Lead Management – Turning Leads Into Customers

Lead management has one main purpose and that is to organise the inquiries your business gets from leads. Your leads are prospects that could potentially become paying customers. Therefore it is important you have a lead management plan that also includes turning your leads into customers.

Converting Prospects Into Customers

Following a defined sales process will help you obtain more meetings with your offline prospects, convert those prospects to customers, and retain them for repeat business and referrals in the future. Review the diagram of the sales process below and a description of each step below.

Step 1: Prospecting

The first step of the sale process starts with identifying and contacting leads. It’s where you implement your marketing plan and make appointments to meet prospects. Research your prospect before making contact. Then be sure you have your elevator speech, in which you state your USP (unique selling proposition), polished well in advance of your first call.

Step 2: Initial Meeting

During your first meeting with your prospect, your goal is to build rapport and trust while starting to explore needs. You need to gain the right to move ahead to the data-gathering step, where the prospect is willing to share essential information with you.

Step 3: Data Gathering

During this next step of the sales process, you will gather the specific data you need in order to design different possible solutions for your prospect. Depending on the trust you have built with the prospect, you may even be able to do this step during your initial meeting.

Step 4: Design Proposal

Once you have gathered the data you need, it’s time to go back and design proposed solutions for the prospect. Always prepare more than one option that will meet the prospect’s needs.

Step 5: Present Solutions

At this step of the process, you propose the different solutions you have designed. Explain the features and benefits of each solution, recommend the option you think is best for them, and ask for their business.

Step 6: Implementation

Once you have finalized and closed the sale, the implementation step begins. This is where you deliver the service or product you have agreed on. Be sure to adhere to all the details you have agreed on and over-deliver where possible. The quality of your delivery will be the determining factor for asking for referrals both now and later on. Everybody likes to know they have got a good deal!

Step 7: Ongoing Service and Follow-up

Even if your service involves a one-time delivery versus an ongoing one, it is important you schedule regular follow-up communication and meetings. Stay in touch to monitor any questions or service problems. Arrange a follow-up meeting where you can discuss any additional needs and explore other solutions you can provide. This is also one of the best times to ask for referrals and recommendations to other prospects.

Make The Sales Process Easy To Follow

If you organise your leads, you make the sales process smoother and more effective. Lead management creates a company infrastructure that organises customer data and unifies your sales and advertising strategies. It puts everybody in your sales force on the same page and maximizes your ability to turn these leads into paying customers.

An effective lead management system starts with clear guidelines and a complete outline. The entire sales process, from identifying potential prospects to following up with customers after the deal is done, should be outlined completely.

For any company with a sales force, lead generation is handled by agents (or sales reps) who work under a lead manager. However, even if you have only one salesperson, it makes it easier if they have a road map to follow.

The Lead Manager

Your lead manager, or you as the business owner, has to fully understand the overall ability and special skills of each sales agent. Each agent will exhibit certain skills, so you as a lead manager has to recognise those skills.

It’s important to know the skill level of your agents so that you can assist them when necessary. If you have a large agent base with less skilled or new agents don’t assign them to projects that they may not be comfortable with.

Qualify The Leads

This is one of the most important parts of the process! Before a sales representative, or business owner, meets or talks to any of the leads, those prospects should be fully qualified. This means that your lead generation process has already determined that they are good prospects for your company.

If you have cold or unqualified leads that get all the way to the sales stage, this is a major waste of time and money. They are not ready to become a client! The prospect hasn’t been sold on the idea or product enough. The business owner or lead manager is not going to close the sale if the lead is not qualified and feels pressured.

So before the sale is made, the focus should be on qualifying the lead and finding out, with as much certainty possible, if they’re likely to become a buying customer. This is the part the agent needs to focus on if the sale is to be successful and also profitable for them too.

Your Prospect’s Decision Making Process

Understanding what your prospect is thinking at each step of the sales process will help you ask the right questions, share relevant information, and meet their needs. Use this table as a tool for when you plan what you will say/ask at each step of the process.

Handling Resistance and Objections

At any point in the sales process there will be challenging situations in which your prospect or customer resists taking the actions you suggest. Examples include:

Prospect Resistance:

When you first approach prospects, they may be resistant to listening to you at all. You will hear things like:

• “I don’t need to market myself online. I already have plenty of business.”
• “I’m too busy right now to deal with that.”
• “I can’t afford to hire a consultant. I can do it myself.”
• “Just email or send something to me.”

Initial Meeting and Data Gathering:

Even if a prospect has agreed to meet or share information, there will be challenges to deal with, such as:

• “Do you really need that information?”
• “How do I know our data will be secure?”
• “I’m not sure I want you looking at that.”
• “We don’t share our customer information.”

Presenting Solutions:

One of the biggest anxiety points for any salesperson is actually asking for the business. Some of the objections you might come across include:

• “We’ve already tried that before and it didn’t work.”
• “I don’t think we have time to keep that up.”
• “I’m not good with Internet techie stuff.”
• “How will I know you’re actually doing this?”

Other types of challenging situations can arise at any step in your relationship, even if you’ve been working with the customer for a while. They could be resistant to adding on services you feel they need. They could be unhappy with the results or service you are providing. There could even be one person that challenges everything you do.

The 3 Step Process for Handling Resistance

The key to managing any challenging situation that arises during your prospect and customer relationships is to use empathy. Putting yourself in your prospect’s shoes and seeing things from their perspective will help you understand how to manage their resistance. However, it doesn’t mean you agree with them.

Whenever someone challenges you or resists moving ahead, it is usually due to a lack of information or a misunderstanding. Rather than viewing it personally, think of the objection as a request for more information. Remove your own emotions from the situation and focus on what the other person is feeling or thinking.

The 3 Step Process

Follow these 3 steps to help you in overcoming objections and resistance that you encounter in the sales process.

Step 1: Empathize and Clarify

Check to see if you understand what the other person is feeling or thinking. Confirm that before moving to the next step. For example:

• “It sounds like you’ve had some bad experiences with Internet consultants before. It can be tough to find someone who can understand your business.”

Step 2: Provide Information

Provide the information that will allay their concerns or fill in gaps in information. For example,

• “We have a proven process for working with clients to understand how they function best. I will check with you at every step of the way to make sure we’re getting it right.”

Step 3: Check for Understanding

Check to see if you have addressed their concerns before asking to move to the next step. For example,

• “If that makes sense, how about if we meet tomorrow at 9 am to talk more about your needs?”

Keep Track of Your Leads

After you invest your time and energy in securing leads and closing sales, it’s important to keep your customers happy and stay in touch. Soon after closing each sale, you need to follow up with your customers and let them know that you appreciate their business. There are many ways to do this. You can call by phone, email or visit face-to-face. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s just important to make sure it gets done.

It lets your customer know you care. For you, it increases your future sales opportunities with that lead along with the chance to ask for referrals. You can also use your follow-ups to gather more data about them and assess additional wants and needs.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are helpful if not essential for managing customer leads. These tools automate much of the data gathering and analysis, making it much faster and easier for you. However, you still need experienced lead managers and agents to qualify prospects.

CRM systems are just tools to help you do that more effectively. To maintain good relationships with your customers, you need to have a personal touch. There are CRM tools that have monthly fees, like Infusionsoft. These can be expensive for small business owners and come with a huge learning curve.

However there are also many other ways of tracking your leads (like using an affiliate program), paying your sales reps their commissions and keeping on top of your lead management without a huge price tag…however that’s another article in itself.