Marketers invest a lot of money, time, effort and resources in lead management. Other companies apply technology to lead management like marketing automation, sales force and customer relationship management software. On the other hand, smaller companies manage to do this with fewer tools and use simple methods such as spreadsheet to manage leads. What’s interesting is they have higher success rates than those who invest in software’s and other marketing tools. Even though they are smaller, they have the power to convert leads to loyal customers. This only shows that it’s not how technically advanced you are in lead management – it’s how you handle and manage your leads that counts. Proper handling process is a surefire way to be successful in lead management.

1. Build a cross-functional team

To properly manage the flow of leads, divide your team’s duties, and assign tasks to each member such as who gets the leads, who does the follow-ups and who counts the outcomes. Assign one person from the marketing or sales to form a round table of participants. Designate the tasks accordingly and pick a team who is reliable in this field.

2. Determine what a lead is—and isn’t

Determine what type of leads you have on your list, basically there are three types of leads: a sales-ready lead which automatically means it goes directly to sales, a marketing lead – it stays with the marketing team until it is sales ready and the last one is an unqualified lead – don’t waste time on them for they are not interested or have no budget to acquire your product. It is advised to pay more attention to the first two types of leads.

3. Funnel leads as they come in the door

Once leads start coming in, you need to find out more information to see if the lead is qualified or not. What you need to do is interact with the lead to get valuable information like contact and interest area to see if the lead is a likely marketing lead.

4. Set up processes to pass hot leads to sales

You have probably encountered a potential lead that doesn’t meet all the criteria to qualify for a sales-ready lead but shows great interest and ready to make a decision right away. No matter how inviting it is to include a lead to sales right away, this shouldn’t happen; it is advisable to pass the sales lead to where it should be for further assessment.

5. Nurture leads with content

A lead that is not sales-ready must be passed and stay with the marketing team. How can you turn them into a qualified lead? The technique is to do lead nurturing which refers to keeping your leads interested, it is a common B2B marketing term frequently used. A good lead nurturing program involves providing information rich content to your prospects in order to see what makes an appeal to them. Sending out e-mails is a good way to nurture leads; also you can send invitations to Webinars, links to blog posts and articles. Why email is advantageous? The thing is you can track what a prospect clicks on and you can lead them to landing pages where you can get more valuable information about them. You can also try making phone calls without the need of pressuring them; go for a small chit chat with non-selling tactics for them to feel you are paying them attention.

6. Personalize when possible

Personalize your content and make your leads feel wanted, sending out generic e-mails wouldn’t capture their attention. Make an impression and send personalized messages that will make them interested.

7. Re-check status of leads

Constantly check your leads and take time to learn more about them, their needs and decision-making process.

8. Have a shared view of leads with the sales team

Build an organized team and share the information about leads. Update the records and the status of leads, each team members must be fully aware of the data and provide a spreadsheet that they can go through.

9. Measure results

Every step that you take or apply must be measurable; it must possess measurable results to see if the team is heading to the right path and getting the results that they need. Continuous improvements in handling leads will help the team to achieve the results they wanted.