Believe it or not, leads are perishable. After several hours of acquiring leads, they get cold if you do not follow up. Firms that connect with potential leads within an hour of getting a query are most likely to close the deal faster. In the digital space, the decay rate of leads is quite high. And if you do not capture them at the right time and integrate them into your sales pipeline.
Studies reveal that if you want to convert leads into sales and integrate them into the pipeline, all you need is to follow up with them in a timely manner. With all-in-one CRM software sales pipeline management is easier than ever. But, honestly, at the end of the day you have to establish an emotional connection. After all, that’s the USP of any brand, be it in the B2B space or B2C.
If you want to manage your sales pipeline effectively, you need to have a solid lead nurturing system and an effective sales process. In this post, we will take a look at how these two things are related.
Create A Lead Nurturing System
When you are converting your leads and integrating them into the sales pipeline you need to create a lead nurturing system at the very first step. The first step in building a lead nurturing system is to define what your business needs from this tool. Every business has different requirements. If you do not define it from the beginning you are going to lose potential leads.
The next step is deciding which features are most important and should be included within the platform itself. There are many different ways companies have implemented their lead nurturing systems over time. Some simply send automated emails when someone signs up for updates or asks any questions about the products. Others, include more complex functionality like setting up auto-responders or creating reports on subscriber engagement metrics over time.
How often do we want our subscribers opened? When do we want them closed? Do we only want emails opened after they have clicked through an action like download)? Or maybe something else entirely? It helps decide if an automated email address associated with each subscriber makes sense. After all, it also factors into budgeting.
Lead nurturing is the process of cultivating your leads through a series of interactions. It’s the core of the sales process. It helps you to build trust with your prospects and strengthen their interest in becoming customers. To start of with lead nurturing, first, define what it means for you as an organization:
- What’s the secret of your lead nurturing strategy?
- How often do you want to communicate with each person on your list (weekly or monthly)?
Get the answers of these questions sorted first. Now, you can easily decide how much time/resources you have available for this task at any given time.
Maintain Your Database
When you are nurturing your leads you must be having a lead database. And, it’s your responsibility to update it. Simply pull in new leads from your sales team and these to your database. It ensures that when someone looks for your product or service, they will be able to find what they need right away.
But, you can automate the same with CRM software with exceptional reporting capabilities. For example, you can create monthly reports based on various metrics such as open rates and conversion rates. These reports will allow you to track how well each campaign was performing over time. Simultaneously, you get the idea whether next time around you need to improve our efforts further!
Build An Effective Sales Process
Building an effective sales process is the key to closing deals. Here are some cool tips from the experts.
- Be friendly, polite, and respectful while interacting with your potential leads
- Tell the customer exactly how you can help them (and not what they want to hear).
- Never talk about yourself or your company without the customer’s permission. If you want to share something about yourself or your company anyway, make sure that it’s relevant to the conversation and has direct value for the customer first!
Get a solid lead-nurturing system and an effective sales process in place
While lead nurturing is a widely used term, hardly a few can manage and nurture those. It’s an important part of any sales organization, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood parts.
Leads are one-time contacts. When someone signs up for your email list or downloads a whitepaper from your website, that becomes your lead. But what if you had the ability to nurture these leads over time? That’s what a good lead nurturing system does. It allows you to keep track of how many people interacts with your content over time. Also, it give a count of who haven’t yet converted. When they finally become customers, it’s obvious they will buy from you. It is happening because you give those extra benefits along the way and nurture those leads throughout.
The benefits are many. Not only do companies get better control over their entire marketing efforts but they also save money by not spending on broadcast advertising campaigns. Practically, there’s no point in spending when there isn’t much demand. Meanwhile their audience grows organically as more people sign up through word-of-mouth recommendations instead!
The Final Takeaway
Converting leads into sales and integrating them into the pipeline is a tricky process. But, it is a systematic approach. Your leads go through plenty of phases before they come in your pipeline. Adding them in the pipeline means you are close to making a sale. Now, it’s time for action! Keep in mind that it is never too late to start marketing your business. We hope these tips will help you start on the right foot!