What is Lead Management & How Does It Work? | Salesforce Explained

What's up, everybody? I'm Brian Tong, your guide to all things Salesforce. And this is Salesforce Explained. It's the series where we talk Salesforce and technology without all the jargon or the buzzwords. So make sure to subscribe to the Salesforce channel and turn on those notifications so you never miss an episode. Now, today's topic is lead management. This is a hugely important process for any growing business and a critical part of customer relationship management. So today we're diving into what lead management is and how you can successfully manage leads with Salesforce. So we'll cover the basics, and, you know, because I love you and want you to succeed, we're gonna walk you through an example to tie it all together. So, pro tip, Salesforce easy will make jumping in even, dare I say, easier. Yeah, that's because you can sign up for a free trial in just three clicks. So check out the link in the video description to learn more and keep an eye out for an upcoming episode dedicated to all things easy. All right, let's do this. And first up, what is lead management? Okay, hold up. Wait. Now before we get to that first, what's a lead? Right. A lead is someone who is interested in what you're selling. Simple enough. And that person could be an individual or a representative from another business, depending on whether you sell B to C, and that means directly to consumers or. Or you're in a B2B. That's business to business. In either case, each new lead represents a potential new source of revenue, so it makes sense why they're so important. Leads are the lifeblood of any business, and tracking leads can help inform your overall sales projections as well. Lead management is the process of capturing new prospective customers, tracking them and managing them until they make a purchase. And usually when the term lead management is used, it implies the goal of moving leads down the sales funnel. So check this out. The top of the funnel is the beginning full of potential customers, while the bottom of the funnel is the end of the journey where sales happen. Lead management helps you move more of those top of the funnel folks down towards the bottom, giving you a better chance of making sales. How? Well, that's where our stages of lead management come in. Lead generation, lead tracking, lead qualification, lead routing, and lead nurturing. Now, if you look real close, there's a pattern here. Can you figure it out? Okay, stage one. Lead generation. Lead generation, AKA lead gen, or lead capture, is the process of going out and finding new potential customers. In the past, sales reps would cold call customers and Potential customers to entice them with new products and services. Of course, nowadays phones don't even make calls. Okay, of course they do. I'm kidding. But that's what the app with that old phone handset icon is for, right? Yeah, but today's digital first customers, they're much less receptive to cold call pitches. I mean, when is the last time that you answered a call from an unknown number? Yeah, you probably haven't. And most folks are more likely to be interested in learning about brands and products online through a website or social media. So that means most lead gen now happens when customers sign up for something online like an email list or webinar. Which is great. Why? Well, because when you register prospects through an online form, bada bing, bada boom, that lead data goes straight to you and your CRM, which we all know makes your team's lives so much easier. Pause Relevant episode plug. Hey, because we can't cover everything in one video, remember, we. We have a whole series. So if you're new to CRM, check out our what is Salesforce Episode for a full breakdown and a hot topic around here. Genie. We're gonna have a whole episode coming out on that later in the series. Just truly incredible stuff. Okay, and back to our regularly scheduled program that takes us to stage two. Lead tracking. Now, once you've captured a new lead, you. You want to track their interactions with your brand across your website, social media, and other channels like email. Now, here's where that CRM, Salesforce. Yes. Comes in. Ultra handy. Salesforce manages the flow of all those interactions, showing you what emails your leads open, what parts of your website they spend time on, and generally building a complete 360 degree view of who they are. Salesforce's lead tracking tools also constantly sift through your customer data, surfacing insights for how to improve relationship with your prospects. You might find out an extra tidbit on how their business works, or even something simple that could spark a fun conversation. Now, tracking leads with Salesforce is like having extra hands. Wait, no. Extra brains. Yeah. Helping you better build relationships with more prospects than ever. Okay, that brings us now to the third stage of lead management. Lead qualification. Determining whether or not someone is a fit for what you're selling is called lead qualification. And this is the stage where you figure out just how interested your lead is in your product and the likelihood they'll actually become a paying customer at some point in the future. Doing this early in the process, that's key. So once you've qualified your leads, you can Prioritize outreach to the ones more likely to buy and not waste time on cold leads or dead ones. The lead qualification process can look very different and at companies of different sizes and in various industries. But good news, Salesforce's lead management comes with qualification features like lead scoring and grading. Now those can even be customized to meet the needs of any business. Lead scoring is how interested the lead is in you and then lead grading is how interested you are in the lead. Salesforce automatically scores inbound leads based on how interested they are in your products or services and and grades leads based on a factor like location, job title, industry and company size. Now, the higher the score or better the grade, the better the lead. Good leads are my love language. With Salesforce, you can automatically route qualified leads to the right reps on your team so you can focus on the hottest leads right away. Think of it like a really sophisticated game of hot potato, but you want those potatoes. And that brings us to stage four of lead management, lead routing. Ever been to a party where a pinata gets busted open? You know, everyone gets crazy, they dive into the ground, they're trying to scoop up the candy first, right? That's great fun at a party, but not a great way to manage a sales team. Assuming you have more than one sales rep in your company, when a lead comes in, you're gonna have to decide who gets it. This is lead routing. Lead routing is also known as lead assignment and it's the process of distributing incoming leads among sales reps. It could be as simple as assigning new leads via round robin or something more sophisticated that uses factors like territory, industry or potential deal size. With Salesforce, you can easily create automated rules based routing to assign leads. Plus, lead assignment rules are customizable, so no more fighting over that candy everybody gets. Now last but certainly not least is drum roll please. Lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is just that. Nurturing your company's relationships with leads until they're ready to buy. Like any relationship, customer relationships need attention to grow stronger. And lead nurturing in the digital age usually happens through content and email campaigns. Now, Salesforce's automated lead nurturing features that can send messages based on a schedule or customer behavior. And Salesforce will also monitor replies and alert your team to customers waiting for responses so no leads fall through the cracks. And you know what else Salesforce does that's pretty awesome? Well, Salesforce can take unqualified leads and automatically nurture them until they're more ready to buy. That's like searching for hidden treasure, except you don't have to do the searching. Your CRM does it for you. And there you have it. Five, five stages of lead management. But what does it look like in practice? Right, well, hey, here's a quick example. Just bring it all home. Here's Iman. And Iman clicked on one of your company's LinkedIn posts which led him to your website. That's lead gen. Now from there he filled out a form requesting more information and Salesforce created a new lead record for Iman. That's lead capture. And then before Iman even filled out the form, Salesforce started tracking Iman's activity on on your site and social channels. If you said that's lead tracking, you're right. Now building a profile that tracked his anonymous activity and paired it with information about him and his interest in your products. In the background, Salesforce graded and scored Iman. So determining that he was a hot, hot lead worth routing to a sales rep for a follow up. That's lead qualifying and routing. Then the rep made contact and started Iman on an automated nurture campaign, sending him content based on his profile to prime him to make a purchase. You know, that sure sounds like lead nurturing to me. And that's how with Salesforce you can turn those hot leads into paying customers. Make sense? Yeah. So you've learned about each stage of lead management and the obvious next question is how do you do all of this at your business? Well, that's a great question and I'm going to tell you. First off, it is crucial to standardize your sales process with lead management. Knowing and sticking to your process makes it much easier to reflect on what works and what doesn't and to improve your sales strategy moving forward. You know, it's a lot harder to pinpoint what needs changing when you do things a little bit differently every time. So here's a five step method for getting started with a lead management plan. One, document the steps that you take to guide leads through the funnel from their first experience with your brand all the way to when they place an order. Two, work with your sales reps to refine those steps. Figure out what's missing and then decide what you don't need. Three, implement a new management process based on those refined steps. Four, measure performance and do reviews to look for areas that need improvement. And five, repeat steps one through four. One, two, three, four, five. Again. One, two, three, four, five. Again. Yeah, you get it now. Over time, you can keep refining your lead management plan to offer the most value possible to your prospects, no matter what stage they're in now. Establishing a process that works for your business is absolutely key. And I get it. It can feel daunting if you're still learning how your leads work and how they can be managed. But that's exactly why you should give Salesforce Easy a try. It'll help walk you through how to manage your leads in CRM so you can be productive and save on precious time right away. Okay. Wow, talk about a information packed episode. Like I'm legit surprised my mouth still works. But lead management is an area where Salesforce can really help you tighten up your sales processes and directly impact your bottom line. Now, when it comes to learning about everything involved with lead management, hey trailhead, right here is your best friend. I'm a trailblazer, baby. Well, other than me, of course. This is going to help you do it. So check out the trailhead links in the video description below and don't forget to click the link to try out Salesforce Easy. And as always, be sure to like, subscribe and turn on your notifications so you never miss an episode of Salesforce Explained. And do me a favor. Ding ding ding. Comment what you want to see in the next series right down over here. And after all, I'm doing this for you. Okay everybody, we'll see you next time.