5 things to consider before investing in a lead management operating system

Lead management has been defined as the process of identifying and nurturing potential customers all the way through to conversion, all of which is underpinned by technology that automates this process.

Whether you work in Sales, Marketing, or another business department, it is equally important that all functions contribute to improving the sales efforts at your organisation.

But we know that sourcing, tracking and nurturing leads can be time-consuming, manual and complex. From looking at our own ecosystem, we found that on average, enterprises are wasting up to three million dollars annually on poor quality leads. Marketers are also spending considerable amounts of time ensuring that the data is formatted correctly and validated against their campaign criteria. Our own data revealed that for some organisations, the process of manually checking leads can take multiple days, if not weeks.

The time and money being wasted can make a lead management platform sound appealing to an organisation, but there are many to choose from. This makes it difficult to know which one will really meet the needs of your business.

So, how do you make a decision? We’ve compiled the top five things to consider to help guide you and allow you to reach success faster.

Define your goals

Before you can truly make a decision, it is vital to start by identifying your business goals and key metrics you wish to measure. This may include the following:

• Lead validation rate
• Lead response time
• Partner performance

By establishing these goals up front, businesses can then make sure that they are tracking progress and meeting their revenue targets.

It is likely that each department will have their own individual goals. For example, marketing may be looking at increasing the volume of leads, whereas sales might be aiming for a shorter lead cycle. But whatever the goals are, it is equally as important that all business functions are aligned and can work collectively in achieving them.

Understand your current workflows and processes

When we talk about workflows, it can mean different things to different people – and they will vary considerably from business to business. Having said this, when looking to invest in a lead management operating system, you need to gain a deep understanding of your businesses current systems, processes and workflows, and how they all interact with each other.

Typically, this will include your CRM, marketing automation or any sales enablement tools. Once you know how your tech stack communicates, you can see what is working and what is not, as well as areas you can optimise and streamline.

It is equally as important to map the steps in your process – can this be streamlined and are you spending time on tasks that could be automated? We know that many businesses still rely heavily on spreadsheets to check and validate leads outside of their current tech stack, which not only increases the likelihood of error but also significantly impacts efficiency.

Ideally, you want a reliable, robust, centralised system that can connect business units, allow for scalability, improve efficiency and enable strategic decision making. Harnessing the power of automation and integration is just one way of improving this. It also helps to enable the marketing team to ensure they’re sharing the right leads with the sales team at the right time, reducing the number of unqualified leads passed to sales and saving valuable time and resources.

Encourage a culture that fosters collaboration and open communication

Successful lead management requires dedication to fostering a collaborative environment between sales and marketing. Building a shared vision across departments will allow businesses to align their teams towards common goals. This will help incentivise them to work together for their mutual benefit. For example, having the ability to understand what constitutes a qualified lead, will prevent time being wasted on leads that won’t convert.

Focus on your ICP

Understanding your ideal customer profile is arguably one of the first steps to any successful lead generation activity. It’s important to bear in mind how introducing any new technology could affect the customer experience. You should be asking yourself questions like:

• Will this tool enable me to connect with my target audience more effectively?
• Can this tool help me to better understand my ICP?
• Can the tool flag leads that do not match my ICP and prevent me from wasting time engaging with them?
• Will it allow me to track all of my lead generation activity in one centralised platform?

By asking these types of questions, you will be able to gauge whether the technology will be a hindrance or an advantage. Spend time weighing out the pros and cons, and always keep your ICP front of mind when having these discussions internally. For example, the transferal of leads from marketing to sales is often a key process in the lead journey, so the ability to automate this can often sound appealing. However, it’s important to understand if automating this process will help to drive efficiency and ensure that only qualified leads are being passed through.

If not, businesses risk wasting valuable time chasing leads that will not convert, and it can even jeopardise relationships with customers who are ready to engage.

Embrace data-driven decision making

Lead management is heavily reliant on data. Collecting, storing, enriching and transferring lead data from a variety of sources into one place. This is essential in helping businesses make more informed decisions and identifying areas of both success and failure. Unifying data from multiple inputs – whether that be website, social, events, forms or content syndication – allows for better reporting and analysis that can be used to drive improvements across your internal processes.

Is your current technology allowing you to accurately track, measure and optimise your lead data? If the answer is no, then you may want to consider implementing a platform to help with this.

To discover how Convertr can help to improve your lead quality, drive efficiency, improve internal processes and help you meet your revenue goals, contact a member of the team today.