Lead management software brings automation to a lot of your standard, manual processes. Administrative tasks, such as entering leads into the database, can be automated by easy imports/exports. As a result, you are able to save valuable time to focus on more critical business operations.
- Actionable insights
Leveraging the advanced lead tracking functionality of the software, you are able to gather vital analytical data critical for lead conversions. In addition, these actionable insights can help you make more effective business decisions and timely modifications to your existing campaigns & processes. It also helps map a better consumer journey.
- Real-time reporting
With a lead management system comes along real-time reporting capability, giving you a quick lowdown on what is working in your sales funnel and what is not at any given time. That way, you always stay in control when it comes to optimizing the good-performing channels and scaling down the less efficient ones.
- Better team coordination
As a lead management solution comes into the picture, it lowers the scope of miscommunication and errors in the to-and-fro of information between team members. The system often includes tools for seamless internal communication, keeping each member of your team always aligned and updated about each new development.
» What are the Things You Should Consider When Choosing a Lead Management Software?
Purchasing an ideal lead management solution can be tricky as there are so many options out there. Here are a few factors you must tick off your list when finalizing a system for your business:
- Features & functions
What kind of features does the software offer? Where does it scale in terms of functionality and performance? Find answers to these questions. The more it ranks in terms of features, functions, and performance, the better the system is.
- Ease of use
Being loaded on the features aspect doesn’t mean the system has to be complicated. Ensure that the software you choose is simple to grasp and easy to use for your workforce.
- Customization
Every company has its unique set of requirements. Therefore, it is imperative to go for a lead management tool that offers ample scope of personalization to adapt to your business processes.
- Scalability
Switching to a bigger, better solution as your business grows is neither feasible nor cost-effective. That’s why you must choose a lead management system that can scale along with your business, accommodating your growing requirements.
- Integration
Every business leverages multiple tools to smoothly carry out its operations. Hence, it is only wise to buy lead management software that offers easy integrations with other leading business tools as well as third-party solutions, for example, CRMs, accounting software, and marketing tools.
- Cost
Cost is a prime factor that drives buying decisions. Check whether the price of the system justifies the offerings it brings to the table. Also, don’t forget to clarify the cost of regular maintenance and update releases, if any.
- Vendor support
Before picking a solution, find out whether the vendor is offering support services, such as software installation, training, prompt support, and ongoing maintenance. If not, you may have to shell out extra money for these services, which may increase your budget. Hence, choosing a vendor who provides an all-inclusive package is always a good option. A few extra bucks a year are better than spending hundreds or thousands for each additional service/support.
» How Much does Lead Management Software Cost?
Like every software solution, the pricing of lead management systems varies from vendor to vendor. Moreover, the cost is determined based on multiple factors, including but not limited to the system’s features, functionalities, scalability and customization options, number of users, customer support, and the maintenance services provided by the vendor post-deployment.
To give you an approximate idea, a lead management software system can cost you as low as $15 a month to a whopping $1500 - $2000 a month. Opting for standard solutions can be cheaper for your pockets, but they would only offer limited features. If you are looking for a comprehensive solution for your business with a solid set of functions and performance, expect the pricing to be high.
In the end, though, the lead management cost depends upon your distinct requirements and what you want to achieve out of the system. The good thing is that there are many vendors in the market providing personalized pricing packages based on your needs.
» Conclusion
Acquiring and managing leads is a hectic, time-consuming, and ongoing task. Besides, handling it manually only increases your headache, along with the chances of losing out on opportunities. That, in turn, can hamper your business stability & growth. The most logical way to avoid such a scenario is by switching to a lead management software solution.
A lead management tool will streamline lead capture, scoring, and segmentation activities for you. Besides, it would also automate lead routing and other admin tasks, saving you a lot of time and resources. With a more organized lead database, it becomes possible for you to go after the right opportunities at the right time with the right approach. The result? You not only get to boost your conversion rates and revenues but also achieve your business expansion goals consistently.