A conversation today reminded me that not all lead buyers know exactly what do. Pretty obvious statement really, I would suspect that most lead buyers, including me, do not always have the clearest idea as to what to do all the time. In fact, most companies have factors and processes that are completely unique to themselves and knowing “what to do” is not completely uniform to each other.

Even though there is a certain level of complexity to managing leads there is also a set of simple guidelines that will insure success, regardless of of the product or service you are offering.

3 Golden Rules of Lead Management

1. Be Fast

2. Be smart

2 Be nurturing

Keeping these 3 rules in mind throughout the lead management process will insure your lead buying success. We know that having success with leads does not depend only on the quality of each lead, but is equally dependent on how the leads are worked. For years the first rule has been preached by lead management companies. They knew from experience that the companies that were first to contact had the highest likelihood of converting the lead. Thank goodness they never let up and just about every lead buyer understands the importance of “speed to contact”. The most important factor for converting leads is to be fast.

Secondly, you need to be smart. What do you do after you receive the lead? What distribution rules do you have in place once the lead enters your system? Does it go to a call center? Depending on the criteria of the lead will it go to specific sales group? Simply receiving the lead and distributing it to a sales rep quickly should not be the end all be all for your lead management process.

Lastly, you to be nurturing to your leads. Many companies fall into the easy trap of simply calling and qualifying leads and not properly following up and nurturing the leads throughout the complete sales process. Despite the fact that many lead buyers rely on the return policies of their lead sellers to excuse themselves out of properly managing leads, not all leads are going to say yes or no and in fact many will be initially undecided. These prospects are going to request and require consistent follow up prior to converting into a sale. Whether it be by phone or email,  specific follow up strategies will need to be determined.

The process of managing leads can be extremely complicated but by keeping these 3 rules in mind it can make it oh so simple.

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