When it comes to marketing to your prospective customers, you don’t want to miss an opportunity to convert a lead into a client. You will do everything it takes to achieve a conversion and manage your leads. Still, without the ability to create, track and manage marketing campaigns, analyze email marketing campaigns, manage outbound calls and campaign follow-ups with ease and track your marketing expenditure accurately, are you really doing all you can to nurture your sales pipeline? (Hint: The answer is NO.)
When it comes to discovering and cultivating leads and moving leads to conversions, lead management requires more than purchasing email lists from trade shows and funneling out emails in the hopes of qualifying new leads. To make the most of your leads, you need to get serious about lead management.
What is lead management? Lead management is a set of methodologies, technologies, tools and best practices designed to turn leads into clients. Lead management is tracking of all the data that is acquired through marketing and sales activities, as well as customer service and client-facing support tasks. Lead management takes time and engagement to perfect – many businesses struggle with lead management daily.
The struggle, however, is well worth it as effective lead management will build buyer interest and, ultimately, generate revenue as leads convert over time. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is your gateway to efficient lead management. CRM software solutions help you stay ahead of the curve and strategically anticipate, meet and exceed the expectations and challenges acquiring new leads warrants. Providing a comprehensive view of each lead, CRM software automates the process of managing, tracking, marketing and selling to new and existing customers.
For example, with CRM software, you can build and manage loyalty programs, executive and manage email marketing campaigns and promotions, create social media campaigns to support inbound marketing drives, webinars and hosted events, as well as analyze a rich database of lead and customer information, segment and manage client lists and analyze and measure the impact of your sales and marketing activities.
What are 3 reasons CRM software optimizes your sales pipeline?
Total Marketing Management: CRM lets you create, track and manage marketing campaigns effectively. Whether its outbound calls, customer segmentation, email marketing, social media applications or creating customized campaign lists, CRM automates the steps and produces data-driven results to accurately measure your efforts.
Better Business Intelligence: CRM accelerates your ability to make better sales and marketing decisions based on robust client and lead analytics. With better business intelligence, you can achieve a customer-centric view across your enterprise to attain greater efficiencies and increase marketing and sales productivity.
Lead Analysis: A lead is a person or business that may have the potential to do business with you – perhaps even be your biggest client ever. CRM stores data about all leads and creates lead reports that show you the elements of your leads and how your leads best fit into your sales pipeline. CRM solutions allow you to customize your lead reports, allowing you to view everything from basic information to extensive details, all the while assisting in moving leads accurately through your sales pipeline.
CRM applications provide a comprehensive picture of your leads. The prime advantage of data-driven lead management is stronger sales and marketing productivity – and a more streamlined and controlled sales pipeline – thanks to leveraging intricate lead data capable of helping you to better convert your leads into your clients.