Technology and Lead Follow Up: How to Break Apart from the Competition Next Door

Understanding how to improve your lead follow up is one of the most crucial components in helping you overcome the competition to grow your business. Why? People are bombarded with messaging all day long, from emails, social media, texts, phone calls, and more, but much of this content is one-sided, failing to connect on a personalized level. 

Using technology like our Lead Manager tool to keep track of leads and show potential customers you’re paying attention to their needs will result in higher conversion rates and better workflows for maximum efficiency and profit. 

In this overview, we’ll examine: 

• How to successfully implement a lead management tool into your daily workflow
• How to use lead management best practices to your advantage
• How to optimize leads for better conversion rates

What is Most Important in Lead Management?

There are many factors that play into successful lead management. While your services and rates may be better than your competitors, these details won’t mean much if you aren’t able to communicate them in a timely, effective manner. 

Lead follow up needs to be: 

• Timely: If a customer doesn’t hear back from you in a reasonable amount of time, it’s likely they will move on to the next available option. Similarly, customers who get spammed with too many messages in rapid succession may get overwhelmed, annoyed, and dissatisfied from the start. Finding the right timing to stay in contact without overcomplicating the process is key. 
  
• Clear: Being able to expertly walk through the specifications of your service will build confidence in your potential customers, helping them understand your commitment and authority in the space. Answering questions on the spot and providing all the necessary information to close the deal goes a long way in making customers feel like they’re making the right choice. 
  
• Personalized: Keeping track of a customer’s needs is perhaps one of the best ways to illustrate what kind of experience they can expect from working with you. Rather than starting fresh every time communication starts and stops, being able to pick up where you left off shows your dedication to assessing their concerns and accommodating their needs for the long haul. 
  

As you’ve likely experienced, keeping tabs on all these components is no easy feat, especially if you’re managing multiple self-storage facilities and/or customer service teams. Without a straightforward system to help you manage your leads, it’s likely that something will fall through the cracks, creating missed revenue opportunities.

While it is possible to set up your team for success using conventional methods, introducing technology into your lead management system can help reduce human error and keep leads moving forward with consistency and accuracy. 

How to Successfully Implement a Lead Management Tool into Your Daily Workflow

Adding technology to your current lead follow up process can save time and produce better results. Rather than having to manually keep track of all leads and their corresponding details, a tool can store all that information for you, scheduling follow ups at reasonable intervals and allowing customer service reps to pick up right where they left off with each caller. 

Using a lead management tool can help you:

• Manage leads more effectively: Having a dedicated system will allow you to see where every lead stands in the sales process, eliminating confusion and unnecessary busy work that doesn’t create conversion. 
  
• Track performance: A lead management system can help you understand what’s working well in your sales process and where things are getting lost, helping you adapt and improve over time. 
  
• Support your team: When you have technology doing the heavy lifting of tracking timing and data, your team can focus on what they do best: providing excellent customer service. Removing the burden of remembering who to call when about what will help them zero in on selling your services and supporting your customers. 
  

Choosing the right tool can make a big difference in how your team uses it to their advantage. It’s important to look for the features and benefits that make most sense for your team and industry. 

Your technology should be flexible, allowing you to customize screens and workflows to fit your needs. Team members shouldn’t be locked into specific controls and should have the ability to mold the technology to what makes most sense for daily operations. 

Some features to consider when looking for a lead management tool include:

• Customizable sales scripts
  
• Call logging with contact information capture
  
• Automated follow-ups via call, text, or email 
  
• Employee performance tracking and support
  
• Identifying duplicate leads to minimize error 
  

But having technology isn’t the same as using it well, so let’s dig into how syncing a tool with sales best practices can create an overall better experience for both customers and service reps.

How to Use Lead Management Best Practices to Your Advantage 

We already know that focusing on timing, clarity, and personalization will help convert more leads, but how is that made possible through technology? 

Timing

A lead management tool can provide customizable call schedules so there’s no question as to when it’s time to follow up with a potential customer. Because CallPotential automatically logs and tracks every call, it’s easy to see where every lead is within the sales process so service reps can reach out accordingly. Set timelines cut out the guesswork as to whether it’s too soon or too late to call back, keeping leads engaged but not overwhelmed. 

Clarity

A strong way to ensure every lead is getting the same quality sales experience regardless of which service rep they speak to is to create a series of scripts for every stage. This eliminates confusion as to what needs to be communicated when, as well as how to convey information that is on brand and targeted to audience needs. 

Look for a tool that provides customizable scripts that flex to your sales process, helping you refine your messaging for ultimate conversions. In addition, the system allows service reps to easily access crucial sales details such as current inventory availability, sales and specials, pricing, and more, putting everything needed to close the deal at employees’ fingertips. 

Personalization

Customers want to feel like their needs and concerns are being addressed, and with a lead management tool, service reps are able to capture exactly what services and specifications they’re looking for, allowing for more targeted conversations. Rather than following up with generic sales speak, your team can easily pull up what was previously discussed, showing your attention to detail and willingness to accommodate their needs. 

How to Optimize Leads for Better Conversion Rates

With technology on your side, you’ll have a supportive partner that bolsters your entire team and provides tangible growth opportunities. Using a lead management system will help you: 

• Nurture leads through the sales process
  
• Create automated call scheduling and follow ups
  
• Capture detailed customer information for a personalized experience 
  
• Analyze sales data to find strengths and weaknesses in your process
  
• Create customized scripts for more targeted conversations
  
• Support your team by having everything they need in one place 
  
• Go beyond customer expectations with a seamless process

The best way to see how technology can simplify your lead follow up is to take it for a test drive. Schedule a demo of Lead Manager to witness how the right technology can improve sales, boost your revenue, and enhance your business.