How to Create a Lead Management Strategy

Marketers are going to hate this, but... your leads suck. If you're focused on quantity over quality, you're wasting time and money trying to convert leads who aren't interested in buying.

That's why I'm sharing my 5-step guide for developing a lead management strategy that will fill your pipeline with qualified leads, shorten sales cycles, and improve conversion rates.

What Is A Lead Management Strategy?

 A lead management strategy is a plan businesses use to find and understand potential customers. Following the core principles of lead management is crucial because it allows salespeople to know if a lead is ready to buy or not. 

Identifying these leads and reviewing what they do in the sales pipeline is key to know if they're looking to buy. If they're not ready to buy yet, a nurture strategy will keep them engaged until they are. The plan also includes looking at what worked and what didn't, to optimize the process. 

Steps to Take Before Creating a Lead Management Strategy

In my experience, there are some crucial steps to start with before you dive into the details of your new strategy: 

1. How are you capturing leads? Otherwise known as choosing your tech stack. It’s great to have a functioning lead funnel or sales team, but if data isn’t captured in a consistent and easily managed method (for example, Hubspot) then you’re missing the foundation of the strategy. 
2. Define your terms. Companies and sales leaders use the terms they know, but if you’re building a new team with even a mildly diverse background, there will be disagreements on what terms like SQL (sales qualified lead), MQL (marketing qualified lead), lead, and prospect even mean. Get your team sales-ready by ensuring they’re all using the same terms.

Author's Tip

Building the foundation of a lead management strategy is a great place to establish yourself as the leader of your sales team. Listen and recognize your team’s past experiences and clearly state “from here on out this is how we’ll use these terms.” This is a great way to acknowledge your team but set the precedent for the future.

3. Define your target audience and ideal client profile (ICP). This is where, in my business Profit Launchpad, we use ChatGPT pro and a few other AI tools. Use prompts to create your audience. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that cuts this process down to hours rather than days or weeks. 

AI Prompt Script

You are a [demographic] who works for a [company type] as a [role]. Your company does X amount of revenue per year and is located [geographic area]. Your boss recently asked you to upgrade your [business system] and to incorporate technologies such as [your software’s features]. Tell me the problems you’re having with finding the right features in the software you’re looking at. What are you finding? Where are you looking? What don’t you understand?

4. Create detailed customer journeys. If you haven’t used the Storybrand Framework before I’d highly recommend checking it out, it’s fantastic for creating simple and effective journeys and the founder Donald Miller is a genius. With the customer journey, you’ll want to consider things like how many touchpoints are involved, or if you should use retargeting.
5. Sit down with all the members of your RevOps team. Consulting sales reps who respond to leads or track metrics will result in better lead management between marketing and sales. More importantly, it will result in better revenue generation and retention.

The goal of RevOps is to reduce the friction between marketing and sales. Having a holistically created lead management strategy is a critical step in the process

What are the Stages of a Lead Management Strategy?

Glad you asked. There are five key stages of lead management and each will need to be addressed individually to create the best possible process for managing leads:

• Lead generation
• Lead qualification and segmentation
• Lead nurturing
• Lead scoring and routing
• Measuring success

Stage 1: Lead generation

The first question to ask yourself is: "Do we have a way of generating leads?"

If no, start with these lead generation ideas. If yes, you should also start here and audit the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts. A few areas to look at:

• Compare your average view to contact conversion rate to industry benchmarks. How are you stacking up?
• Learn from your past success. What are your most successful lead generation sources? Which campaigns have performed the best? How can you recreate this success?
• And learn from your past mistakes. Which channels or campaigns have been least successful? What do they have in common? Where can you improve?

Stage 2: Lead qualification and segmentation

Next, ask yourself: "How are our leads organized?"

Standardizing how leads are organized, segmented, and qualified will make it easier to route leads that are likely to buy to the right salesperson.

The most basic way to organize leads is to segment them by temperature:

• Cold: Unaware of your brand and the problem you solve
• Warm: Showing some interest through lead scoring (more on that below)
• Hot: Nearly ready to buy your product

Pre-qualifying leads will automatically move the hottest leads into your sales team's queue, so they can focus on closing the deal.

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Stage 3: Lead scoring and routing

Now ask yourself: "How are we prioritizing our leads?"

Lead scoring is a more involved way to qualify leads, but it dramatically improves lead quality and lets you focus on the highest priority leads (aka hot leads).

Lead scoring assigns a numerical value to a lead based on actions taken and should be completely custom to your business and the buyer's journey you outlined before building your lead management strategy.

Here's an example of how to set up a lead-scoring matrix:

Lead routing is the next step after assigning a lead score. Based on the segmentation, score, and other factors like geography, leads should be routed to the correct sales team member.

This stage is one of the most critical to automate. Lead routing in Salesforce and other CRMs takes out any manual work and keeps leads moving through funnel quickly.

Stage 4: Lead nurturing

Then ask yourself: "How are we managing leads that aren't ready to buy?"

While hot leads are likely to convert quickly, you can't forget about those in the warm and cold stages. That's where lead nurturing comes in.

Lead nurture campaigns are a series of touchpoints with prospective customers (think email marketing automation, social media outreach, follow-up calls from the sales team, etc.).

Companies that implement an impactful lead nurturing strategy wind up generating 50% more sales-ready leads and see a 33% lower cost per lead, according to invesp.

Stage 5: Measuring success

 Finally ask yourself: "How are we measuring success?"

Setting the right goals and tracking the right metrics can make or break your lead management strategy. A few of my favorite lead management metrics to track are:

• Conversion rates at each stage of the funnel: Use this formula to quickly find your conversion rates: Conversion Rate = (Number of New Customers/Total Leads at a Particular Stage) x 100.
• Lead response time: Lead response time or speed to lead measures how quickly you reply to an inbound lead inquiry. A response time of a minute or less can improve your conversion rates by 391%, according to Mixmax.
• Sales Velocity: This is the average amount of time it takes for a lead to move through your funnel and become a paying customer. To find your sales velocity, use this formula: Sales Velocity = Days Taken to Close All Deals/Deals Closed. 
• Cost Per Lead: How much money did it cost to convert each lead? The lower the better.

Author's Tip

To calculate this, track all expenses related to B2B lead generation activities (think: advertising costs, content creation costs, marketing software expenses) and divide that by total number of leads generated over a time period.

• Revenue Per Lead: The average revenue generated by each lead that converts into a customer. An easy calculation is: Revenue per Lead = Total Revenue/Number of Leads Generated in Specific Period.

Tools of the Trade

There are a ton of tools out there to make your lead management process smoother. But these three categories are the most important in my opinion.

CRMs

A CRM is table stakes for SaaS businesses. This is where all of your lead data will be stored, scored, and organized, so it's important to find one that works for your business.

1. 1. Pipedrive CRM — Best for sales pipeline visualization
2. 2. Salesforce CRM — Best customizable CRM
3. 3. CRM Creatio — Best for no-code CRM automation
4. 4. monday CRM — Best for managing your entire sales cycle
5. 5. Capsule — Best for smart, simple CRM solutions
6. 6. HubSpot CRM — Best for integrating with current systems
7. 7. MRPeasy — Best for small manufacturers
8. 8. Streak — Best for implementing a CRM in Gmail
9. 9. Zendesk Sell — Best for increasing sales efficiency
10. 10. Keap — Best for automated follow-ups

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Lead Management Software

While a CRM can absolutely manage leads, you might need a specific type of CRM or extra support from dedicated lead management software depending on your industry or lead volume.

1. 1. Pipedrive CRM — Best for visual sales pipeline management
2. 2. monday CRM — Best for customizable sales automation
3. 3. Zoho CRM — Best for AI-driven sales insights
4. 4. CallPage — Best for outbound lead management
5. 5. Drift — Best for conversational marketing
6. 6. Unbounce — Best for creating personalized landing pages
7. 7. Kustomer — Best for omnichannel customer support
8. 8. Zendesk Sell — Best for lead qualification
9. 9. Keap — Best for small businesses
10. 10. AeroLeads — Best for building email lists

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Marketing Automation Software

Some CRMs and lead management software include marketing automation, but this functionality is critical for setting up lead scoring, routing, and nurturing.

1. 1. Trellis — Best for Amazon marketing automation
2. 2. ActiveCampaign — Best for customer engagement
3. 3. Snovio — Best for lead generation
4. 4. Drip — Best for ecommerce marketing strategies
5. 5. Eloqua — Best for B2B omnichannel marketing
6. 6. AWeber — Best for automating email marketing
7. 7. Keap — Best for small businesses
8. 8. Marketo — Best for monitoring marketing automation
9. 9. Salesforce Marketing Cloud — Best for speeding up sales cycles
10. 10. HubSpot Marketing Hub — Best for inbound marketing

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Why Is Having A Lead Management Strategy Important?

I like metaphors. If you’re struggling to understand why you need a lead management strategy, keep reading.  

Having a lead management strategy is like being a skilled gardener. Your garden (your market) is filled with various types of plants (potential paying customers or leads), each needing a specific kind of care.

As a gardener, you need to understand the individual needs of each plant, water and nurture them appropriately (lead nurturing), identify which are most likely to bear fruit (lead scoring), and then harvest at the right time (convert to sales).

A skilled gardener uses his knowledge to grow a healthy garden; a successful business uses a lead management strategy to grow its customer base and profits.

What are the risks of not having a lead management strategy?

There are many cons of not having a lead management strategy. Here are a few examples that highlight the severity of misalignment of this crucial step:

1. Missed Opportunities: Without a defined process for managing leads, businesses risk missing out on potential customers. If you don’t follow up in a timely manner, leads might feel neglected, which could result in lost sales.

2. Wasted Resources: Without lead scoring, businesses might waste time and resources chasing unqualified leads or leads that are not in the right stage of the buyer’s journey (not likely to make a purchase).

3. Poor Customer Experience: If a business does not track and respond to a lead's behaviors and interests, the lead might feel undervalued and overlooked, resulting in a poor customer experience and stunted LTV. 

4. Lower ROI: Without effective nurturing, potential leads might not convert into customers, leading to a lower return on investment for marketing efforts.

5 Ways To Build a Better Lead Management Strategy

Over my career, I’ve developed a business philosophy that has made my clients and myself a lot of money: Think high, work low. 

Think high refers to the strategy and goals. Work low are the details of execution that make the strategy come to life. You need both to implement a successful lead management process.

These tips are how I turn the high-level strategy into practical tactics:

1. Create Buyer Avatars

Revisit AI here. Use the ICP you built already and start creating different avatars for leads that are in different stages of their sales cycle. Ask your team questions about their thoughts and actions. Use a guide to help you set up the right questions before you move on. 

Example: What are their challenges right now? Where are they looking for early solutions? What content are they reading? What are your competitors putting in front of those people? Etc. 

2. Generate Leads through Marketing

Build your funnels, create your lead magnets, and start outreach by getting the right content marketing campaigns in front of the right avatars. This could be anything from webinars and white papers to email marketing campaigns. It’s then up to you to ensure effective lead management by using the right lead distribution strategy.

3. Capture and Score Leads in a CRM

Lead scoring is a method used by sales and marketing teams to rank potential customers, or leads, based on the perceived value each lead represents to the organization. The goal of lead scoring is to prioritize the right leads so that the team can focus their efforts on those with the highest potential to convert into customers.

If you’re not familiar with lead management software or how to Score leads, we have a great introductory article on Why Lead Scoring Is an Important Part of Your Lead Routing Strategy. 

Here is a simple step-by-step guide to lead scoring:

1. Identify Important Characteristics and Actions: Work with your sales and marketing teams to identify the key characteristics and actions that indicate lead qualification. This might include demographic information (like location or job title), behavioral data (like website visits or content downloads), or engagement level (like email opens or social media interactions).

2. Assign Point Values: Once you've identified these key factors, you need to assign point values to each. More important factors should have higher point values. For example, if a lead visits your landing page and fills out their contact information (indicating a high level of interest), you might assign that action more points than if they simply visit your homepage.

3. Set a Scoring Scale: Decide on a scale for your lead scoring system. A common scale is 0-100, but the range can be whatever works best for your business. Ensure the scale allows for enough differentiation between leads but is also easy to understand and apply.

4. Score Your Leads: Apply your scoring system to your existing leads. Your team will gain experience on how to properly score by getting the reps in. 

4. Nurture Leads

Lead nurturing is a topic in-of itself. Your avatars are a key feature to planning a nurturing campaign. Especially with B2B, only about 20% of your potential customers are ready to buy at any time. Lead nurturing bridges that gap, keeping “not ready to buy” customers in your business ecosystem.

Lead nurturing is vital because it builds relationships with potential customers, guiding them through the sales funnel at their own pace and increasing the likelihood of purchase. By providing information through relevant content and demonstrating value, nurturing can help businesses stay top-of-mind and build trust with their prospects. Ultimately, lead nurturing can significantly increase conversion rates, maximizing the return on investment in lead generation efforts.

5. Use Automation to Your Advantage

Automation is key to better revenue generation, which, ultimately, is what we’re all after. 

Businesses using marketing automation to nurture prospects see a 451% increase in qualified leads (The Annuitas Group). That’s hard to ignore. 

There are many options for automation these days. My advice? Go slow in your decision-making process. Map out what you’re trying to achieve when bringing on new automation into the marketing and sales process. 

If you and your team can narrow down the use case for the automation or software you’re thinking of using you’ll help reduce the inevitable analysis paralysis that comes when reviewing the dozens, if not hundreds of options on the market these days. 

Increase Qualified Leads

Intrigued? If you want to learn more about the next steps of lead management, check out Phil Gray’s article on the lead management process.

If you have any questions about this feel free to email me, I always love having a chat about revenue! While you’re here, be sure to sign up for The RevOps Team newsletter.