Tips for reviewing and managing leads in preparation for the new year

With the holidays upon us, your company’s year-end preparations are most likely well underway.  From tax preparations and accounting to team performance and department reviews, the end of the year provides us a chance to look at the successes (and failures) of previous years in order to make improvements in the year ahead.  Such opportunities don’t just apply to accounting and human resources; rather, your marketing and sales efforts should undergo the same review and preparations.

More specifically, your leads and customer relationship management tools can always benefit from tracking and tweaking as necessary, and since we are on the heels of 2020, there is no time like now to make sure your lead management is in order and ready for the new year.

Here are a few easy ways to better manage your sales leads and be properly positioned for new business:

1. Measure Results – Which campaigns have been most effective in 2019? What content was most engaging and which outreach methods proved to be most successful?  In order to measure your success, you and your team must first decide what defines that success.  Ultimately, you will want to identify, monitor and make improvements based on the data you collect, and from there, you can determine the ROI of your campaigns and focus on those that lead to and increase sales.
2. Manage Customer Relationships – To be effective in your sales efforts, your team must have the tools they need to track engagement and interaction with your current and future customers. Take time to review your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, and make sure that all team members are properly trained and utilizing the system consistently and appropriately.  Your contact management system will only be as good as the data that is entered, so it is important that everyone is on the same page and understands their requirements and how to use it.  No matter the tool you choose, you will ultimately get the most out of it by integrating different channels such as your website, social and email marketing campaigns.
3. Be Quick – As an HBW subscriber, you have access to new leads every week, and while a fresh batch of prospects is exactly what your sales team needs, they will only be of value if properly used. For this reason, it is important that you distribute new leads to your team expeditiously.  Furthermore, once contact is made with a prospect and they express interest, follow up should occur as soon as possible.  You will increase your closing rate if a prospect receives a response within 48 hours of making contact.  By responding quickly, you will be providing the service and response time that customers appreciate and expect.

By taking time now to improve your contact management systems and identify strengths and weaknesses in your sales and marketing efforts, you will be better positioned to convert prospects to customers and increase sales in the new year.

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