How Successful Businesses Use CRM: Lead Management

It can be difficult to manage all the information we come across at work. CRM systems are one way of keeping organised. As a result, webCRM have conducted research on how successful companies use their systems. These companies average over 20% average growth since implementing webCRM. The results of that research will be shared in a series of articles starting with this one looking at leads.

The Value Of A Lead

How valuable is a lead? Businesses spend a lot of time discovering and generating new leads. Some do this with CRM, some don’t – but without leads, you cannot make sales, and without sales, there is no business.

There are also a lot of costs involved in the process of finding leads; advertising, marketing, in addition to company overheads all have to be taken into account. All of these areas also have their own costs within them, and as such finding leads can become a very expensive process.

Follow Up Your Prospects

Once the resources have been put into finding new prospects, they don’t suddenly become sales. There is still more work to be done.

This is why it is so important that the sales team follows up with leads in a timely manner. Good customer service begins with the first contact you have with a prospective customer, and it’s in the early stages of the relationship that this is most important.

Keep Your Promises

In fact, the main reason a company will lose business is that they don’t do what they said they would when they said they would. Nobody wants to be left waiting around, and whilst a client is waiting, another business could come in and beat them to the sale. There will always be competition, so there is no room for complacency.

Gathering Key Information

Not every prospect will translate to a sale. However, the information gathered from them can help a company both from a sales and marketing point of view. Finding out when a contract runs out, who key people in the business are or the potential value of any future business a business can be important information to gather. This allows allows marketing teams to profile and target specific communications to the right people, at the right time. With GDPR on the near horizon though, it is important that you get the potential lead to ‘opt-in’ to you communicating with them in the future.

How Does CRM Help?

That is why CRM is so important, it ensures all leads are in one database so a prospect is never lost again. Sales teams are then able to track a potential client from the first contact, and with all their information in one place, are able to follow up in a timely manner and will always have all the details of the customer to hand. First impressions are crucial, and CRM gives a company more opportunities to make a positive first impression last longer.

Look out for the rest of the articles in this series over the coming months.