The process of lead management is indispensable for efficient sales activities and maximizing company sales and earnings. In this issue, we will explain the basics of lead management, as well as the benefits and cautions of lead management and lead management methods in depth.
What is lead management?
What is a lead in the first place?
A lead in the sales process refers to a "prospect" to be sold to. It is sometimes referred to as a sales lead, but the meaning is the same. A lead, so to speak, is "a group of people who have not yet made a purchase (contract), but are likely to become customers in the near future.
Related article>>What is a lead? Definition and Acquisition Methods in Sales and Marketing
What is Lead Management?
Lead management is the management of the sequence of events from the meeting with a lead (potential customer) to customer support after the final purchase.
The information included in lead management includes not only basic company information such as business description, business size, and address, but also e-mail correspondence, business meeting details, and customer rank as defined by the company. By reading the needs of each lead and taking the appropriate approach for each lead, you can build a relationship of trust with the customer, which will eventually lead to the development of an existing customer.
Concept of Lead Management
As mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal in lead management is to turn prospects into existing customers.
In the process, leads must go through the processes of lead generation (generating prospects), lead nurturing (nurturing prospects), and lead qualification (narrowing down prospects). Let's organize each of these concepts.
Lead generation
Lead generation is a marketing activity to acquire potential customers who are interested in a company's products or services.
Lead generation methods are categorized as inbound and outbound. Efficient lead acquisition leads to more efficient sales activities and increased sales.
Inbound type
Inbound lead generation refers to measures taken to get prospective customers to spontaneously develop an interest in a company's products and services.
EXAMPLES INCLUDE MEASURES SUCH AS THE INFLOW OF VISITORS FROM SEARCH ENGINES TO THE COMPANY'S WEBSITE (SEO MEASURES) AND THE PLACEMENT OF WHITE PAPERS. THE ADVANTAGE OF THE INBOUND TYPE IS THAT IT IS EASY TO ACCURATELY CAPTURE THE INTERESTS OF CUSTOMERS AND HAS A HIGH RESPONSE RATE. ON THE OTHER HAND, IT IS ALSO DIFFICULT TO REACH A WIDE RANGE OF USERS, SO IT IS NECESSARY TO PROVIDE A WEALTH OF CONTENT AND INFORMATION.
Outbound type
Outbound lead generation is a measure in which a company approaches customers with its products or services.
Examples include conducting seminars and trade shows, web advertising and commercials, and e-mail newsletters directed to leads. Outbound marketing has the advantage of being able to appeal marketing initiatives to a wide range of customers. On the other hand, if the target setting is vague, you may not be able to appeal to the target you originally want to deliver, and you may not be able to achieve cost-effectiveness.
Related article>>What is inbound sales? Thorough Explanation of Differences from Outbound Sales, Methodology, and Benefits
Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of nurturing prospective customers.
By repeatedly providing useful information and approaches to prospective customers and increasing the number of points of contact, we increase interest in the company's products and services. Examples of such measures include distributing e-mail newsletters to leads and holding seminars.
Lead qualification (narrowing down potential customers)
Lead qualification is the process of classifying leads into categories such as those that are likely to lead directly to a purchase and those that are not.
Lead qualification allows you to focus your sales activities on leads that are more likely to purchase your products and services. Leads can be categorized in a variety of ways, such as by business size, business development, past business meeting history, and lead scoring.
Benefits of Lead Management
Next, we will summarize the benefits of lead management.
Leads to increased sales
Lead management allows you to take the appropriate approach based on the customer's situation. For example, for leads with a high probability of closing a deal, you can provide useful information to encourage decision-making, and for leads still in the consideration stage, you can provide information that may be useful in day-to-day business operations. Lead management allows you to take the appropriate approach based on the lead's situation, leading to increased sales. It also reduces sales losses such as lost opportunities and wasted resources.
Sales efficiency can be improved.
Through lead management, it is possible to identify leads that have a high potential for orders and those that do not, based on the lead's attributes and behavioral history. This allows you to focus your approach on leads with a high likelihood of receiving orders, thereby improving sales efficiency.
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Leads to increased customer satisfaction
When lead management is conducted, a variety of information on leads is accumulated, including business meeting history, e-mail history, and website visit history. Based on this information, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the needs and interests of customers, and to appeal to them in an approach that is suited to their needs and interests, thereby improving customer satisfaction.
Lead Management Methods
The following is an overview of lead management methods.
Excel or Google Spreadsheet
The easiest way to start managing leads is to use Excel or Google Spreadsheets.
There are two main advantages to lead management in Excel or spreadsheets.
-No costs incurred
-No training costs
If you have an in-house Excel or spreadsheet system in place, there are essentially no new costs. This is one of the major advantages for companies that want to start lead management at a low cost. In addition, since Excel and spreadsheets are tools that are used on a daily basis for tasks other than customer management, users are familiar with them and can promote lead management within the company without incurring training costs.
On the other hand, disadvantages include the following.
-The more data there is, the heavier the operation becomes
-Difficult to utilize data in the marketing area
-Difficult to use as mobile work
Since Excel and spreadsheets are not business tools specialized for lead management, we recommend considering whether or not to implement them, taking into account their many disadvantages.
The following article provides a detailed explanation of how to manage leads with Excel.
Related article>>Thorough explanation of how to manage customers using Excel
MA TOOLS
MA tool stands for Marketing Automation and refers to tools that automate marketing activities. By automating each phase of marketing activities, from lead acquisition to nurturing and collaboration with sales, MA tools help improve operational efficiency and implement effective marketing initiatives.
Main functions include.
-Email distribution function
-Scenario creation function
-Landing page creation function
-Integration function with SFA and CRM
By implementing MA tools, you can manage leads efficiently and conduct processes such as lead nurturing and lead qualification efficiently. This will allow for more efficient lead management and processes such as lead nurturing and lead qualification.
On the other hand, there are disadvantages to implementing MA tools, such as incurring new costs for implementing the tool, conducting in-house training activities, and the time and effort required to input customer information.
CRM TOOLS
SPEAKING OF TOOLS SPECIALIZED FOR LEAD MANAGEMENT, WE ALSO RECOMMEND IMPLEMENTING A CRM TOOL.
CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management." In Japanese, it is translated as "customer relationship management" or "customer management. Originally born in the United States in the 1990s, the concept is to manage and logall points of contact between customers and companies, and to use the data to improve efficiency in sales, marketing, and customer support.
The main benefits of implementing a
CRM tool are as follows.
-Able to centrally manage customer information due to tools specialized for lead management
-Customer information becomes a corporate asset
-Improved customer satisfaction through appropriate responses
On the other hand, as with MA tools, there are disadvantages to implementing CRM tools in terms of cost, training, and other factors.
More details on CRM are explained in the following article.
Related article>>What is the difference between CRM and SFA? Explanation of which one to choose based on differences in functions and roles.
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Points to keep in mind when managing leads
Finally, let's review some points to keep in mind when conducting lead management.
Ensure that lead management does not become a genus.
LEAD INFORMATION IS OFTEN SHARED AND MANAGED BY MULTIPLE PERSONNEL, SUCH AS SALES REPRESENTATIVES AND MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES, AND TENDS TO BE HIGHLY PERSONALIZED. WHEN THE INFORMATION BELONGS TO A SPECIFIC PERSON, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT THE PERSON IN CHARGE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO APPROACH OR RESPOND TO THE LEAD IN THE EVENT OF HIS OR HER ABSENCE. BY CONSOLIDATING AND MANAGING LEAD INFORMATION IN DATABASES AND SALES TOOLS SUCH AS CRM AND SFA, IT IS POSSIBLE TO PREVENT THE INFORMATION FROM BELONGING TO A SPECIFIC PERSON.
Be mindful of planned lead development.
The goal of lead management is to nurture prospects into customers, but approaching them in the dark is not effective. It is important to develop a plan for lead nurturing and make the right approach at the right time.
Clarify the definition of a lead.
Without a clear lead definition, it is impossible to determine what should be treated as a lead, which may lead to lost opportunities. It is important to clearly define leads based on your company's marketing strategy and sales goals.
FOR CRM, UPWARD IS RECOMMENDED FOR EASY DATA ENTRY AND RETENTION.
WE PROVIDE AND DEVELOP UPWARD, A SALES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONTOOL THAT MAXIMIZES THE VALUE OF CRM AND SFA.
BY UTILIZING "UPWARD," CUSTOMER DATA SUCH AS CUSTOMER PROFILE INFORMATION, BUSINESS MEETING HISTORY, AND ACTIVITY REPORTS CAN BE SEMI-AUTOMATICALLY STORED IN CRM WITH A SINGLE SMARTPHONE. WHEN THE PERSON IN CHARGE IN THE FIELD CREATES A DAILY SALES REPORT OR ACTIVITY REPORT, NOT ONLY IS THE REPORT FORMAT AUTOMATICALLY CREATED ON "UPWARD", BUT ALSO VOICE INPUT SUPPORT ALLOWS EASY REPORTING IN SPARE TIME. THE DATA ENTERED DAILY IS VISUALIZED ON A MAP, ALLOWING THE USER TO INTUITIVELY KNOW WHICH CUSTOMERS TO VISIT NEXT.
Anyone can make strategic visits to the places they really "need to go," not just the usual "easy-to-get-to" destinations. For more detailed information, please download the service brochure from the following URL.
To download the brochure Click here to download.
Conclusion
Lead management not only enables a company to make appropriate approaches to each potential customer, but also improves customer satisfaction and contributes significantly to the company's sales. If your company does not have a lead management system in place, we encourage you to put it into practice based on this article.
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