In this post, we will define lead tracking and demonstrate why it is important for every business to track where their leads are coming from. Learn how and where to gain leads and the essential role call tracking plays.
Lead Tracking: Definition
Lead tracking is the process of tracking, documenting, and organizing prospects based on certain factors. These factors may include individual actions, the number of times a sales rep has connected with a prospect, the number of times a lead interacts with your brand, and so on. In other words, you are tracking leads from initial contact to close, whether it was successful or not.
The main reason why lead tracking is important is that it can give you a better understanding of your campaigns, your prospects, funnel, and sales and marketing efforts. This way, you can improve lead generation and increase sales.
Lead Tracking for Sales and Marketing Teams
Tracking leads in sales and marketing is a collaborative effort. These teams work together to identify qualified leads and close more sales. By studying your leads, you can create better user and caller experiences for your target audience.
By tracking leads, your marketing department can understand where leads come from, what advertising platforms are they engaging on, how they are interacting with your brand, and more. This information can help marketing teams create better campaigns and marketing strategies that will appeal more to your target audience.
Once good and promising leads are gathered, marketing departments can share these with the sales team. They can also provide all the necessary information that can help close these deals. Now the sales department works their magic and uses this information to approach each client and individualize the sale. All of this greatly increases the chance of making a sale or conversion.
Where and How to Gain Leads
In order to track leads effectively, your team needs to know where and how they can best get leads. A few different ways to capture leads are:
- Trade shows and exhibitions
- Email sign-ups and online subscribers
- Social media
- Market research
- Call tracking where incoming calls inquiring about services and products are tracked, etc.
Next, your team may need an organized system to input, consolidate, and store lead information. Customer relations management systems (CRMs) such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, etc., can help you store and track information effectively.
So, what information should you collect from leads? Name, contact information, and how they came across your business, expectations, and so on.
How to Qualify Leads?
Determining whether your leads qualify or not means evaluating the value of a lead and how they can be useful to your business. You want to find leads that are promising and ideal for your brand.
Sales departments qualify their leads through different sales models. Some businesses use the BANT model. This model qualifies leads based on:
- Budget: can the lead afford your product?
- Authority: can they make a purchasing decision?
- Need: do they have a need for your product/service?
- Timeline: is there a specific timeline when they desire or plan to make the purchase?
Generally accepted types of lead qualification include:
- Inquiry: the user who demonstrates interest
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): a user who interacted with marketing materials and has the potential to become a closed opportunity
- Sales Accepted Lead (SAL): an MQL that is converted and accepted as a potential lead
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): teams would use a sales model such as BANT to determine qualification
- Closed: the user or lead made a purchase.
Call Tracking and Virtual Phone Numbers: A Dream Team
About 90% of customer interactions happen over the phone. This is when interested prospects learn about your business and its products, calling to inquire or get more information. Therefore, call tracking is essential to collect data on these leads, specifically:
- Where they come from
- Where they interacted with your product
- What campaigns or ads encouraged them to call
- How are they connecting with your business
- How they are searching for services like yours (keywords, etc.)
- Where are they calling from, and so on
You can use virtual phone numbers to track where incoming calls are coming from. For instance, you can purchase a toll free number and various local numbers and advertise them on different platforms. When calls come in, you can easily identify where customers are interacting with your brand or which locations are more responsive to your advertising campaigns. You can then use this information to improve lead tracking and lead generation efforts.
Start Tracking Leads Today!
You can create an in-house tracking software, enter data manually, purchase an online application, or use virtual phone numbers. Whichever way you choose, lead tracking is important to create effective marketing and sales processes. Use this marketing technique to find better ways to serve your customers and improve your business’ sales rate!