To define, “Lead Tracking” is the process of following up with prospects who have expressed interest in a product or service.
By this process, Marketing and Sales teams can pinpoint prospects at each stage of the Sales funnel or pipeline. Here, prospective customers can be documented and categorized depending upon individual actions and sales rep touches.
Many a time, people confuse between the meanings of “prospects” and “leads”. For easy understanding, leads come before prospects.
For example, any person who has contacted you, or whom you have contacted might be a lead, but it can be called a prospect only if it satisfies certain criteria. For instance, a lead has to be from a specific industry, having the authority and means to make decisions, etc. in order to be qualified as a prospect.
So, you gather “Leads” first, and then qualify them into “Prospects” by the method of “Prospecting”. After this, the prospects can be moved forward in the sales pipeline in order to convert them into buying customers.
Read More: What Is Demand Generation?
What Does Lead Tracking Do?
As per a HubSpot report, 65% of businesses say generating leads and getting visitors to their websites constitute the biggest challenge for them. Why would someone then want to waste potential leads or invest heavily in the leads that might not turn into customers!
Lead Tracking involves following up with the prospects at regular intervals so that they say interested in your products/services and become customers sooner or later.
The most important function of Lead Tracking is to provide information on individual prospects’ likeliness to convert into sales. It also provides data on the number of leads at every stage of the sales development cycle. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software comes in handy here. It stores customers’ data and information such as their birthdays, anniversaries, items of interests, locations, etc., so that they can be contacted with personalized offers and messages whenever required.
How Does Lead Tracking Differ From Lead Scoring?
We have earlier discussed the meaning and significance of Lead Scoring. In the process of Lead Scoring, Marketing teams assign a positive or negative value to the leads/prospects whenever they (leads) take any action. The actions may include anything such as opening an e-mail, interacting with the brand, downloading content, requesting product demo, etc. “Scoring” deals with providing greater value to the prospects that have better chances of closing.
On the other hand, Lead Tracking is the procedure of following a lead/prospect through the Sales pipeline. This includes following the leads and keeping an eye on them whenever they make any movement toward or away from closing. Any action or inaction from the prospect is tracked during the process.
Read More: How To Effectively Generate Lead On Social Media?
How to Run an Efficient Lead Tracking Campaign
1. Automate Collection of Data
An efficient Lead Tracking campaign requires efficient data collection and management. The system should offer ways to automatically import contacts without the need of sales representatives keying in the complete information. Clipping data from various platforms and organizing them should be easy for the sales team so that they could focus on rather important tasks.
2. Define Clear Expectations to the Sales Team
A Sales team should have a proper idea of how to qualify leads into prospects and how to track them. Sales Enablement process is the key here. If the Sales team is provided with clear expectations and they have an idea of the Ideal Customer Profile, tracking leads shouldn’t be a pain.
3. Invest in Technology
Investing in an able CRM may prove to be highly beneficial for organizations looking to make the best of their Sales endeavors. Marketing Automation is also necessary to make sure the marketing team is at the top of things in their lead generation efforts. With the right Marketing and Sales Automation solutions in place, companies can make the journey of acquiring leads to converting them into opportunities with much ease. Sales team can then take over to deliver the final touches and convert them into customers.
Furthermore, given the dynamic and mobile nature of Sales teams, it is important to invest in Sales software that is mobile-ready, accessible at all times, anywhere!
By allowing access to the right tools and Sales Enablement, organizations can unlock the true potential of their Sales teams. Of course, it’s not an overnight process. But with proper planning and execution, this can turn into an efficient practice, Lead Tracking being an integral part of the process.