ADVICE FROM CRM EXPERTS

Keep Chasing The Leads

When your sales representative gets a lead, you want them to chase that lead while it’s hot. A new prospect or an existing customer has shown an interest in your product or service, and if you don’t respond quickly, they’ll turn to one of your competitors. However, leads are buried soon or lost while passed through the system via email, inter-office mail, or even word-of-mouth. Don’t let leads fall through the cracks. Implement a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to support your sales team as they keep chasing the leads.

A new lead can show up nearly anywhere and at any time. One of your employees may be socializing, out to lunch, or initiate a conversation at a conference and catch the attention of a potential prospect. What happens to that prospect next could lead to a sale or a lost customer. Lead data can be passed to the wrong people or sit too long on a sales representative’s desk. As time passes, your prospect grows weary of waiting for a follow-up and pursues their needs with your competitor. Reduce your risk for lost leads with CRM.

A robust CRM solution, such as Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, can make it easier for your employees to enter and follow lead data. Right from the start, you can distinguish between prospects and existing customers. You can then qualify leads as hot or cold and route them to the sales representative with the expertise needed to manage that prospect’s specific needs. Built-in workflows automate the routing and notify that sales representative and other managers you may designate that a lead is waiting for them. You can define lead routing rules by product, territory, potential value, or other qualifiers to ensure the lead gets into the right hands. Add valuable data about the prospect into CRM, such as how you got the lead or relationships they may have with other customers or suppliers. Sales representatives can use this insight to tailor their follow-up activities. If using a customer reward program, you can reward customers for referrals, which can lead to more referrals.

Chasing leads is essential; however, appropriate follow-up is critical for turning leads into sales. Contact CRMworks for more information about using CRM to keep tabs on leads, follow-up activities, and consequently, more sales.