3 Ways CRM Can Help Generate Leads

    

3 Ways CRM Can Help Generate Leads

Every business wants to ensure they have a consistent source of quality leads, without leads it is hard to generate revenue.  What many may not realize is that utilizing your CRM can help you generate more qualified leads - with the knowledge they are more likely to convert.  

Before we dive into lead generation and how using a CRM solution can both increase the number of leads and the quality, we need to unpack what is a lead.

The most common explanation of a lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service.  Yes, that is extremely vague and in most cases causes a lot of confusion.  In order to have a clear understanding we need to define those leads further.

Leads can come from many sources, from an opt-in form on your website, a phone call to your office, a referral at a networking event, someone you meet at a tradeshow and more.  But not all those leads are hot - in many cases they are just looking to make a connection - they have not been qualified, you do not want to waste your time on leads who are not really interested. This is where a CRM solution can come into play, especially when it is tied into your sales and marketing efforts.

Have A Clear View

How CRM Can Help Generate Leads

When you consider all the ways your clients and prospects interact with your company - you need to look past the traditional methods and consider the digital footprint as well.  Using a CRM and marketing solution you can have a deeper view of how your leads are interacting with your business and in some cases you can know what they are being drawn to.  If you take the example of a webinar, if a prospect signs up to a webinar from a social post your marketing team made and then that client viewed 2-3 key pages about your business and services.  When your sales team reaches out to the prospect they can tailor the conversation for said prospect. Resulting in a more qualified lead. 

Hot Tip:  Use custom fields in your CRM solution to track the stage a lead is in such as Marketing Qualified Lead or Sales Qualified Lead. This will make it easier for the team to view and dedicate their time on the hottest leads first.

Marketing Automation

Of course no one is able to work 24-7, but your business doesn't need to stop because it’s outside your office hours.  With an integrated CRM and marketing tool, you can set up automations that run while you sleep.  Let’s consider an ecommerce business - if a prospect were to come and add an item to their cart but then get distracted and abandon the order.  What if your system could automatically send that client an email reminding them about the cart.  Or if you know there are often some FAQs - you can share those answers in a follow up email that was fully automated.  

Using a tool like BAASS Alerts you can set up a series of alerts that will flag you or a team when your clients change their habits.  This would be a good way to stay ahead of any potential hurdles and you can act on the flags that come up easier.

Cleansing and Building Your List

 You have probably heard the adage garbage in garbage out - that is the same for your CRM.  If you the database you are working off of is dirty - as in information is old, incorrect or missing, that will result in lower sales and frustrated team members.

Having an active and engaged list is what every business wants.  But we all understand life happens and people may change jobs or positions.  How can you stay on top of this?  Have a data cleaning process - here at BAASS we use a tool called InsideView, which has allowed us to not only verify the contacts in our database but also given us the opportunity to find the right people within their company.  For example, if we have the controller as a contact but we are planning on a marketing campaign that would help the administration team - having the office manager's contact would be ideal.  Using a tool like InsideView we are able to see the name of the office manager and we can reach out to our contact and add the office manager to our database, with their consent of course.

In closing

The right CRM tool helps you identify, attract, track, nurture, and convert your leads to improve your business profits. It can be daunting to find the right CRM tool for your marketing and sales needs if you’re new to CRM tools.

Fortunately, BAASS can work alongside you to help you find the right tools and strategies to improve your lead generation efforts and grow your business. Connect with us today for more information.

 

Hayley Kornilenko

About The Author

Hayley Kornilenko

With over 10 years of experience, Hayley has a wealth of knowledge in all areas of business, development and marketing. At BAASS, she works on the marketing team, working closely with the BAASS Practice Leaders to create collateral for our clients and prospects to understand how their unique business needs can be aided with the array of solutions BAASS offers.