How to tell if a prospect will become a lead
There are two main ways of looking at leads – emotionally and analytically. A CRM solution can help grade leads and ensure that only the best, most sales-ready leads get passed through to the sales team. This contributes to an increase in the efficiency of the sales by not wasting time on a prospect who is only doing some research. This also helps to maintain relationships between sales & marketing as well as to develop a relationship with prospects and nurture them through to sales-readiness.
One needs to step back and analyse where the prospect is on their buying journey and decide if they will become a ‘good’ lead with these three tips:
- How engaged was the lead?
Through integrated web tracking software, you can understand just how engaged the lead is: you can see pages viewed, time spent on the web site, the number of pages visited and even the number of visits; give certain pages a ‘score’ that is attributed to the contact.
- How many channels has the lead used?
Have they tweeted about your organisation AND visited the website? Has someone in your company met them at an event and subsequently bene on a site visit? Even Google Analytics now provides information on multi-channel leads. Your CRM system can help you score the lead higher as a result of knowing such information.
- What do you already know?
Sometimes, a little extra intelligence can boost the value of a lead. If you know a contract renewal is up and you receive what would – on the face of it – be a simple web enquiry, what extra value would you attribute to the lead?
With a good CRM system in place, you will never miss a ‘good’ lead. All contacts are nurtured and their score is automatically updated. You can then concentrate on the content and let the software do the rest – notifying you only when someone is at a buying stage.