6 Tips for Lead Managers to Optimize Your Sales Pipeline

If you’re a lead manager then you undoubtedly know that once your team starts hitting tradeshows and conferences in the springtime leads begin to really rain down on sales and marketing teams. But, as any good gardener or marketer will tell you, it takes more than rain—metaphorical or otherwise—to grow anything. Turning leads into revenue-building conversions takes effective cultivation with lead management tools. 

Lead managers know that to effectively manage all of your leads, you need the right team and the right software. Read on for six steps to learn ways to maximize your lead management and become a highly-effective lead manager.

1. Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams

Far too often, marketing and sales teams operate in silos—a practice that can result in lower-quality leads. Lead managers want to avoid this problem and create a unified ‘co-team’ team. The first step is to get key people from your marketing and sales teams to meet regularly—weekly if possible. Ask the sales team for feedback—are the leads coming their way well-educated? Are the leads asking very similar questions that could be better addressed by marketing content? By communicating and building a co-team, your marketing efforts will become more focused, your leads will be more qualified, and you’ll solve sales and marketing misalignment issues so common in organizations and improve your value as a lead manager. 

2. Collect the Right Data

Using the shared customer insights you get from conversation analytics and your hybrid sales/marketing team, you can determine what data your online contact forms need to collect in order to channel and nurture leads. If your sales team is split into sub-teams that represent different industries, tiers, or products, or that focus on different geographical locations, make sure you’re collecting that information. Use A/B testing of landing pages to see which fields are driving the most qualified leads to the correct sales reps, and to make customer journeys more direct.

3. Score & Tag Leads

After the form is submitted, the call made, or the email sent, make a note of what’s good about a lead, what’s missing, or how they might be served in the future. Score and tag them: thumbs up or down, four out of five stars, B+ or D, whatever system works for you. The point is to add any applicable new info you can to the data already collected. This will help your sales team know which leads are close to conversion, or who the tire-kickers are, so that they can concentrate on the leads that are ripe.

Some marketing attribution software platforms offer automatic activity scoring immediately after a conversation. Then, based on this score, marketing automation tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can trigger the next steps like a follow-up text, email, routing to a specific agent, and more. 

After the form is submitted, the call made, or the email sent, make a note of what’s good about a lead, what’s missing, or how they might be served in the future. Score and tag them: thumbs up or down, four out of five stars, B+ or D, whatever system works for you. The point is to add any applicable new info you can to the data already collected. This will help your sales team know which leads are close to conversion, or who the tire-kickers are, so that they can concentrate on the leads that are ripe.

4. Nurture Your Leads

An important part of a lead manager’s role is not just to know how to close deals but to nurture them down the sales funnel too. It’s just a fact, not every lead is ready to buy. Some haven’t grown into your products yet, or need an existing service contract to expire before making a move. Targeting these prospects with drip campaigns, meaning occasionally “dripping” a little content their way, can keep you in mind without a large effort on your part—and without pushing them away with a hard sell. Establishing your business as a leader in their industry will pay off over time.

Not every lead is ready to buy. Some haven’t grown into your products yet, or need an existing service contract to expire before making a move. Targeting these prospects with drip campaigns, meaning occasionally “dripping” a little content their way, can keep you in mind without a large effort on your part—and without pushing them away with a hard sell. Establishing your business as a leader in their industry will pay off over time.

5. Employ the Right Tools

Every lead manager knows that there are plenty of tools available to help marketing and sales coordinate and manage their leads. In fact, it’s likely that your existing CRM has some features that can help you generate and manage leads. Whatever you use, make sure it captures all the data you need at every point in the customer journey, can help you tag and score leads, and arms your sales team as well as your marketing team with everything they need to turn a lead into a conversion.

In addition to these lead management tools, AI-powered tools also enable teams to automate certain tasks and also gain deeper insight into customers and their behaviors. These tools can be used to provide a better customer experience too. And while these aren’t all directly related to lead management, anything that helps to drive a better customer experience will result in referrals and more leads. 

There are plenty of tools available to help marketing and sales coordinate and manage their leads. In fact, it’s likely that your existing CRM has some features that can help you generate and manage leads. Whatever you use, make sure it captures all the data you need at every point in the customer journey, can help you tag and score leads, and arms your sales team as well as your marketing team with everything they need to turn a lead into a conversion.

6. Include Call Tracking

Lead managers and marketing managers who want to stand out from the rest and deliver the best lead management know to use call tracking in their marketing attribution mix. 

Often times call tracking is overlooked or forgotten. However, when this happens marketers who feel like they know their sales funnel inside and out are blind to an entire—and vital—sales channel: phone calls. Call tracking can be a critical addition to your lead management toolbox. Not only does it help with call attribution and lead management, but it also integrates with other analytics and customer management tools, giving you a complete picture of your leads—as they travel online and offline.

It can feel tempting to dance when the leads rain down, but a good lead manager knows that cultivating your lead management strategy ensures that the leads you get are top-quality and likely to convert—and that will matter even more in times of drought. Remember that your marketing and sales teams need the right data and need to be coordinated. Keep this in mind as you continue to fine-tune your lead management strategy and you’re sure to improve your lead generation—all year-’round.

Want to learn more about how CallTrackingMetrics is helping lead managers be more effective? Book a Demo!