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This may seem trivial, but I think some clarification could be needed. I have had a few conversations around the term “lead management systems” and while I was talking about one thing the other person was talking about something different. This came up again via the LEADER Awards last week when both Leads360 and Sparkroom received the “Lead Management” award in different verticals. Both were highly deserving of the recognition they received and I want to send my congratulations to them both.
While both are clearly lead management solutions. They also clearly solve different problems within the lead management ecosystem. Sparkroom has a strong focus on the performance analytics of the leads purchased. It is an industry leading platform that allows marketers to dissect performance indicators by lead source, geo’s, lead filters, and many other criteria. While they do provide an email nurturing tool, at this stage in their development I think it is safe to say that Sparkroom is mainly a tool used by Marketers in an organization and not the sales team.
Leads360 on the other hand has a strong focus on the sales process of managing leads. Leads360 provides industry leading tools to help lead buyers properly funnel their leads through the sales process efficiently and effectively. While they slightly overlap with Sparkrooms analytic features they do not offer the same level of marketing analytics tools.
Both are clearly lead management tools, but one is focused on the sales process and the other is focused on marketing performance. So, my question to you is whether or not there should be further clarification around the term “Lead Management System”. Should there be a distinction between Sales LMS and a Marketing LMS? Or am I just getting caught up in the details?
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6 Comments
Mike, there is big difference between the two but they can also work together. At ClickPoint we define our LeadExec system as Decentralized Lead Distribution with Marketing Automation. Decentralized is the key term because we can send leads out of it 10 different ways enabling us to integrate with Leads360, SalesForce, Netsuites, or we can send leads out via E-Mail or SMS. You don’t need log into a central database. Leads360 is a centralized database where users log in to gain access to their leads. With Sparkroom it sounds more like an analytic feature set that allows customers to optimize their marketing efforts. Lead Management should be reserved for Leads360. The industry is still really defining new terms. Marketing Automation was the hottest sector in technology this past year but prior to that it was relatively new.
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Great thought Gabe. I would consider Sparkroom a Marketing Analytics platform and Leads360 a Lead Management System too.
It is interesting you bring up ClickPoint, because your platform is just another example of how a platform can easily be called a Lead Management System, but obviously is focused on the distribution of leads, rather then the process of “working” the leads.
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Dear LeadCritic,
We operate a market leading solution in the UK, which is focussed on the marketing function. We call it a “lead trading platform” rather than a lead management platform, having realised that our role is more to enable and enhance trade than it is to manage the leads once acquired. I think there’s a decent amount of sense in seperating between trading (buying/selling) tools and (nurturing/processing) conversion tools. I think you’re onto something, and the accurate nomenclature will emerge as the sector shakes down.
Robin
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I agree with Gabe so would classify Sparkroom as Lead Management Analytics and Leads360 as a Sales Leads Management tool. Maybe the awards should focus on the problem solved by a particular solution to help clear up confusion. Or at the very least, when having a conversation state the way the software is used.
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Interesting topic. I certainly agree that what Sparkroom does is very different from what Leads360 does. I think Sparkroom is an excellent company and am glad we don’t compete with them directly. Leads360, who I work for, is focused on providing the best solution for lead duplicate management, lead distribution, lead dialing, lead prioritization, sales workflow management and email nurturing. I am by no means an expert on Sparkroom but the only real overlap between our products that I perceive is that we are both integrated with many different lead sources (Leads360, for instance, has over 1,300 integrations with lead sources), Sparkroom provides some quite light distribution and emailing functionality and we both provide reporting and analytics capabilities. Sparkroom is awe-inspiring in their ability to provide deep analytics about lead performance from conversion rate to ROI. Leads360’s analytics focus is much more about sales team monitoring that answers questions like “who on my team has had leads for too long?”, “who on my team is working hard and how does this translate into their results”.
If I was to really characterize the difference between our two companies I would say that Sparkroom is focused on what makes marketing teams tick and Leads360 is focused on what makes enrollment/sales teams tick. Leads360’s brand promise is that “we make leads more valuable”, whereas I believe Sparkroom tells you which leads are more valuable than others.
The best solution a lead buyer could possibly choose is both systems… although I’d like it if they called Leads360 the Lead Management System
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Good post Mike and thanks for the recognition of the Sparkroom platform (disclosure: I am the co-founder and CEO of Sparkroom). I agree with your high level argument that Sparkroom and Leads360 target two different audiences: Sparkroom targets marketers and Leads360 targets sales. I also agree that the term “lead management system” is confusing as it refers to our two different products. For this reason, we have been talking about our platform as a marketing automation platform for the past year. What does marketing automation mean in higher education? For Sparkroom and our customers, it means a platform that:
* automatically captures, verifies, scrubs, and distributes student inquiries to call centers, SIS and CRM systems in real-time (Sparkroom Connect)
* delivers a reporting and analytics tool that allows schools to measure end-to-end inquiry performance for every online and offline inquiry source (Sparkroom Discover)
* provides lead gen partners a portal to access and review performance data specific to their campaigns (Sparkroom Interact)
Regardless of these subtleties, we were thrilled to be recognized with Leads360 as leaders in the category of applying software to the process of getting the highest ROI from an investment in lead generation.
Thanks,
Jamie
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