{"id":1271,"date":"2017-09-12T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/sigmify\/resources\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2021-10-12T11:22:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:22:56","slug":"lead-management-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/lead-management-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Lead Management solution is better than managing leads with spreadsheets!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In sales, a \u2018<span style=\"color: #33cccc;\">lead<\/span>\u2018 is a prospect who can buy a product or service. A qualified lead is a prospect company that has<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An identified need,<\/li>\n<li>A budget,<\/li>\n<li>A clear timeline<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>to buy the product or service.<\/p>\n<p>Leads can come from various sources such as response to advertisements, cold calling,\u00a0 events, website search, lead generation services, references, consultant\u2019s recommendations and so on. What is important is how leads are maintained and moved into the sales funnel.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2193 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spreadsheets-150x150.png\" alt=\"Spreadsheet\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Some companies enter \u00a0lead details into a spreadsheet and the sales person use them to follow-up. A Spreadsheet is an excellent tool for tabular data formation and manipulation, calculations, number crunching and \u00a0\u2018what if\u2019 analysis. \u00a0Can Lead Management be done using a spreadsheet effectively? The answer is No.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #33cccc;\">Why you need a Lead Management Solution<\/span><\/h1>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Database Creation: <\/strong>Spreadsheets are person dependent. Sales people control these spreadsheets. So leads never become part of a database. For any company leads are their most valuable asset which needs to be protected from the competition. Access to database can be managed easily which cannnot be done with spreadsheets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maintaining Lead Details<\/strong>: Lead related data is unstructured and does not have a specific format. It includes company\u2019s background information, contact person\u2019s information, departments, reporting hierarchy, specific opportunity details, and communication details. Spreadsheets force a certain format on the data and in the bargain one can miss essential details specific to the lead and opportunity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Changing Stages of Lead:<\/strong> Each lead goes through different stages in the sales life cycle. Each stage calls for a different set of actions, e.g. you may need to email a product catalog to one prospect, organize a demonstration for another, put someone in a drip email campaign and pay a visit to the one who is willing to confirm the order. These actions have to be recorded and tracked for their effectiveness. A Spreadsheet will not do this.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Finding the Latest Status:<\/strong> It is impossible to find out the latest version of the spreadsheet and therefore the latest status of the lead. \u00a0Spreadsheets have to be correctly named with the version number or \u00a0dates to find the latest status. This is an external control so prone to errors.\u00a0 There is always a chance of dropping a lead or missing an entire tab in the spreadsheet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Historical Information: <\/strong>In following up with \u00a0leads, a history of prior contacts made is most important. Communication can be in the form of a phone call recording, email exchanges, notes and comments. Entering different types of data in spreadsheet is tedious. Searching and extracting this data is almost impossible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Marketing Analytics:<\/strong> Only a Lead Management solution can help in analytics and provide insights into the leads data that helps in decision making. Companies can invest their resources based on their findings about best selling products, most effective lead generating sources, top performing sales persons, highest revenue generating regions and so on. Such type of analysis will be cumbersome to generate using spreadsheets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No Collaboration <\/strong>: Lead Management is a task where different functions need to work together. Bringing in the lead, suggesting a possible solution, technical discussions, proposal making, checking commercial feasibility, demonstrations and communication involves persons from different functions. A spreadsheet is not an ideal tool for collaboration. Hash tagging, sharing, commenting, emailing cannot be done in spreadsheets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced Features and Integration:<\/strong> Lead Management solutions provide additional functionality like scanning and attaching visiting cards, integration with audio\/ video calls, GPRS tracking of the sales persons. They can even evolve into a full-fledged CRM solution. Lead\n<figure id=\"attachment_2894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2894\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2894 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/network-1020332__340-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/network-1020332__340-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sigmify.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/network-1020332__340-300x300-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lead Management<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Management solutions can be integrated with other CRM solutions, which is not possible with spreadsheets!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Companies who use spreadsheets for Lead Management, run the risk of dropping leads, missing out on new business, getting stuck with old technologies and not be ready for the future!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read Also, <a href=\"\/resources\/why-spreadsheets-are-not-the-best-task-management-tools#.Wbdrpou1vIU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Why Spreadsheets Are Not The Best Task Management Tools<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"page\" class=\"site\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In sales, a \u2018lead\u2018 is a prospect who can buy a product or service. A qualified lead is a prospect company that has An identified need, A budget, A clear timeline to buy the product or service. Leads can come from various sources such as response to advertisements, cold calling,\u00a0 events, website search, lead generation 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