How do I define my lead management strategy?

When your salespeople or call centre team has the crucial job of following up leads, it’s important to define a lead management strategy.

This helps ensure all leads are pursued in the right way and at the right time, to convert as many people into customers as possible.

So what is involved in doing this effectively? We look at what you should consider when defining a lead management strategy that helps you deliver the results you want.

Collecting and filtering your leads

Thinking about how you will collect your leads is a good place to start when defining your lead management strategy. For instance, will you have a system that collects your leads from different sources and puts them into one single list. Or will you have separate lists for each source, such as email, phone, the company website, or a price comparison site, depending on the services or products your team is selling.

You should also consider how you will filter your leads. This is concerned with filtering them according to their status. For example, which are hot and are a priority, as they have the potential to become a sale, which are going cold so action should be taken quickly, and which are weak and shouldn’t be a priority.

Following up leads and considering what customers want

When defining your strategy, you should also consider how you will follow up your leads. This could depend on the product or service your team is selling, or the urgency behind a potential customer’s enquiry:

• If their enquiry suggests they are in need of the services you’re selling, such as car insurance, you might decide direct and instant communication is best. This could involve a simple phone call from a member of your team.
• Or if the lead is hot, but their need is less urgent, such as if they’re researching companies and checking quotes on a price comparison website, a less salesy approach might be more effective. This could involve a salesperson following up with a personal email in which they can request a time to speak to the potential customer properly over the phone.

When thinking about how you follow up leads, it’s also worth considering what those potential customers want, considering things like how they have got in touch. If they have made an enquiry by phone, for instance, they might prefer for you to contact them the same way. Or they might have stated how they wish to be contacted, such as in an email they’ve sent.

Allocating leads to your team and updating their status

You should also think about if your lead management strategy will work best if you allocate leads to different people in your team. For instance, if your call centre team is selling a number of products or services, you could have certain salespeople responsible for specific offerings.