Mutt
Professional
- Messages
- 1,407
- Reaction score
- 977
- Points
- 113
Not so long ago, in one of the projects, I had to tell the client in detail what a lead is and why it is needed in a CRM system in particular, and for the work of his sales department in general. As practice shows, this case is far from being isolated. Our businessmen understand what a client is, what a contact is, but the word "lead" baffles many. And those who are familiar with this terminology very often mean by the word "lead" something of their own, different from the basic concepts.
Blame for the current situation and the lack of reference literature written in a simple and understandable language, and the creators of various systems for business, who often introduce their own terminology or use generally accepted terms to denote structures, the functions of which may differ in one direction or another from the basic concept of "lead" ... In this article, I decided to summarize my, in fact, very extensive experience in this matter, and to understand in detail: what is a lead, why is it needed in sales and how it is used in CRM systems.
Lead: Definition
Lead (lead) is translated from English as a clue, evidence, anchor. The closest concept to the word lead is a potential client, i.e. a person who, on his own behalf or as a representative of the company, shows some interest in the product / service and in the future may conclude a deal with the seller.
I believe that a lead is the contact information of a person who has shown a real interest in the company's goods and services and may become a real customer in the future.
Any sales manager knows that in order to work with potential clients, it is necessary to have at least the contact details of a specific person with whom it will be possible to work further (to identify interests and needs, form an offer, discuss the terms of the deal, etc.). That is why I emphasize that a lead is not just an interest, but contacts of a specific person.
For example, interest can be either a request through a feedback form or an incoming call, or a regular comment on social networks. "Interest" is any kind of attention shown, including anonymous one.
It is also wrong to call a data set "company and corporate phone number" a lead. But, if this phone number is accompanied by the full name of a person who is interested in your products or services and has the right to discuss your interests on behalf of the company, such a set of contacts is already a lead.
It is even better if the manager has a personal phone number and email of a person with whom he can negotiate.
Let's summarize:
Lead is a set of contacts of a specific (real) person who, on his own behalf or on behalf of the company in which he works, shows interest in your goods or services and is authorized to negotiate and make certain decisions.
Lead in the CRM system
So, we figured out what a lead is, in principle, but how and why to work with it in the CRM system? In this very popular question, we are now going to understand. In almost any CRM system, contact details of potential and actual buyers are divided into three categories:
I wrote about what the interest of users is in the article "Social CRM. Collecting the interest of Internet users". And here I will not dwell on this category in detail. Client data can be stored in different ways, depending on the characteristics of the client (organization or individual), as well as on the chosen CRM system. This may be the data of the Counterparty (company) and the Contacts associated with this record (persons representing the company), there may be Clients and Contacts (similar functions, but different names), there may be some other release option. Indeed, many options have already been implemented here, and it is difficult to say which one is better and more convenient.
Lead stands between Interests and Clients, i.e. this is a potential client who has already shown a clear interest that is much more specific and substantive than just interest, but is not yet a client, i.e. the company has not yet struck a deal with him.
For example, many companies communicate with "interest" on social networks. This communication is largely anonymous, since the manager does not know either the phone number or email, and often even the name and surname of the person who showed interest. And at this stage it is very difficult to say who is "at the other end of the conversation" - really a potential client, a representative of competitors, or simply curious. And the manager has almost no connection with "interest", except for the possibility of correspondence on social networks or on some other Internet resource.
But if the "interest" appears to give at least some minimal information, such as your work phone or email for price list and other information, as well as, if a man who had shown interest in the products and services on their own once gave at least minimum data for feedback and outlined the scope of his interests, this is already a potential client, i.e. lead.
And when this lead begins negotiations on a specific deal, the manager sends him a commercial offer, concludes an agreement, and the lead becomes a Client.
Working with a lead
It is very important to properly organize work with leads in a CRM system, only then this tool will be really effective. How does this happen when implemented correctly? It is important to talk about this in more detail.
Getting a lead
Depending on the situation, in the CRM system, both manual input by the manager and automated creation of leads based on requests from the site, incoming letters of requests from potential customers, etc. are possible.
The main sources of getting a lead:
For example, the email address must be entered in Latin characters, with the required @ symbol, etc. The phone number must belong to the contact person. If a lead indicates the corporate number of a large organization without any additional numbers, such a lead cannot be considered complete; rather, it is just an interest. And it needs additional verification and a slightly different approach than working with a lead.
The optimal CRM setup option is as follows: all incoming requests from the site or via mail are automatically entered into the system. If a lead or client already exists in the system, this request is attached to his card, and the responsible manager receives a notification.
If there are no customers or leads with the specified data, a new card is automatically created. It is advisable to minimize manual data entry, it is needed to create a lead based on incoming phone calls, work at an exhibition and other options for obtaining leads contacts offline.
Check for duplicates
It is made automatically by name, phone number, e-mail and, possibly, other parameters. Moreover, the check is carried out both in the lead base and in the client base, which guarantees that there are no duplicates in the system. For correct work with clients and potential buyers, it is very important that all inquiries are promptly received by the responsible person; it is also necessary to exclude a situation in which two managers independently communicate with one company. In addition, due to the appearance of lead duplicates, the database grows in size, sometimes very much. The system becomes cumbersome and inconvenient. Therefore, it is necessary that the lead cards are filled in correctly, all contacts belonging to the same organization are combined with each other, and the search for duplicates must be carried out using all directories and parameters.
Appointment of a responsible person
It can be done automatically according to the client distribution scheme adopted in the company, or manually (the responsible person indicates the manager himself, who took the lead into work or appoints the manager). The most common schemes are:
Setting goals
The first tasks usually look like "call the lead" or "reply by email to a request", etc. In the process of work, after each completed, a new task is posed. So, in the course of a telephone conversation, an agreement can be reached to call in a few days. The manager indicates the result of the task and immediately sets himself a new one - a phone call. And then, on the specified day, he simply cannot forget about the agreement, the system itself will remind of the task at hand.
I wrote in detail about working with communications and setting tasks depending on the result of the previous one in the article "Communications in CRM".
In the case of distribution of leads by the head, the first task may be: "appoint a responsible person." Also, the head of the sales department can additionally assign tasks related to the lead to the manager.
For example, make a commercial offer in writing and send it by email, or make other adjustments in the process of working with a client, if necessary.
Lead processing
This is the work of a manager, which is carried out using CRM as an auxiliary tool (fixing interest, setting tasks at the end of each step, etc.). There can be a wide range of actions here:
The manager must identify:
* interests and needs of the lead,
* to make a sentence,
* discuss possible options for cooperation,
* prepare an agreement for signing and / or issue an invoice for payment.
By the time the agreement and account appear, the lead becomes a client, and these actions are already being carried out with a new element - the Client Card.
It is important that all methods of interaction with the lead are timely recorded in the CRM system as tasks and reports on their implementation, in this case the manager will always be able to view in real time at what stage of work each lead is, provide assistance to the manager, and correctly distribute the load by department specialists, etc.
Transformation of a Lead into a Contact or a Client
After receiving consent to cooperation, a separate element is created on the basis of the lead - a Client or Contact, with which the current work continues. This is already the next stage of work with the client, in which other people may be involved, there may be another responsible person.
To fill out the card correctly, you may need information that was not needed to work with the lead (SSN, company registration certificate number, etc.). At the same time, the Client (Contact) must be “connected” with the lead and, if necessary, you can always quickly go from the client card to the lead card, for example, to clarify some data from the negotiation history at the initial stage.
Why separate Lead and Contact?
The question of why in CRM they share a lead, a client, a contact, I am asked very often. It would seem that the work is carried out with one company or an individual, in whatever capacity they act, their data does not change. And in the CRM system there are several different directories, and when the status changes, information is copied or transferred from one directory to another. Indeed, some CRM systems have followed the path of a unified directory of Contractors, in which only the sign in the card changes - "lead, contact, customer, etc.". In fact, this approach is not the best, as it greatly limits the capabilities of the CRM system.
What is lead generation?
When it comes to leads, another concept is very often mentioned, and this is lead generation. Basically, if lead is a goal, then lead generation is the process of getting leads. Therefore, I also decided to say a few words about lead generation in this article.
How it works?
For example, a manufacturing company participates in an exhibition, where it collects data from potential customers, after which this data is distributed among the manufacturer's dealers in their regions.
Another example: the organizers of the programmers forum are giving away a prize. To participate in the lottery, you must leave a card with your contact information to the organizers and allow the organizers of the forum to process and use them. Further, all these cards are transferred to the headhunters, with whom a lead generation agreement was concluded.
Lead generation is even more widespread on the Internet, where contact information of interested parties is collected very actively through various questionnaires, prize draws, interesting subscriptions, etc. In most cases, companies that need contacts of potential clients do not deal with these issues themselves, but hire specialists for this.
Often "lead generation" refers to the work of contact databases of potential customers. The essence of the method lies in the fact that the company buys a database of enterprises, which, by the nature of their activities, may turn out to be potential customers. Then they hire people (often freelancers) for "cold calling". What is the result?
For example, from a database of 1000 phones, 10 or 20 potential customers show real interest. Employees take their contact information and transfer it to the sales department for further processing. It would seem that the leads have been received. At the same time, the base was quite inexpensive; freelancers are also usually paid only for leads, and not for every call. Profitable and convenient. In fact, this is not at all the case. Such "telephone spam" is a low-paying job, which means that people who do not have high qualifications take on it.
As a result, you have to spend your time and effort on strict control of their activities, which can also be safely considered costs, since the manager at this time cannot engage in other, more useful activities for the company. In addition, it is important to understand that you get 10 clients, but the remaining 990 are lost to you for at least a few months, if not forever. People are annoyed by the "telephone spam", and the low level of training of people who agree to such work also aggravates the unpleasant impression.
Personally, I think this method is closer to spam and shouldn't be called full-fledged lead generation.
Lead reprocessing
In addition to lead generation, i.e. attracting new leads, and ongoing work with existing leads, there is such a thing as lead reprocessing. In this case, the leads who have refused to cooperate for one reason or another are not removed from the system, but are marked “rejected”. What can be done after that?
Summary
To build a high-quality sales system using CRM, it is very important to separate Leads and Contacts (Customers).
This is necessary for:
* convenience of current work with different categories,
* high-quality detailed analytics,
* quality control of the work of each employee of the sales department.
Leads are the very first stage of any sales; it is impossible to imagine any business without leads. And how well the work with leads will be built, how actively they will be attracted, and how well each of them will be worked out in the sales department, the profit directly depends.
Blame for the current situation and the lack of reference literature written in a simple and understandable language, and the creators of various systems for business, who often introduce their own terminology or use generally accepted terms to denote structures, the functions of which may differ in one direction or another from the basic concept of "lead" ... In this article, I decided to summarize my, in fact, very extensive experience in this matter, and to understand in detail: what is a lead, why is it needed in sales and how it is used in CRM systems.
Lead: Definition
Lead (lead) is translated from English as a clue, evidence, anchor. The closest concept to the word lead is a potential client, i.e. a person who, on his own behalf or as a representative of the company, shows some interest in the product / service and in the future may conclude a deal with the seller.
I believe that a lead is the contact information of a person who has shown a real interest in the company's goods and services and may become a real customer in the future.
Any sales manager knows that in order to work with potential clients, it is necessary to have at least the contact details of a specific person with whom it will be possible to work further (to identify interests and needs, form an offer, discuss the terms of the deal, etc.). That is why I emphasize that a lead is not just an interest, but contacts of a specific person.
For example, interest can be either a request through a feedback form or an incoming call, or a regular comment on social networks. "Interest" is any kind of attention shown, including anonymous one.
It is also wrong to call a data set "company and corporate phone number" a lead. But, if this phone number is accompanied by the full name of a person who is interested in your products or services and has the right to discuss your interests on behalf of the company, such a set of contacts is already a lead.
It is even better if the manager has a personal phone number and email of a person with whom he can negotiate.
Let's summarize:
Lead is a set of contacts of a specific (real) person who, on his own behalf or on behalf of the company in which he works, shows interest in your goods or services and is authorized to negotiate and make certain decisions.
Lead in the CRM system
So, we figured out what a lead is, in principle, but how and why to work with it in the CRM system? In this very popular question, we are now going to understand. In almost any CRM system, contact details of potential and actual buyers are divided into three categories:
- Interest;
- Lead;
- Client.
I wrote about what the interest of users is in the article "Social CRM. Collecting the interest of Internet users". And here I will not dwell on this category in detail. Client data can be stored in different ways, depending on the characteristics of the client (organization or individual), as well as on the chosen CRM system. This may be the data of the Counterparty (company) and the Contacts associated with this record (persons representing the company), there may be Clients and Contacts (similar functions, but different names), there may be some other release option. Indeed, many options have already been implemented here, and it is difficult to say which one is better and more convenient.
Lead stands between Interests and Clients, i.e. this is a potential client who has already shown a clear interest that is much more specific and substantive than just interest, but is not yet a client, i.e. the company has not yet struck a deal with him.
For example, many companies communicate with "interest" on social networks. This communication is largely anonymous, since the manager does not know either the phone number or email, and often even the name and surname of the person who showed interest. And at this stage it is very difficult to say who is "at the other end of the conversation" - really a potential client, a representative of competitors, or simply curious. And the manager has almost no connection with "interest", except for the possibility of correspondence on social networks or on some other Internet resource.
But if the "interest" appears to give at least some minimal information, such as your work phone or email for price list and other information, as well as, if a man who had shown interest in the products and services on their own once gave at least minimum data for feedback and outlined the scope of his interests, this is already a potential client, i.e. lead.
And when this lead begins negotiations on a specific deal, the manager sends him a commercial offer, concludes an agreement, and the lead becomes a Client.
Working with a lead
It is very important to properly organize work with leads in a CRM system, only then this tool will be really effective. How does this happen when implemented correctly? It is important to talk about this in more detail.
Getting a lead
Depending on the situation, in the CRM system, both manual input by the manager and automated creation of leads based on requests from the site, incoming letters of requests from potential customers, etc. are possible.
The main sources of getting a lead:
- Request through the site feedback form;
- Incoming email;
- Phone call;
- Obtaining contact information from third parties (business partners).
For example, the email address must be entered in Latin characters, with the required @ symbol, etc. The phone number must belong to the contact person. If a lead indicates the corporate number of a large organization without any additional numbers, such a lead cannot be considered complete; rather, it is just an interest. And it needs additional verification and a slightly different approach than working with a lead.
The optimal CRM setup option is as follows: all incoming requests from the site or via mail are automatically entered into the system. If a lead or client already exists in the system, this request is attached to his card, and the responsible manager receives a notification.
If there are no customers or leads with the specified data, a new card is automatically created. It is advisable to minimize manual data entry, it is needed to create a lead based on incoming phone calls, work at an exhibition and other options for obtaining leads contacts offline.
Check for duplicates
It is made automatically by name, phone number, e-mail and, possibly, other parameters. Moreover, the check is carried out both in the lead base and in the client base, which guarantees that there are no duplicates in the system. For correct work with clients and potential buyers, it is very important that all inquiries are promptly received by the responsible person; it is also necessary to exclude a situation in which two managers independently communicate with one company. In addition, due to the appearance of lead duplicates, the database grows in size, sometimes very much. The system becomes cumbersome and inconvenient. Therefore, it is necessary that the lead cards are filled in correctly, all contacts belonging to the same organization are combined with each other, and the search for duplicates must be carried out using all directories and parameters.
Appointment of a responsible person
It can be done automatically according to the client distribution scheme adopted in the company, or manually (the responsible person indicates the manager himself, who took the lead into work or appoints the manager). The most common schemes are:
- "Whoever took it first." Leads after entering the general database are available to all employees of the sales department. Lead goes to the one who first took him into work (indicated himself as the person in charge).
- Distribution based on specific characteristics. In this case, the system distributes leads based on certain parameters. For example, requests for different product groups are sent to different managers. Either the division is on the basis of a retail or bulk order. Or the lead is added to the manager who has the least number of leads and customers in work, etc.
- The manager manually distributes leads. In this case, the leader personally reviews each lead and appoints a responsible person.
Setting goals
The first tasks usually look like "call the lead" or "reply by email to a request", etc. In the process of work, after each completed, a new task is posed. So, in the course of a telephone conversation, an agreement can be reached to call in a few days. The manager indicates the result of the task and immediately sets himself a new one - a phone call. And then, on the specified day, he simply cannot forget about the agreement, the system itself will remind of the task at hand.
I wrote in detail about working with communications and setting tasks depending on the result of the previous one in the article "Communications in CRM".
In the case of distribution of leads by the head, the first task may be: "appoint a responsible person." Also, the head of the sales department can additionally assign tasks related to the lead to the manager.
For example, make a commercial offer in writing and send it by email, or make other adjustments in the process of working with a client, if necessary.
Lead processing
This is the work of a manager, which is carried out using CRM as an auxiliary tool (fixing interest, setting tasks at the end of each step, etc.). There can be a wide range of actions here:
- Phone calls;
- Correspondence by email;
- Sending advertising printing to the lead;
- Sending a commercial offer or price lists;
- Meetings at your office or on its premises, etc.
The manager must identify:
* interests and needs of the lead,
* to make a sentence,
* discuss possible options for cooperation,
* prepare an agreement for signing and / or issue an invoice for payment.
By the time the agreement and account appear, the lead becomes a client, and these actions are already being carried out with a new element - the Client Card.
It is important that all methods of interaction with the lead are timely recorded in the CRM system as tasks and reports on their implementation, in this case the manager will always be able to view in real time at what stage of work each lead is, provide assistance to the manager, and correctly distribute the load by department specialists, etc.
Transformation of a Lead into a Contact or a Client
After receiving consent to cooperation, a separate element is created on the basis of the lead - a Client or Contact, with which the current work continues. This is already the next stage of work with the client, in which other people may be involved, there may be another responsible person.
To fill out the card correctly, you may need information that was not needed to work with the lead (SSN, company registration certificate number, etc.). At the same time, the Client (Contact) must be “connected” with the lead and, if necessary, you can always quickly go from the client card to the lead card, for example, to clarify some data from the negotiation history at the initial stage.
Why separate Lead and Contact?
The question of why in CRM they share a lead, a client, a contact, I am asked very often. It would seem that the work is carried out with one company or an individual, in whatever capacity they act, their data does not change. And in the CRM system there are several different directories, and when the status changes, information is copied or transferred from one directory to another. Indeed, some CRM systems have followed the path of a unified directory of Contractors, in which only the sign in the card changes - "lead, contact, customer, etc.". In fact, this approach is not the best, as it greatly limits the capabilities of the CRM system.
- Contact information can be very different for a lead and a client. For example, a company could get a lead at an exhibition. And it indicates what kind of exhibition was, with whom they talked, the contact phone number of this person. And by the time the lead becomes a client, the manager is already in contact with completely different people, has more information about the company, as a result, the cards differ significantly.
- There are tasks, for example, sending out an auction offer, which will be interesting to leads, but not needed by customers. Conversely, some notifications that are important to customers do not need to see leads. And this separation helps to sort them conveniently.
- History storage and analytics. Separating leads and customers allows you to store the history of work with the lead and the client separately, to see exactly the moment when the lead became a client, to receive detailed reports on the work with leads and customers, including those for past periods. This allows you to analyze the quality of work of the sales department and each manager, as well as the effectiveness of work with each specific lead and client.
- Control of the fullness of the lead card and the client. By the quality of filling out the card and the volume of information received during interaction with a potential client, one can also assess the quality of the manager's work. And if for a lead it will be normal to fill in 3-5 fields (name, phone number, interest, company, etc.), then for a client the normal number of filled information fields can reach 10-15 pieces. And it would be wrong if they all appear in one general report, the manager will have to manually go through each card that raises questions to make sure it is filled out correctly.
- A lead and a client may have different responsible persons. For example, a telemarketing employee could work with the lead. And an employee of the sales department is already working with the client. And it is also important to preserve, including for future analysis, both states, so that the managers of these responsible persons can analyze the quality of the employee's work at any time, including over a long period of time.
- Controlling the transformation of leads into contacts. After the lead requests and receives a commercial offer, enters into a contract or makes the first purchase, in the CRM system he is transformed into a Client. In this case, the link to the lead remains in the Client's card, i.e. these cards are "linked" to each other. And the manager at any given time can see what percentage of leads have transformed into customers, how quickly leads go through or do not go through this transformation.
What is lead generation?
When it comes to leads, another concept is very often mentioned, and this is lead generation. Basically, if lead is a goal, then lead generation is the process of getting leads. Therefore, I also decided to say a few words about lead generation in this article.
Those. when ordering lead generation, the contractor (company or individual) undertakes to find a certain number of leads (potential customers) for the customer company, as well as either collect their contact information, or direct their flow to the site, where they leave their contact information and etc.
How it works?
For example, a manufacturing company participates in an exhibition, where it collects data from potential customers, after which this data is distributed among the manufacturer's dealers in their regions.
Another example: the organizers of the programmers forum are giving away a prize. To participate in the lottery, you must leave a card with your contact information to the organizers and allow the organizers of the forum to process and use them. Further, all these cards are transferred to the headhunters, with whom a lead generation agreement was concluded.
Lead generation is even more widespread on the Internet, where contact information of interested parties is collected very actively through various questionnaires, prize draws, interesting subscriptions, etc. In most cases, companies that need contacts of potential clients do not deal with these issues themselves, but hire specialists for this.
Often "lead generation" refers to the work of contact databases of potential customers. The essence of the method lies in the fact that the company buys a database of enterprises, which, by the nature of their activities, may turn out to be potential customers. Then they hire people (often freelancers) for "cold calling". What is the result?
For example, from a database of 1000 phones, 10 or 20 potential customers show real interest. Employees take their contact information and transfer it to the sales department for further processing. It would seem that the leads have been received. At the same time, the base was quite inexpensive; freelancers are also usually paid only for leads, and not for every call. Profitable and convenient. In fact, this is not at all the case. Such "telephone spam" is a low-paying job, which means that people who do not have high qualifications take on it.
As a result, you have to spend your time and effort on strict control of their activities, which can also be safely considered costs, since the manager at this time cannot engage in other, more useful activities for the company. In addition, it is important to understand that you get 10 clients, but the remaining 990 are lost to you for at least a few months, if not forever. People are annoyed by the "telephone spam", and the low level of training of people who agree to such work also aggravates the unpleasant impression.
Personally, I think this method is closer to spam and shouldn't be called full-fledged lead generation.
Lead reprocessing
In addition to lead generation, i.e. attracting new leads, and ongoing work with existing leads, there is such a thing as lead reprocessing. In this case, the leads who have refused to cooperate for one reason or another are not removed from the system, but are marked “rejected”. What can be done after that?
- Send a "farewell letter". This letter expresses regret that the client is leaving, offers a short questionnaire that will help clarify the reasons for the refusal, perhaps also unobtrusively suggests some alternative solution, and so on. In some cases, after a farewell letter, if written correctly, the prospect will return.
- Collect as much information as possible about the reason for the refusal and postpone the lead for the future. Perhaps the refusal is due to a change in plans or lack of funds at the moment, but, in principle, the leader is interested in your goods and services. Leave it in the database along with all the collected information. Congratulate him on the calendar holidays by email, after a while the manager may return to repeat communication. Perhaps by then the lead will be ready to cooperate.
Summary
To build a high-quality sales system using CRM, it is very important to separate Leads and Contacts (Customers).
This is necessary for:
* convenience of current work with different categories,
* high-quality detailed analytics,
* quality control of the work of each employee of the sales department.
Leads are the very first stage of any sales; it is impossible to imagine any business without leads. And how well the work with leads will be built, how actively they will be attracted, and how well each of them will be worked out in the sales department, the profit directly depends.
