When a person comes into contact with the company, they act as a bridge that connects marketing with sales and IT – but also with other departments such as service or corporate development. The aim is always to use as much automation as possible to find relevant leads that are received by marketing and can be converted into new customers. However, this requires concrete, seamless and successful lead management that allows marketing managers to identify real prospects, interact with them and thus qualify them.
In the following article, we show what measures companies can take and how such a lead management process can be set up, optimized and successfully implemented in day-to-day work. Marketers will also receive clear instructions that they can use as a guide to quickly and easily generate more high-quality leads with relatively little effort – which has a direct impact on sales.
Summary: What you can expect for your lead management process
What is lead management?
A successful lead management process is characterized by close integration between the marketing and sales teams. The early identification of potential customers, targeted communication and the continuous evaluation of lead quality are essential here. By using data-driven analyses, companies can optimize their measures and ensure that only the most promising leads are followed up.
The 5 most important steps in lead management
Step 1: Lead generation
Marketers should also create so-called lead magnets that specifically encourage website visitors to disclose further data (such as email address, telephone number, etc.). In this way, they can create additional occasions for marketing activities and trigger direct actions, conversions and thus a stronger generation of leads.
What is a lead magnet?
Step 2: Lead qualification
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): These leads have shown some interest in the company, but are not yet ready for a direct sales conversation. They need to be further developed before they are handed over to sales.
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): These leads show a clear interest in buying and are ready to get in touch with sales.
- Lead scoring: Leads are scored using a points system. Criteria such as website visits, downloads, interactions with emails or social media activities help to assess the quality of a lead.
- Data analysis & tracking: Modern analysis tools such as Google Analytics or CRM systems enable a detailed evaluation of interactions and help to better assess lead quality.
Step 3: Lead Nurturing
All customer information collected and evaluated during the first three steps (target group identification, LG and LS) serves as the basis for the lead nurturing phase – which advertising medium or channel was used to bring the lead to the website, their interests, challenges, goals and their position in the sales funnel.
This data helps marketers and sales specialists to find out which lead has already come so far in the process that they can take the next step – the conclusion of the contract. They can also find out who still needs a lot of information. This is how inquiry management makes a valuable contribution.
But more importantly, the information collected shows who is not quite ready yet and where “persuasion” is still needed. This is where targeted lead nurturing measures come into play, providing leads with additional, multi-value content about your own products and services. This way, they are even better targeted and convinced that your own offers are the most suitable for them.
To make lead nurturing successful, the following content is suitable:
- Further webinars and blog posts
- Detailed case studies
- Special offers and discounts
And here are a few more tips to support leads on their journey through the sales funnel:
- Find out which target groups respond to which type of content and prepare the appropriate material
- The tone of voice across all communication channels (especially email, call, video call or chat) should always be polite, friendly and personal to ensure a maximum customer experience (CX)
- All communication products and every direct exchange should include a clear call-to-action
- And most importantly: the core of lead nurturing is to cultivate users from the very first moment and to continuously expand this cultivation so that they can then be handed over to sales.
Step 4: Lead scoring & evaluation
The most common method is to assign points to individual leads based on their actions on the website or their interaction with advertising materials along the sales funnel and the customer journey – each advertising company organizes this process individually. Added together, these scores provide a value that marketers and salespeople can use to determine how far along a lead is in their decision-making process and whether they are ready to talk to the sales department and/or receive an offer. The higher the value, the more likely it is to close the deal.
A prospective customer reads a press article about a new software and also sees a display ad for the specific provider on the page. He clicks on the banner or on a link as part of the email marketing strategy and is redirected to a landing page – that’s 3 points. There he consumes further information about products and services and presses the ‘Prices’ button, which earns him 7 more points. The subscribed newsletter earns him another 8 points. And so it goes on. As soon as a lead takes another action or interacts with the provider’s content, it earns more points until it reaches a certain value that triggers direct contact from the sales department and the sending of an offer. It is now far enough along the funnel to be converted into a buyer. Conversely, a lead can also have points deducted, for example if they look at job ads more often – job seekers are rarely buyers.
This way, marketers receive very specific information about how much a lead is actually worth. Armed with this information, they can then optimize specific measures in their marketing strategy, tailor content more specifically to more focused target groups, and precisely adjust the contact routes and intervals. The end result is a seamless, value-adding marketing process that continuously generates more contacts and thus directly contributes to sales success.
The lead evaluation as a sub-process can be set up fully automatically with the appropriate software solutions. The system recognizes a lead and evaluates it throughout the entire process.
Step 5: Lead Conversion
- Personalized offers: Leads receive individual offers that are precisely tailored to their needs.
- Effective sales processes: A structured sales funnel ensures that leads are quickly guided through the sales process.
- CRM integration: All relevant customer data should be seamlessly transferred to the CRM so that sales has a complete history of interactions.
- Multichannel approach: A combination of email, phone, social selling and live chats maximizes conversion opportunities.
- Building trust: Testimonials, references and case studies help to gain the trust of potential customers and facilitate the deal.
Automate and optimize marketing and lead management processes – with the matelso platform
Strategies for a successful lead management process – with the matelso platform
By linking each conversation to a cookie ID and integrating it into existing systems such as CRM, ERP or Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads, marketers can transparently map the entire customer journey and process it automatically. This enables more precise targeting, improved data quality and informed decisions along the entire funnel – while at the same time reducing system complexity and optimizing budget use.
- They can increase budget efficiency and transparency across the entire marketing and lead management process.
- They can gain valuable insights into their customers’ journeys.
- They can seamlessly transfer customer data collected through direct contact to linked third-party systems such as analytics tools.
- You can create a simpler IT infrastructure to free up additional resources for lead generation activities – the keyword here is a shorter toolchain.
Ultimately, the matelso platform provides decision-makers with a solution that greatly improves and accelerates all decision-making processes – and ultimately makes the entire company more successful.
