If You Don’t Have Lead Management Don’t Read This. It’ll Just Piss You Off!
Posted on 01. Nov, 2010 by Bill Rice in Blog, Lead Management
Don't Have Lead Management? Oh No! - Kaleidico
Do you want to know what the number one killer of sales leads is? Simple.
THEY DON’T GET CALLED!
That’s right. You’re spending hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of dollars to generate leads for your sales people and 60% to 70% of those leads never get a call.
I told you were going to be pissed off.
Okay, so let’s start pointing some fingers. Walk your sales floor.
No, right now. I’ll wait for you. It’s that important. You’re losing sales—right now!
[PAUSE…I’m waiting…get out of your chair and look…]
I can only assume you cared enough to observe what’s causing this massive loss of sales lead follow-up. Let me guess what you saw… (It’s always the same…I told you it was going to piss you off.)
Your sales people are managing sales leads with spreadsheets, legal pads, and sticky notes. These tools are severely flawed for any sales cycle that is longer than one afternoon. Every day, week, or month this paper “trash” gets misplaced, stashed, or cleared into file 13 (the trash can).
This is precisely why the MAJORITY of your sales leads don’t get the initial contact they need, much less the 5 to 7 touches they require to convert.
“But, Bill I have CRM,” you say. Let’s be honest, CRM (in most) organizations is simply a reporting database, an end of day or week sales haze. It’s a sales management tool, not a lead management tool.
So what’s the difference?
Here’s 10 things (good) lead management will do to ensure you close more deals:
- Sales managers can evaluate, manage, and control the sales process centrally. Ideally this management is based on statistically sound best practices.
- The system tells sales managers (statistically) what’s working on the sales floor.
- Sales people sell. NO data entry!
- Ensure an immediate (seconds after online inquiry), personal email is sent from the sales person to the prospect.
- Distributes a leads only to sales people ready to make a call. An instant call. (This requires PULL-based lead management.)
- System enforces an attempt on every lead before a sales person can move to the next lead.
- Compels aged leads as well as fresh leads to get frequent and consistent follow-up.
- Email touches are personal, relevant to customer experience, and automated.
- Sales processes (i.e., call-back periods, contact sequences, re-distribution, re-marketing) are evaluated, refined, and consistent throughout the organization.
- Leads can be nurtured, re-distributed, and re-marketed to indefinitely (automatically) without sales person intervention. Ideally managed centrally and at the manager level.
This topic is huge and important. You can read more. I’ve been writing about it for years. But, can you afford to wait to get started?
