Lead Generation, Lead Management, and Lead Nurturing are all important parts of the sales process.
The first of these steps is lead generation. This is the process of finding those parties who already have an interest in what is being sold. There are several ways of generating new leads; including purchasing leads from a third party organization or having web visitors submit their contact information. These leads are more valuable to a remote sales company if they have been newly generated, because these leads are more likely to convert into a sale. No lead can be ignored in a data base somewhere and still be considered a ?hot lead.?
Lead response management is just as important as lead generation. A customer relationship manager (CRM) is designed to help sales reps with lead management. Any leads that have been saved in a typical CSV file can be uploaded into the CRM, while leads captured from web forms can be uploaded automatically.
CRMs have lead response management tools built right into them. These allow newly imported leads to be routed to a sales representative immediately. Imagine, with such technology web leads can be contacted within minutes of when the visitor submits their contact information online! With an integrated CRM-dialer system, no longer will fresh leads be left uncalled for days.
The Customer Relationship Manager manages all of the interactions a company has with their leads and customers. They are powerful tools in tracking and analyzing sales data, and also host the telephony tools that help sales representatives progress on every call.
As calls progress, the CRM allows companies to manage contacts in three “Buckets:” leads, prospects, and customers. Within these “Buckets” contact groups can be made. Each contact group can be marketed, notified and supported with the mass emails, faxes, and mailer tools built into the system. Each of these groups can also be designated as the contact list for a power dialer or voice broadcasting system. Sales representatives can adapt their scripts to address the needs of the contacts in each ?Bucket.?
Even the best sales reps can?t convert 100% of their leads into sales. Some inside sales companies would abandon those leads. Lead nurturing is the process of keeping in contact with non-converted leads and providing quality interaction with them so they will become a customer in the future. Email, phone calls, mailers, and faxes are all used in lead nurturing.
While lead generation is a critical aspect of inside sales, a CRM allows sales reps to manage and nurture those leads until they become converted customers.