Lead Management Workflow: The Routing Roadmap

May 13, 2016

Qualifying leads, validating contacts, profiling accounts, curating content, communicating, researching: these are a few of the ingredients that go into the sales lead management process to achieve a successful ABM campaign, so when you finally get to reap what you’ve sown, it’s a rewarding feeling. But here’s a fun fact about account based marketing: none of your strategic planning or execution efforts matter if you don’t route your opportunities properly! That’s why you need this opportunity roadmap – so you know exactly where you go from the point of obtaining the lead.

Stop #1: The Decision

When you first get a good lead, you need to make a decision: who can handle this particular lead best? Who is most likely to close this deal? Don’t play hot potato with opportunities, think logically. You’ve got a few options, each with their own individual strengths, so let’s categorize this lead to decide where it will go. If it’s a high-priority, key account – a lead that you or your client really wants – you should route this to the direct sales team. They can take a highly personal approach and build the relationship. You might even have a specific salesperson in mind that is good for this specific type of account, and if so, that’s even better.

On the other hand, you might have a good, qualified lead that you didn’t necessarily expect – a second-tier lead, perhaps. These should go to your channel partners/VARs. Channel partners’ strengths lie in supplementing the sales plan with their own unique services and value propositions, complementing your product or service to make it more appealing.

Stop #2: Enablement

The next important stop lead management workflow is the enablement process. Whether you put your lead in the hands of your direct salesforce or a channel partner, it’s important to enable them to follow up on the lead to make sure it’s not just floating in limbo. This means ensuring that the person handling the lead has the tools they need to check the status of the deal, which requires a dashboard that integrates seamlessly with the applicable system of record and that stays updated. Like MRP’s own Delta Enablement, this dashboard should integrate with key CRMS like SalesForce for the sake of accuracy and timeliness.

Enabling partners to follow up on a deal is crucial. You want to remain a point of consideration for the lead, be available to answer their questions, and be prepared to close the deal when they are. Following up is the key to moving the deal down the pipeline and preventing loss of potential conversions and revenue.

Stop #3: Closing and Reviewing

If you’ve hit the previous two stops in an efficient manner, you should arrive to your final destination: closing the deal. If you did, now is the time to look back on your process and decide what worked! If not, consider what you might do differently next time: route the lead differently? Restructure your time frame for reaching out with a follow-up? Just because the deal didn’t close doesn’t mean your job is over.

At MRP we have 15 years of experience in effectively delivering leads and then following up to move the lead down the pipeline. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of routing leads properly, keeping tabs on the deal status, and – have we said it enough? – following up! Stay tuned and we’ll talk about how we measure the success of our own predictive analytics campaigns so you can better measure your own success.

TOPICS: Blog | Resources
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