We sometimes get asked what the definition of lead management is… is it the company you are calling on, the opportunity that’s been identified, the individual, etc.? And often the question really revolves around how is tracking happening between lead generation and sales, especially when crossing multiple systems.
Well the answer of what is lead management is yes – It’s really all of those things. It’s what you can track and define within your company as a lead (versus an opportunity, which is often defined in your sales process, and closed sale). So for instance within LeadLife, since we can track a company and a specific person, our lead management process is both. We track their interactions with us and define when a lead moves into our CRM system as a “sales ready” lead. A “sales ready” lead means it’s ready for a sales person to make a call and move the lead to the next step. If the lead meets a certain criteria within our company, the “sales ready” lead moves on to an opportunity (meaning they are pipeline worthy).
Tracking all of these points is part of both a lead management system and a CRM system. The lead management system will be tracking and moving the lead from inception (company and/or individual), through until “sales ready”. Additionally, the CRM will track it through from opportunity through closed sale. The lead management system can also provide insight for marketers to track that “sales ready” lead handed off to sales and see how far it has gone through the pipeline and into a closed sale or not. So a lead management system can give a view of the entire process. As well, revenue from the closed sale should automatically update the lead management system giving marketers ROI reporting on their campaigns.
