Lead Management, Increasing Sales Volume and Velocity

For year’s sales has been the recipient of CRM after CRM, all with the same challenge. Each new CRM entrant brought promises of increasing sales efficiently, but always little more than another database of leads.

Of course, the last think sales people need is another piece of software to add contacts to and annotate updates for management. Lead management offers a different approach—active management of sales leads.

Ditching CRM

Lead management breaks from CRM by understanding that the fundamental assumptions—you have a customer or a relationship—are flawed.

CRM systems are generally simple extensions of the databases they are built on. This means a significant amount of data entry and sorting of contacts to work your leads. There is really no action, no management, and no forward motion on your sales pipeline.

Lead management changes this paradigm with an awareness of the sales process. Focused on managing leads through a sales cycle, good lead management software automates many elements of an effective sales process.

Some of the functions lead management systems often automate:

Lead capture
Lead distribution and allocation
Prioritization
Annotating status or actions
Callback frequency
Lead nurturing
Remarketing (or closed loop marketing)

Ditching CRM and getting lead management is like adding an automated assistant to your sales efforts.

Sprints not Marathons

By putting your leads in motion with lead management you can begin selling in sprints, not marathons.

Under the CRM paradigm you drudge through sales leads—finding a lead, calling a lead, updating a lead, and then looking for another one. In contrast, lead management pumps you the next lead, prioritized, ready for action. Simple disposition after the call sends you onto the next item.

Again, lead management software focuses on putting leads in motion. CRM simply focuses on storing leads and creating reports.

Activating Hot Leads

It is precisely this activation of your contacts that makes lead management as much a lead generation tool as a contact management tool. The acts of capturing, distributing, automating marketing, and prioritization makes sure your sales team is always working on the hottest leads. Even more importantly, old leads can be worked and activated behind the scenes as you put effort on the ones that are most likely to close first.

Give lead management a try—free for 30 days—and watch your sales production climb. Kaleidico’s Sales Manager is the pioneer of pull-based, high velocity sales lead management, giving your sales team a competitive advantage. Lead management will pull more deals through any sales pipeline.