Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
The Importance of Prioritizing Leads
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 by Michelle Hartley
On a daily basis your company strives to generate more leads
from different pipelines. While obtaining new leads is the first
step, the next is deciphering how much of your sales effort should
be directed towards each lead.
Let's face it, not all leads that make it into your pipeline are
going to become customers. For this reason it is important to
separate the ready to buy, the almost ready to buy, and the
probably not likely to buy. So how do you know how to prioritize
these leads and is there any easy way to keep them organized?
To separate these and keep the leads organized many businesses
are turning to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. All
CRMs will let you track leads, how they were generated, what
contact you have had with them, and the next action to take. This
data will help your team prioritize leads and contain all of your
potential customers in one organized area. It is only a matter of
finding which CRM is going to work best for you.
Consider where the lead came from. Did you obtain the lead from
a referral, a whitepaper they downloaded on your site, a webinar, a
cold call, or a tradeshow? From your experience with nurturing
these sales before, begin to organize each lead by their likeliness
to buy.
Some companies like to use scoring systems to help organize
these leads. The initial contact is scored by level of interest
depending on where it comes from. For instance, if the lead comes
from a webinar they may be given a higher score than a lead you
receive from a cold call. If the cold call is not responding to
future calls or emails, start to deduct points and lower their
priority. If a webinar attendee asks questions afterwards and seems
interested in your product, add additional points to this lead and
take the time to make a strong contact strategy to put extra effort
into turning this lead into a sale.
By taking an active approach to organizing and prioritizing your
leads, you and your sales team's time will be used efficiently.
Additionally, by separating the leads that are likely to convert
from the leads that are not likely to convert, you will be able to
allocate the correct amount of effort to each group to ensure your
efforts are going to result in the maximum amount of sales.
If you are looking for a CRM for your business, feel free to
check out ACT! Service and Consulting from Switchfast or
call 773.241.3007 to speak with one of
Switchfast's Development Managers.
Until next time -
Michelle Hartley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
DC IT Support &
Consulting
Outsourced Marketing Services
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