7 Steps To Enable Sales To Convert More Leads
7 Steps to Enable Sales to Convert More Leads:
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- Establish Lead Management Process Stages in the Lead Object
- Automate Lead Management Process Stages
- Add Lead Management Training to the new hire onboarding process
- Configure the seller’s Salesforce homepage to show new and open leads
- Configure the sales leader’s Salesforce homepage to show unattended leads
- Create custom formula fields to track lead age and lead process stage duration
- Create Salesforce Scheduled-Triggered Flows to notify users of leads that need attention
Conversion of a Qualified Marketing Lead into a Sales Opportunity is a critical step to measure marketing ROI.
Yet, sales teams struggle to effectively convert leads, which results in an incomplete picture of marketing’s sales pipeline contribution.
Salesforce CRM is the most popular CRM in large, and enterprise firms, and most salespeople have some prior experience with Salesforce. However, lead management processes differ quite a bit between firms, even within the same industry. To that end, marketer’s and sales enablement teams should not assume that sales teams know how to convert leads.
Enabling sales teams to convert more leads is a team effort that demands a mix of training, enablement, and CRM improvements.
We recommend the following 7 Steps To Enable Sales Teams to Convert More Leads:
1. Establish Lead Management Process Stages in the Lead Object
Most organizations establish a multi-stage lead management process similar as follows:
1. Marketing Inquiry (MI) – Inquiry that marketing has yet to determine if it’s qualified
2. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or Automation Qualified Lead (AQL) – Meets criteria jointly developed by sales and marketing.
3. Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) – Salesperson accepts that lead as qualified and will work on it.
4. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) – Salesperson converts the lead into an Opportunity.
2. Automate Lead Management Process Stages
The lead management process is similar to an Opportunity sales process, so establishing stages helps the organization understand the progress of leads assigned to salespeople. Salesforce’s Path functionality is ideal for tracking lead stages.
3. Add Lead Management training to the new hire onboarding process
Expand beyond PowerPoint and give them access to a Salesforce sandbox where they can practice converting leads. Converting Opportunities is easy, but identifying existing accounts and contacts to merge lead records as converted takes some practice. Otherwise, duplicate contacts and accounts may increase.
4. Configure the seller’s Salesforce homepage to show new and open leads
Salespeople often overlook leads if you rely on them going to the Lead object to access.
5. Configure the sales leader’s Salesforce homepage to shows unattended leads
Sales leaders don’t have time to look at all leads their salespeople receive. So, only show them leads that need attention.
6. Create custom formula fields to track lead age and lead process stage duration
Leads usually have a short shelf-life. Tracking lead age and how long it has been in the current stage can help sales leaders and marketers identify salespeople that may need support or lead management process issues.
7. Create Salesforce Scheduled-Triggered Flows to notify users of leads that need attention
Even with the best of intentions, new or existing leads can become unattended. Scheduled-Trigger Flows are the best way to identify leads that need attention and inform the sales team. There are some considerations when enabling the Scheduled Flows, but they can work well.
Marketing and sales have mutually vested interests to ensure that marketing ROI is measured correctly. Lead conversion enablement is an often-overlooked process area that can deliver material gains in marketing ROI.
