Avoid these eight costly mistakes to maintain an effective lead management system.
One of the keys to successful sales is having an effective lead management process. Lead management helps boost sales by tracking where a prospect is at in the sales funnel—whether they are ready to buy, just inquiring, or somewhere in the middle. By knowing where your leads stand in the process, you can better tailor your sales strategy to help guide them toward closing the deal.
It should come as no surprise then that making mistakes with your lead management process can hurt your numbers. Waiting too long to contact leads, not collecting enough information, or using a generic sales pitch, among other things, can all lead to lost prospects. In a business like timeshare sales, there’s no room for lost leads. If you’ve managed to grab someone’s attention, you want to do everything you can to keep it for the long haul.
Here are eight things to avoid if you want to make sure you’re engaged in effective lead management.
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8 Mistakes you’re making that will ruin your chances of developing an effective lead management system
1. Asking for too much information
Many people browse timeshare sales without the intent to purchase. They’re just curious about what you offer. When you ask them to complete a lead generation form, ask for only the most basic information: name, email address, phone number, maybe location. That’s all you need for an effective lead management process because all you’re doing is soliciting information that will allow you to get in touch. You can ask more questions when you contact the prospect, but for starters, keep it simple.
2. Waiting too long to contact people
Let’s say your prospect has completed a lead generation form and now you know how to contact them. How long should you wait to contact them? The answer is, not very long. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies that contact a lead within an hour of receiving their information convert seven times more customers than those that wait longer. The findings make sense, especially for something like timeshare sales. Someone got in touch looking for more information on your product because they are at least curious enough in that moment to connect. As we all know, those moments can pass quickly. Missing a potential buyer while their interest is piqued is a surefire way to sabotage an effective lead management process.
3. Not noticing a broken contact form
At that moment when a lead is interested in learning more about timeshares, you may lose them entirely if your contact form doesn’t work. Web code can be buggy, and sometimes things happen. Regularly test your contact form to make sure it works properly. While you’re at it, check your landing pages as well so you know information is loading. It won’t take long for a prospect to move on if they can’t easily get in touch with you.
4. Neglecting social media as part of your process
Like it or not, social media is part of the buying process, and it can be a great place to learn more about your prospective buyers. When you have a strong presence on social media, customers can engage with you in a way that feels non-committal and somewhat anonymous. By connecting on apps like Instagram and Facebook, you can learn a lot about potential leads, and that will help you to target your sales strategy.
5. Failing to offer engaging content
Part of effective lead management is providing interesting, informative content. This might be an online brochure, an infographic, or something else of value to the prospect in deciding on whether or not to buy. If you serve content that’s just a bunch of boring text listing features of a timeshare, you’re more likely to lose someone’s interest. Make it colorful, use pictures, and craft it so that it stands out. The point of the content is to stoke the lead’s desire to learn more, so make it interesting, or else they may feel as though they’ve already seen enough and move on.
6. Failing to track lead progress
Once you have someone’s information and you’ve connected with them, it’s essential to keep tabs on where they are in the sales funnel. Doing this allows you to score your leads, so you’ll know when they’re ready to move to the next stage in the process. If you don’t track leads all the way through, you’ll never know who’s ready to buy and who needs more nurturing, which isn’t a very advantageous use of your lead management system. An easy way to track leads is by using a CRM like Call Logic to keep details fresh and relevant, so you always know where your prospects stand in the buying process.
7. Failing to follow up
Back in 2011, Dr. Jeffrey Lant, a marketing expert, suggested that a lead requires seven touches, or outreaches, in eighteen months to be impacted by the salesperson. This can be especially true of timeshare sales where it might take someone a while before they finally decide to make such a significant investment. If you give up after a few conversations, you’re missing opportunities and putting another hole in an otherwise effective lead management process.
8. Your contact forms aren’t mobile-friendly
This last tip is an important one. So many people use their phones today to browse the internet and make important buying decisions. The moment someone thinks about buying a timeshare, they’re likely to look up information on a mobile device. If your landing page and contact form aren’t optimized for mobile, you may miss out on a prospect who might be otherwise qualified. Optimizing for mobile is relatively easy these days and not something that you want to overlook.
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