Lead Tracking is for Everyone: Do You Know Where Your Leads Are?

With leads coming in from a variety of sources - your website, faxes, your external sales force, your internal staff, a guy you met at a conference last week, a business card you have in your pocket - it is difficult to keep track of them. Oftentimes there is not an effective system in place to ensure leads are followed up on, qualified and successfully converted. Obviously this is not good for your business and could in fact be keeping you from making more sales.

What Are the Qualities of an Effective Lead Tracking System?

In order for your system of lead tracking to offer you the greatest value it must allow you to track and manage leads from acquisition through to conversion. It needs to:

1. Allow you to enter leads from all available lead sources, both internal and external, including those from:

   • online and offline RFQs
   • contact forms from your website
   • contact forms from email campaigns and other online advertising initiatives such as Pay per Click, banners, or affiliate marketing
   • leads acquired at conferences, trade shows and events
   • business cards
   • phone calls
   • referrals from associates
   • leads written on dinner napkins and small pieces of paper
   • your external sales force
   • your internal staff
   • your external vendors, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors
   • the guy your brother plays hockey with
   • everywhere

2. Allow you at any time of the day or night to enter all lead contact and other applicable information that will help your sales force to eventually qualify and convert the lead into a customer. The idea is to get comprehensive lead information into the system as quickly as possible so it can be acted upon in a timely manner.

3. Allow you to associate and store documents with lead contact information.

4. Allow your designated administrators to assign leads to your sales team members by region or sale category of expertise or other qualifier you establish.

5. Allow you to view all leads, both assigned and unassigned, and know where in the sales conversion funnel each lead is presently.

6. Allow you to generate reports that tell you what you need to know about the leads in your system. For example, it may be very valuable for you to know your lead sources and which ones are generating the most leads for you. Additionally you may want to know how old the leads in your system are, how fast they are being assigned, whether or not they are being assigned accurately, and specifically to whom they are being assigned.

7. Allow you to communicate with your lead sources. For example, you may want to announce a new product line or service and the effective date it will be available.

8. Allow you to communicate helpful information or provide supplemental documents that will assist your sales force and lead administrators in the successful management and conversion of new and existing leads.

It cost you money to generate those leads. It is critical that you track your investment and understand how it is working for you. Not only does an effective lead tracking system allow you to successfully manage leads once you get them, but it can provide valuable insight into the strength of your lead sources, your administrators, and your sales force.

Industrial Web Solutions works with businesses of all sizes to develop a lead tracking and management system that offers you the control and rich insight that will allow you to get the most return on your lead acquisition investment.

To learn more about IWS lead tracking and management solutions call (800) 399-9859 or contact us via our online form.

Contact us to learn how to prepare your website to attract, convert and track leads.

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