The Complete Guide to Lead Management

Lead management is the practice of tracking and organizing leads in an effort to maximize their value and nurture them toward a conversion. It's a critical part of any business or marketing strategy, as it helps ensure leads don't fall through the cracks and that they get the attention they need to progress further down the sales funnel. In this article, we'll explain lead management, the process, and how to make the most of it. By the end, you'll have everything you need to hit the ground running with a smooth and seamless strategy.

The Lowdown On Leads

Conducting effective lead management starts with fully understanding leads, their types, sources, and their value. Not to be confused with the term 'customers', leads are people who have expressed interest in buying a given product or service. They can eventually become customers but aren't considered as such until a sale or final conversion is made.

There are two main kinds of leads in modern marketing, Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL), both of which we'll explain below.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL)

Marketing Qualified Leads are those that have expressed some form of interest in a product or service through a marketing channel. You typically won't have much information on them right away, maybe an email address and name. At this point, the person has done nothing but give you this information in exchange for something - maybe an ebook or whitepaper. They haven't been vetted as an actual fit for your company or someone with identifiable intent to purchase.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)

Sales Qualified Leads are leads that have a verifiable, active intent to make a purchase. They've

met certain thresholds indicating that they are ready to talk to a salesperson.

SQLs can be designated in a few different ways, but the way most companies do it nowadays is through a digital lead-scoring system. This is a tool that monitors users' activity online to gauge their interest in a product. It can be measured by website clicks, time-on-page, or a combination of other metrics. Businesses are the ones that set these, telling the scoring system what criteria need to be met before a lead can be considered sellable. 

Once a lead is determined to be an SQL, it's then passed on to the sales team for follow-up. This is when the lead begins to look more like an actual customer and the conversion process can begin.

What Does Lead Management Look Like In Practice?

Now that you've got a better idea of leads, their types, and qualifications, it's time to delve deeper into the topic of managing them. The following is a general framework of the steps involved in effective lead management.

1. Capturing Leads

You can't undertake lead management if you don't have any in the first place - the process starts with capturing some to work with. Lead sourcing can be done in a number of different ways and each company does it differently. The general goal is to get people to give you their information, usually in exchange for something of value to them.

Here are a few examples:

• Ebooks

• Guides

• Research reports

• Free trials

• Email series

• Discount codes

If and when people bite, the form they put their information into should usher it over to your CRM for processing through the pipeline.

2. Scoring and Prioritizing Leads 

In some cases, the number of leads you'll have coming in will be too much to handle all at once. That's a good thing - it means that step one of the process was effective. But it also requires a little bit of extra work, as you'll need to prioritize the prospects that have come in based on their potential to buy. This is where lead scoring, which we mentioned earlier, comes into play.

Lead scoring systems work by assigning lead points based on the engagements they have with a product. After they've taken a certain amount of actions, the scoring system will alert you to the fact that they may be ready to convert. This way, you can focus on those leads first and leave the others for later.

3. Enriching Leads With Further Data 

When it comes to sales, the more you know about a customer, the better. Not only does it make the process faster, but it also makes it easier to actually close a deal. That's why lead enrichment is an important part of lead management.

Lead enrichment involves supplementing the basic details you've got on a lead - name, and email usually - with additional pieces of information. This can be done through a variety of methods, with the most popular being email-based lead enrichment tools. These allow you to take data from existing leads and add it to other pieces of information you have, such as job titles or industries.

4. Nurturing MQLs

Even the most effective of marketing strategies don't engage people to the point that they all become SQLs. In almost all cases, you'll have some nurturing to do with excess MQLs, which, while less exciting, still hold viable potential for a sale.

Nurturing leads is a process of providing them with content and resources designed to raise their interest level in the product and make them more likely to purchase. This usually involves drip campaigns, which are a series of emails sent out over time that drive people further down the funnel.

5. Assigning Leads to Sales Teams

After you've collected and nurtured them, actionable and sales-ready leads go to the sales team for follow-up. This is where the process gets a lot more personal - instead of automated messages, prospects are contacted directly by salespeople, who can provide them with more information and help move the deal along.

6. Engaging the Sales Process 

While approaches can differ depending on the given company, marketing teams will generally work with sales post-handoff to ensure leads are successfully converted.

Example steps of the process:

• Discovery call and/or needs assessment

• One-on-one product demonstration

• Solution presentation and proposal

• Negotiation and agreement 

• Deal signing

7. Tracking and Improving

Building a lead management strategy doesn't stop after the first sale is closed - you'll need to actively monitor your approach in order to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.

Some helpful metrics to track include:

• Pipeline stage conversion rates

• Average sales cycle length

• Deal win rate

• Annual recurring revenue growth

• Average deal size

• Marketing and sales ROI

Lead management is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead in today's competitive landscape.  It's a practice that requires tracking and organization, but when done properly can result in more meaningful customer relationships. We've provided an overview of the process and the types of leads you could be dealing with. Now it's time to implement a strategy and get everything up and running smoothly. Good luck!