8 Best Ways To Manage Leads And Follow Up

Regardless of the size or industry of your business, your ability to manage leads and gain new customers is a good indicator of how successful and long-lasting you are in the market.

Effective lead management and follow up with clients are a must if you want to see an increase in customer base and revenue. In addition to increasing sales to current clients, it can also generate new business through consumer referrals.

What are sales leads?

Anyone who has expressed an interest in your products or services is considered a sales lead. They may have clicked on a Facebook ad or subscribed to your monthly newsletter after seeing your ad on the social media site. A lead is an opportunity that can be turned into profit for your business, irrespective of the first contact.

Successful marketing efforts result in a steady stream of new prospects that you can turn into customers. It is important to manage leads effectively and strategically so that none of them falls by the wayside.

Best Practices to Manage Leads – Follow Up Lead for Sales

How and when you follow up leads with clients is critical to the sales process. When communicating with them, there are several factors to consider, including where they are in your sales funnel, what they are struggling with, and when you should be communicating with them. Here are some best practices to manage leads and follow up with clients and prospects to win more business.

1. Lead Segmentation

A distinct level of messaging is required for each sort of lead. It’s possible that the lead is hot and ready to close or that it needs some warming up. It is important to distinguish between leads that come to you via an email opt-in campaign and leads that come via an online form on your website since they are at different phases in the sales funnel.

As many as three sets of leads should be created: “hot,” “warm,” and “cold” and accordingly decide on the follow-up strategy.

2. Multiple Follow-up channels

Follow up leads that use a means of contact that the recipient is familiar with are more likely to elicit a response.

Leads should be able to choose from a variety of follow-up options, including:

• Email
• Social Media
• Phone
• Text Messaging
• Instant Messaging
• Video Calling

Contacts can feel more confident that they won’t be bombarded with emails and phone calls if they provide you with their contact information because they can choose how you get in touch. Rather than relying on your leads to be available when you call, or to spot your email amid the dozens of daily spam emails they receive, you give them the option to opt-out.

3. Provide your customers with relevant content

Every communication with your leads, no matter what stage of the sales funnel they are in, should add value. It should demonstrate the benefits and features of your product/services in an engaging way. In addition to blogs, infographics, helpful figures, and success stories, you can also use printable instructions.

Focus on “warming” your leads rather than “nurturing” them because buyers won’t buy from you after only one conversation. Don’t focus on making them become customers, but rather encourage them to download that guide or read that blog post.

4. Create a follow-up schedule

It usually takes 7 to 10 contact points before a sale is materialized. Having a follow-up plan in place will guarantee that you don’t lose track of the leads. The goal of your communication calendar should be to keep you at the forefront of your prospects’ minds while also avoiding becoming a bother.

Following-up schedules provide an outline of when calls, emails, and text messages should be made. As time goes on, the frequency of follow-ups should change.

5. Schedule your meetings with leads

Allowing your lead to schedule a convenient time to speak with you is better to enhance your chances of getting through to them. Additionally, this demonstrates that you are considerate of your contact’s time and don’t want to bother them.

Automated callbacks allow you to answer immediately without having to plan a call. Similarly, the recipient is more likely to overlook an email or message if they do not know when to anticipate them.

6. Avoid Sales Pitches

During the follow-up communications, focus on the needs of your potential clients, rather than just promoting the benefits and features of your product. You might begin the conversation by requesting more information from your potential client about their company’s mission, customers, and challenges.

This enables you to find particular areas to help their business expand by addressing their pain points.

Read: Control Lead leakage

7. Install a customer relationship management (CRM) tool

Sales employees should have access to an automated lead follow up system that allows them to record every interaction they have with customers and leads. You can even include your website in this process. CRM will allow them to monitor and optimize their sales follow-up process.

A CRM-based automated lead follow up system and software also focuses on lead management and nurturing. A CRM has built-in technologies like email automation, lead tracking, and project management to accomplish these tasks concurrently and without fail.

Data is the most important thing CRMs can provide. It’s possible to spend hours poring through spreadsheets and assigning ratings to leads, but the effort necessary to remain on top of old and new leads will increase as your contact list expands.

When it comes to tracking leads, a CRM program may help you discover which offers they like, which members of your team perform best, and how they progress through the sales pipeline.

8. Learn when it’s time to call it quits

Early lead qualification is critical, and it should be completed as soon as feasible. Don’t get presumptuous and give up on leads just because they’ll take some time to close, but think carefully about what you’re pursuing. Consider the following three factors:

• Do they have the resources to make a purchase?
• Do they have a purpose?
• Are they in charge of making the final decision?

Another crucial follow-up approach for sales leads is to know when to break up. Salespeople need to be able to distinguish between persistence and harassment to be successful.

Read: Stagtes in lead management process

Conclusion

Lead management is all about remaining in front of your prospective customers without annoying them. Rather than trying to persuade people to buy, your goal should be to be there when they are ready to do so.

This kind of dependability is good for your company’s reputation, and it helps to build trust with potential customers. Be flexible in how you communicate with your leads, and they’ll be more likely to open up.

You may enhance your conversion rate by categorizing and distributing your material in a way that makes it easier for customers to learn about your product and make a confident purchase decision.