Telemarketing Software Featured Article

Outbound selling is not for the faint of heart. It takes a certain kind of personality and enthusiasm to engage in a successful, true rapport with customers. In a modern selling environment, however, effective sales management is also critical, as is technology to help pull it all together.

Lead management may be the most important element of all. This process is the critical core of any business. Without leads, companies can’t cultivate new sales, and without new sales, business lags. For many companies, this means ensuring that inside sales teams have the right leadership, attitude and support that will allow them to engage in quality lead generation.

While the core of the selling process may not have changed in recent years – convincing people to buy will always be a skill – the lead management process has undergone some large changes. Search engine optimization, social media and multichannel customer support have all created a need for a comprehensive lead management process, according to a recent article by Julia Borgini on Business2Community.

“Not having a clearly-defined lead management process decreases your marketing ROI, creates more leaks in your sales funnel, and puts your relationship with leads and customers on shaky ground,” she writes. “To be successful, you need a lead management plan that wins you more sales, plain and simple. Through a formalized lead management process, you’ll create more educated buyers, understand their needs better, and ultimately win more sales.”

An ideal lead management solution will see a sales organization building value into the sales relationship, maintaining contact with relevant content regardless of where the customer is in the sales cycle, listening to your leads and their needs, and collaborating effectively with others inside your own organization.

At the technology end, this calls for a lead management solution that is flexible, Web-based and automated. These solutions, particularly when they are Web-based, allow for quick and easy implementation and lead management set-up and can be integrated with knowledge systems throughout the company (such as customer relationship management, or CRM). In addition to next-best-lead routing, progressive dialing, on-board intelligent messaging, integrated email, and digital call recording, solutions such as those from VanillaSoft offer real-time lead distribution that can ensure that leads identified on the Web or in social media are sent to the right person to follow up. Features such as appointment setting help ensure that strong leads are nurtured down the pipeline with the appropriate accountability and follow-up in place.