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The sales process can be a daunting, time-consuming task. It’s important to keep up with leads as they come in so you can prioritize your efforts and reach out when the opportunity arises. Here are seven steps to help streamline your sales process while maximizing efficiency.
The “how to organize your room” is a blog post that outlines 7 steps on how to organize and track sales leads. The blog post also includes the “Must Have” text.
Lead tracking is a stage in the lead management process that entails following lead activity across all marketing channels and taking steps to seal the deal. It entails locating lead sources, selecting appropriate lead tracking software, assigning leads to team members, and nurturing and prioritizing leads. Follow the seven steps for organizing and monitoring your sales leads to succeed in this phase.
Freshsales is a good example of customer relationship management (CRM) software with a good lead management system. Activity monitoring, lead collection, lead distribution, lead nurturing, lead scoring, lead segmentation, and source tracking are some of the features. Freshsales offers a freemium model, with premium solutions starting at $29 per month per user. For the next 21 days, you may try it out for free.
Freshsales is a great place to start.
The second step of the lead management process is tracking and categorizing sales leads.
There are seven actions you can take to successfully manage and monitor sales prospects.
1. Determine & Define Your Lead Sources
Lead sources are the means via which your consumer first learned about you. Here are a few examples of popular lead sources:
- Use of social media
- Newsletters sent by email
- Paid ads
- Search engines (organic)
- Articles for the blog
- Television, radio, and billboards are all examples of mass media.
- Events will be held both online and in person.
- Recommendations from previous clients
- Backlinks
- Postage stamps
To make the most of the marketing money, sales teams track where leads come from throughout the lead monitoring phase. They assess which marketing channels are most effective for the company and which are not. You may also reduce the length of your sales cycle by focusing on prospects who are ready to buy.
Freshsales has lead scoring and deal analytics driven by artificial intelligence (AI) to help you find the best prospects to interact with. (Image courtesy of Freshsales)
A lead tracking tool is required to accurately assess how many leads are generated from a source and how many of those leads are converted into customers. CRMs, marketing software, and sales software often have these features. They monitor your leads’ email openings, social interaction, page views, and content downloads to track lead source data.
2. Evaluate & Select Lead Tracking Options
Consider numerous aspects when selecting a lead tracking solution, including your budget, the amount of time your staff can commit to manual data input, and the software’s learning curve. You must also predict how quickly your lead generating operations will ramp up.
Because Spreadsheets have limited storage capacity, you may find it difficult to handle big numbers of client data if you’re using them to monitor your leads. Furthermore, Spreadsheets do not allow you to keep track of conversations with your leads, prospects, or customers.
Here are some of the lead tracking tools available to you.
CRMs for Lead Tracking
Through the sales funnel, several CRM systems provide lead tracking and deal management functions. Client lifecycle management, managing converted leads, developing customer loyalty, and maximizing cross-selling and upselling possibilities are all included in these solutions, which go beyond simple lead management.
The following are some CRM systems that you may use to track leads:
Check out our post on the top six lead management CRMs for a more in-depth look at the finest lead management software solutions.
The Leads tab in Zoho CRM features a column that shows the source of each lead.
Adding tags and notes to a contact in Agile CRM helps you to monitor lead sources. (Image courtesy of Agile CRM)
Freshsales’ lead tracking technology sends leads automatically to sales agents so they may follow up with them as soon as they’re recorded. (Image courtesy of Freshsales)
Before they become deals, Pipedrive maintains pre-qualified leads in a separate Leads Inbox. (Image courtesy of Pipedrive)
The Leads dashboard on Bitrix24 displays the status and source of your leads. (Image courtesy of Bitrix24)
Spreadsheets
To keep track of and manage leads, use Google Sheets.
Spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets may offer a no-frills solution for lead tracking and management for small organizations. You may utilize them for a limited time before using a CRM. They are, however, not the ideal solutions for lead monitoring since they need human data input, which takes a long time and effort. There’s also a greater chance of making mistakes while inputting and modifying data.
This strategy is described in detail in our article on how to utilize Google Sheets as a CRM, which also includes a free template.
Tools for Email Campaigns
If email is an important element of your lead nurturing process, an email campaign software like Mailchimp can help you keep track of your leads. These tools often include a contact database, bulk email capabilities, and monitoring of email open and click-through rates. They do not, however, routinely monitor phone conversations or internet visits. You may solve this problem without switching programs if your email marketing solution works effectively with your current CRM.
The tagging function and custom labels in Mailchimp help you manage your contacts and leads. (Image courtesy of Mailchimp)
3. Set Up Your System & Test It
Set up and test your new lead tracking system with these essential tools:
- Knowledgebase and tutorials
- Session of onboarding
- Free trial
- Optional features
After choosing software for lead tracking and organization, the next steps are to create a CRM strategy and test it. Most of these tools come with tutorials, walk-through videos, or other online resources that guide you on how to get started. Some providers offer live training and support via phone, email, and live chat. Sales teams usually conduct CRM Session of onboardings, helping the team understand how they plan to organize and track leads using the platform.
After you’ve completed your CRM plan, test your lead tracking system before purchasing it or allowing your whole staff to utilize it. Use free trials to get a feel for the tool’s interface, convenience of use, and functionality to see whether it’s the appropriate match for your company.
If there’s something that you think does not work for your current processes, don’t be afraid to make changes to your CRM strategy or configuration. You can also opt for Optional features like a built-in dialer or workflows as needed.
4. Put your lead tracking system into action.
Tips for a successful launch of your lead tracking system include:
- Make a long-term commitment to a software product.
- Show how it may help you boost your sales and productivity.
- Instructions on how to utilize it should be provided to your team.
- Make it a requirement.
You’re ready to push out your new lead tracking system to the rest of your team after you’ve tested it. If you’ve signed up for a free trial, start by committing to either a free or premium plan.
Showing your sales staff how the system can make their jobs simpler will help them own the system. Organize training sessions on how to utilize the lead tracking and organizing capabilities of the software. Making it necessary and giving incentives for early adoption of the new tool would also aid in the effective implementation of the lead tracking system.
5. Input & Assign Leads
Data may be manually entered into your lead tracking system or imported from another application, such as a spreadsheet or an existing CRM. Assign the leads to the relevant sales team members so that they may be nurtured and closed.
You may create tailored email campaigns based on lead attributes if you use a lead tracking system or CRM. CRMs, unlike spreadsheets, can monitor these efforts and tell you which prospects are most likely to react favorably.
In the Automation setup section of Zoho CRM, create a lead assignment rule. (Image courtesy of Zoho CRM)
Lead tracking software versus. spreadsheets
When utilizing spreadsheets for lead entry and assignment, keep in mind that manually entering and assigning leads may be tiresome and time-consuming, particularly when dealing with significant amounts of data. Using lead tracking software, on the other hand, enables you to automate data input and lead assignment, allowing you to concentrate more on selling your goods and services.
6. Nurture Your Leads & Track Activities
In every level of the sales funnel, lead nurturing is the process of developing connections with your prospects. It includes tasks like monitoring leads by transaction size and recording calls and discussions to assist your team in following up with prospects. Lead nurturing aims to convert leads into customers and increase brand loyalty.
Call recording, email tracking, and website interaction are all capabilities that CRMs provide to assist you monitor your lead nurturing efforts. If you’re using spreadsheets, make your columns drop-down choices so you can enter lead tracking status more easily.
In Google Sheets, there’s a drop-down choice for lead nurturing.
7. Make a list of your top leads.
Lead prioritization is the process of differentiating good leads from those who aren’t likely to buy so that your sales team may focus on the ones who are most likely to buy first. This is accomplished via lead scoring, which is a point-based method for evaluating prospects based on attributes, behavior, geography, and involvement with your company.
The lead score system at Freshsales (Source: Freshsales)
There are independent lead scoring systems, but some CRMs include an AI-based system that automatically scores your leads based on the information you provide. Freddy AI, Freshsales’ AI-powered helper, enables you to tailor your lead scoring system to your specific company requirements. It also gives you information about your leads’ levels of interest and the elements that influenced their ratings.
Freshsales’ Freddy AI delivers actionable insights, automated dialogues, and actionable suggestions. (Image courtesy of Freshsales)
Freshsales is a great place to start.
Conclusion
A sophisticated lead tracking and organizing system is critical for handling extended sales cycles and keeping up with your competition, regardless of the size of your company. You can monitor sales leads using spreadsheets, but CRM software with its automation capabilities is more efficient. Lead tracking software or customer relationship management systems (CRMs) provide you information into which leads and sales activities are worth pursuing so you may become more effective and lucrative.
The “how to organize books” is a guide on how to organize and track sales leads in 7 steps. The article will teach you how to create a lead list, manage the list, and use the information gathered from your leads.
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