A lead in the sales process refers to a "prospect" to be sold to. It is sometimes referred to as a sales lead, but the meaning is the same. A lead, so to speak, is "a group of people who have not yet made a purchase (contract), but are likely to become customers in the near future.
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What is Lead Management?
Lead management is the management of the sequence of events from the meeting with a lead (potential customer) to customer support after the final purchase.
The information included in lead management includes not only basic company information such as business description, business size, and address, but also e-mail canada telegram phone number list correspondence, business meeting details, and customer rank as defined by the company. By reading the needs of each lead and taking the appropriate approach for each lead, you can build a relationship of trust with the customer, which will eventually lead to the development of an existing customer.
Concept of Lead Management
As mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal in lead management is to turn prospects into existing customers.
In the process, leads must go through the processes of lead generation (generating prospects), lead nurturing (nurturing prospects), and lead qualification (narrowing down prospects). Let's organize each of these concepts.
Lead generation
Lead generation is a marketing activity to acquire potential customers who are interested in a company's products or services.
Lead generation methods are categorized as inbound and outbound. Efficient lead acquisition leads to more efficient sales activities and increased sales.
Inbound type
Inbound lead generation refers to measures taken to get prospective customers to spontaneously develop an interest in a company's products and services.
Outbound type
Outbound lead generation is a measure in which a company approaches customers with its products or services.
Examples include conducting seminars and trade shows, web advertising and commercials, and e-mail newsletters directed to leads. Outbound marketing has the advantage of being able to appeal marketing initiatives to a wide range of customers. On the other hand, if the target setting is vague, you may not be able to appeal to the target you originally want to deliver, and you may not be able to achieve cost-effectiveness.
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Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of nurturing prospective customers.
By repeatedly providing useful information and approaches to prospective customers and increasing the number of points of contact, we increase interest in the company's products and services. Examples of such measures include distributing e-mail newsletters to leads and holding seminars.
Lead qualification (narrowing down potential customers)
Lead qualification is the process of classifying leads into categories such as those that are likely to lead directly to a purchase and those that are not.
Lead qualification allows you to focus your sales activities on leads that are more likely to purchase your products and services. Leads can be categorized in a variety of ways, such as by business size, business development, past business meeting history, and lead scoring.
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Benefits of Lead Management
Next, we will summarize the benefits of lead management.
Leads to increased sales
Lead management allows you to take the appropriate approach based on the customer's situation. For example, for leads with a high probability of closing a deal, you can provide useful information to encourage decision-making, and for leads still in the consideration stage, you can provide information that may be useful in day-to-day business operations. Lead management allows you to take the appropriate approach based on the lead's situation, leading to increased sales. It also reduces sales losses such as lost opportunities and wasted resources.
Sales efficiency can be improved.
Through lead management, it is possible to identify leads that have a high potential for orders and those that do not, based on the lead's attributes and behavioral history. This allows you to focus your approach on leads with a high likelihood of receiving orders, thereby improving sales efficiency.
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Leads to increased customer satisfaction
When lead management is conducted, a variety of information on leads is accumulated, including business meeting history, e-mail history, and website visit history. Based on this information, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the needs and interests of customers, and to appeal to them in an approach that is suited to their needs and interests, thereby improving customer satisfaction.