Best Lead Management Software
Buyer's Guide
An efficient lead management system is the grease to your business engine that ensures smooth operations and maximizes the speed and quality of your lead conversions.
No business can succeed without leads for clients, distributors, customers or retailers, no matter the industry. While some leads convert to customers quickly, some might take weeks or months, and some of them never convert. A robust lead management tool lets you generate and nurture leads by tracking them throughout the lifecycle.
Whether you’re aware of the pros and cons of a lead management solution and planning to invest in a new one or it’s relatively a new concept to you, this detailed guide will help you make the right business decision.
Executive Summary
- Lead management platforms help improve conversion chances by nurturing promising leads.
- Businesses can receive significant insights on campaigns and customer behavior to optimize marketing efforts.
- Key features include automated data collection, data management, process automation, and lead scheduling and tracking.
- These tools help create targeted, personalized content at critical stages in a customer’s journey.
- Marketing and sales teams can coordinate better, ensuring seamless collaboration.
- Make sure to ask potential vendors specific questions about the software and their support before committing to a purchase.
- What Is Lead Management Software?
- Lead Management System vs. CRM
- Deployment Methods
- Primary Benefits
- Implementation Goals
- Basic Features & Functionality
- Advanced Features & Functionality
- Current & Upcoming Trends
- Software Comparison Strategy
- Cost & Pricing Considerations
- Most Popular Lead Management Software
- Questions To Ask Yourself
- Questions To Ask Vendors
- In Conclusion
- Product Comparisons
- Additional Resources
What Is Lead Management Software?
Lead management software is a system that captures, tracks and nurtures leads and engages them throughout the sales funnel. It monitors and stores information from various touch points where leads interact with your business via calls, chats, emails and website pages. You can combine the tedious process of managing multiple incoming leads in a single-view solution.
A good lead management system can personalize your customer journeys and segregate leads based on crucial information like demographics and lead scores. It automates repetitive manual tasks so you can focus on your leads and give them the attention they deserve.
Your teams get instant access to view, edit and save valuable lead data, thus improving collaboration and clarity. Equipped with capabilities like lead generation, lead filtering, lead scoring and lead nurturing, the platform gives precise solutions to maximize productivity. Effective lead management systems ensure high-quality leads, critical to your sales team’s success.
Let’s take a look at how lead generation differs for B2B and B2C.
Lead Generation for B2B
When catering to other businesses, you’ll be dealing with a small cross-section of customers. These niche markets often demand complex value propositions and require a complicated and involved sales process.
The purchasing process for a business is usually slower and more stakeholders are involved, leading to longer sales cycles. While a business might take months to reach a consensus about purchasing a particular product, an ordinary customer might make the decision in a few minutes.
Software helps you stay engaged with prospects across the various stages of their journey. The more complex the buying cycle, the greater the need for a system that can handle the nuances.
Lead Generation for B2C
- AI Chatbots
- Chatbot
- Cloud CRM
- Computer Inventory
- Contact Management
- CRM Insurance
- CRM
- Customer Database
- Customer Engagement Platforms
- Customer Service
- Email Ticketing Systems
- Help Desk
- Help Desk Software For Schools
- Issue Tracking
- Knowledge Base
- Live Chat
- Marketing Analytics Software Tools
- Remote Desktop
- Retail CRM
- Sales Force Automation
- Service Request
- Ticketing
B2C is a different story. While businesses usually think of how a product can benefit them, a consumer focuses on what they think of a brand. Creating emotional connections and meaningful conversations with consumers is a key part of generating B2C leads.
These sales processes are transactional, and therefore shorter and easier to complete. You need to approach customers in an engaging but less formal way. For example, with videos and infographics.
B2C typically targets a broad audience, making it important to craft a lead generation plan that attracts customer attention quickly. Common channels include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even LinkedIn.
When it comes to B2C, transactions are meant around perception and quality. In most cases, you wouldn’t know your customers individually and therefore, you must focus on building a quality-driven perception in their market space.
In summary, B2C depends more on branding, advertising, promotions, and anonymous and impulsive sales. On the flip side, B2B sales are about complex business calculations and personal relationships. Evaluate lead management software with those differences in mind so you end up getting the right tool for the job.
Lead Management System vs. CRM
To put it simply, lead management is a subset and one of the many things CRM software offers. The two are closely related but separate processes, each having its own importance.
Lead management platforms focus mainly on the pre-conversion part of sales. Though CRM software offers many of the same solutions as a lead management system, it focuses on the entire customer lifecycle. With CRM solutions, you can not only engage new leads but also prioritize customer retention and opportunities to upsell. Another key difference is that sales teams mainly use lead management solutions, while both sales and marketing use CRM.
CRM software is a good choice for taking care of customer journeys throughout the sales funnel. While in other cases, you can benefit from a dedicated standalone lead management system. Using CRM software with lead management capabilities is a smart solution that integrates both powerful tools in a streamlined and affordable way.
Deployment Methods
Determining the deployment method is an integral part of installing a lead management platform. Cloud-based solutions, which you can host on vendor servers and access online, have become quite popular in recent years. Contrarily, you can install on-premise software locally on business servers.
Cloud-based platforms are cost-effective as you have to purchase a license per user without any upfront installation cost. They ensure data security and facilitate quick implementation. Cloud systems are less customizable but ensure great stability.
On-premise solutions include higher hardware and IT investment but lesser recurring costs. However, this deployment method isn’t common for lead management systems.
Primary Benefits
Easier Collaboration
Lead management software offers valuable data on your campaigns and gives a wide-ranging view of your leads. Your sales and marketing teams can work harmoniously using and referring to the same data sets on the system. They can also add or update information on the same platform, leading to better clarity and coordination.
Many lead management solutions also offer visual, intuitive interfaces and customizable platforms, making complex data easier to understand. This reduces chances for mistakes or miscommunication and helps your team stay on the same page.
Better Lead Filtering
It can be time-consuming to weigh one lead against another and evaluate which one is more likely to convert. With the help of lead management software, you can create a lead scoring system and set up filters and restrictions to better segment your leads. It ensures you target the highest-quality leads first, saving you a lot of time.
You can also group leads according to their interests and behavior-related data and add specific tags to streamline the process. This capability takes lead management systems from a mere contact management tool to a dynamic well-rounded solution that improves your lead conversions.
Effective Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing, i.e., engaging and building relationships with leads to convert them into buyers, is critical for any business. Many lead management platforms come with follow-up reminders, email templates, and scheduled communication and calls. This component establishes engagement with your leads and ensures you don’t overlook them.
With forecasting tools and reports, you can optimize your sales process and anticipate the needs of your leads. Lead management systems automate lead nurturing, which builds consistent communication, trust and sustained interest.
Optimized Experience
You can ensure user satisfaction by monitoring promising leads closely and optimizing their experience. Keep track of every lead to prevent losing the high-quality ones and categorize them according to conversion chances.
Valuable Insights
Convert leads and create roadmaps for prospects using insights about high-quality leads with tracking capabilities. You can follow leads throughout the customer lifecycle and get new perspectives into decision-making.
Implementation Goals
If you’re wondering what you can accomplish with a lead management platform, here’s a quick reference:
| Goal 1 Maintain Customer Base | Convert your customers into repeat buyers as they help generate future leads through word-of-mouth marketing. You can find the underlying pattern at every stage of the customer acquisition process. |
|---|---|
| Goal 2 Streamline Workflows | Enable your team members to automate repetitive tasks, work smart, save time and stay focused. |
| Goal 3 Increase Conversions | Recognize leads that need more attention and ask your sales reps to work on them to increase conversion chances. |
| Goal 4 Ensure Security and Scalability | Build robust security measures using a customized lead management solution. Scale according to your organization’s needs. |
Basic Features & Functionality
| Lead Capture | Identify leads across different sales channels and collect their information to optimize the nurturing process. Create post-click landing pages, forms and other types of data to attract website traffic. |
|---|---|
| Lead Scoring | Find hot leads based on predefined metrics so that sales reps can prioritize them, improving process efficiency and increasing conversion rate. |
| Lead Reporting | You can analyze lead quality through accurate reports and track their impact on your business. Monitor conversion statistics, sales reps’ productivity, acquisition rates and other vital metrics. |
| Integrations | This feature ensures the lead management platform you choose plays well with your existing business tools. Find a system that offers REST API, open API, custom application builders or open source solutions. It should support an extensive range of add-ons, widgets and third-party apps. |
| Lead Nurturing | Keeping leads engaged throughout a sales pipeline is tough yet important. Establish rapport with customers right from the first interaction up to the time of conversion using nurturing tools. You can categorize leads based on location, interests, age and more, and set email marketing campaigns. |
| Data Management | Store, organize, manage and maintain lead data for better business planning and decision-making. Businesses are tasked with managing mountains of data, making good data management key in reducing errors and data deduplication and increasing data accuracy. |
| Campaign Management Dashboard | Get a 360-degree view of lead generation, nurturing and scoring efforts. You can identify the most lead-generating campaigns, monitor key metrics, determine qualified leads, check the average customer lifecycle and track performance and productivity. |
| Process Automation | Automate repetitive tasks to save time and resources that your sales team can use to prioritize more critical tasks. This ensures good customer experiences through quick responses in a time-sensitive environment. |
Advanced Features & Functionality
| Scheduling and Tracking Leads | Since your sales team is usually on the go, it’s not easy to track every lead all the time. You can schedule email communication and set up reminders, meetings and follow-up calls to prevent prospects from falling through the cracks and engage them regularly. |
|---|---|
| Lead Routing | Assign leads quickly and smartly to the right personnel so they can reach out at the right moment with apt messages, accelerate follow-ups and maximize conversion chances. |
| Offline Access | This functionality enables sales reps to capture and convert leads even while working offline. |
| Built-in Communications | Choose a system equipped with email integration, SMS tools, built-in voice communication and live chat to help sales reps and marketers interact smartly, ensuring better client conversations. |
| Automated Data Collection | You can collect potential customers’ information through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, emails and other public channels. This feature also collects data from contests, surveys and polls and tracks how your leads engage with your content. Get valuable insights into your lead’s business needs and behavior. |
Current & Upcoming Trends
Digitalization of Lead Generation
With the introduction of digital lead resources, such as social media, email marketing, content marketing and website, B2B buyers and sellers are moving from conventional sales-centric business models to digital methods.
In the post-COVID-19 era, B2B decision-makers have begun to prefer digital communication over personal interactions. This shift is primarily for safety reasons, easy scheduling and minimal travel expenses.
Influencer Marketing
Influencers such as brands, persons or digital entities help draw in potential customers based on analytical insights through lead generation. Collaborating with influencers enables you to understand your business niche better.
You can employ a performance-based marketing scheme to save money and resources. It allows you to access different digital platforms, leading to increased reach and engagement, better volume, and enhanced quality.
Voice Search
With significant improvements in voice search technology in recent years, marketers should consider optimizing their voice search strategy. Over half of U.S. adults have smart home devices and nearly 30% use voice assistants with them, as of 2022. The numbers are set to keep increasing with 5G. Optimizing reviews, listings, content and voice search snippets can help you tap into this growing audience.
Lead Generation on Social Media
Businesses can generate more leads through social media platforms by personalizing content. You can modify posts to attract targeted leads on a personal level. Explore their areas of interest and identify the platforms they’re more active in.
Another trick is to adopt AI and machine learning that can automate lead generation strategies to make the process more efficient based on algorithms.
Video Content Marketing
In 2021, the U.S. became the biggest digital advertising market with $190.4 billion in revenue, accounting for more than one-third of the global expenses in the sector. China and Europe came in a distant second and third with 22.5% and 18.9% market share respectively. Video advertising is an integral and fast-growing segment contributing to this growth as YouTube is the most popular online platform in the US for 74% of adult users.
Businesses will adopt video content marketing to increase reach, sales and engagement on different channels. Apart from using YouTube, marketers might gradually focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Other Upcoming Trends
Automated Chatbots: Take your process automation one step further with automated chatbots that solve queries to your visitors’ most common questions. This hands-off approach saves time and resources.
Buyer Intent Data: Latest CRM technologies focus on buyer intent data through information collected from what they look at on your site. This lets you zero in on your leads with a laser-targeted approach.
Customer-centric Marketing: It helps you create campaigns that resonate the most with your leads. Your team can yield the highest quality lead conversions through this feature.
Software Comparison Strategy
A quick internet search will present you with hundreds of lead management systems. It can get overwhelming to narrow down your choices, let alone pick the best one.
Start by evaluating what your business needs are. How well does your current software perform at lead management? Where does it fall short? Once you analyze what your present platform lacks, you can pick a lead management solution that serves you better.
Define your budget and research your options. Some lead management systems offer free trials for their less advanced versions. Test drive your top choices and see if they work for you. You can read online reviews and industry guides or ask your colleagues for recommendations to guide this process.
Make a list of requirements you’re looking for in a lead management solution. Which features would you prefer? Would a cloud-based platform be more suitable than an on-premise one? Consider how your team collaborates and passes on information. A lead management software with a mobile app is a good choice if your team works remotely. It’s a bonus if you can operate the platform offline, something incredibly helpful in cases of spotty service.
It’s also important to evaluate whether a standalone lead management system or CRM software with lead management capabilities would fit your bill. It’s a good idea to go with a top-rated CRM software specializing in lead tracking, filtering and nurturing. Which automation does the system offer? Automated data collection is a must-have feature.
Think about what you want the platform’s interface to look like. How customizable is it? Does it come with any pre-built templates? Selecting a user-friendly, visual and intuitive system is always a plus.
Take note of apps you use regularly. Do your top choices offer your desired app integrations? If you want to stay ahead of the curve, lead management systems with AI are the next big thing.
Another thing to consider is vendor support. Do they respond quickly or have a 24/7 live chat? Do they provide implementation support? What are their security measures? Whichever software you pick, make sure it’s scalable so your business doesn’t risk outgrowing your software’s capabilities.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
Lead Management systems come in all shapes and sizes — there is something for everyone. Many lead management platforms have monthly, annual or one-time subscriptions. The price starts from as low as $2 and goes all the way up to $30,000.
Basic low-cost lead management solutions include data storage and lead tracking features. You may have to pay extra for any advanced features and customizations you want.
Another point to keep in mind is the number of your generated leads. Consider how many leads you need to track and manage, as few systems have restrictions on the number of calls and leads you can track.
Some vendors charge per user. More users mean the lead management system will cost higher. Many platforms offer free trials and even free versions for their less advanced systems.
Some companies offer CRM with lead management capabilities and useful features like lead generation and pay-per-click advertising. With the added features, you may pay more overall, but you will pay less for the lead management system itself, making it a valuable investment.
Most Popular Lead Management Software
Now that you know what lead management systems can do, how do you pick the right one for your business? Let’s take a look at our top recommendations to help in your search.
HubSpot Sales
HubSpot Sales stores all your leads’ data and activity in a centralized platform. It saves time through process automation, enhances team coordination and facilitates pipeline management.
With its reliable lead scoring tools, you can segment leads into targeted lists and improve lead conversion rates. Key features include sales automation, email tracking, quote generation and automated reminders.
View of lead information in HubSpot.
Zoho CRM
Used by over 13,600 companies around the globe, Zoho CRM ensures proper follow-up with your leads throughout the sales funnel. Zoho’s platform helps your sales team with lead generation, scoring, conversion and the overall customer lifecycle — making it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes.
It seamlessly integrates with 500 widely used apps and offers a mobile version. Zoho’s robust lead-tracking features, targeted email campaigns and AI-powered conversation assistant make it one of the best in the market. It also provides great vendor support, making it a value-for-money investment.
Lead management data in Zoho CRM.
Freshsales
Freshsales provides cloud-based customer engagement capabilities alongside extensive lead and deal management that give a 360-degree customer view. As part of the Freshworks ecosystem, it offers a wide range of integrations and can also connect with third-party tools such as Mailchimp. Notable features include smartforms, deal status, several types of reports and a mobile app.
Lead management dashboard in Freshsales. Source
Dynamics 365 for Sales
Equipped with AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales helps improve sales activities, enhance marketing efforts and increase productivity. You can leverage prescriptive insights, a real-time, 360-degree customer view and recommended actions. Contact management, interactive dashboards, partner relationship management and sales insights are other notable features.
Manager View in Dynamics 365 Sales.
Creatio
Creatio is an all-purpose platform that combines CRM and BPM capabilities using a low-code approach. Creatio Sales offers lead enrichment and distribution. With dashboards, users can track key indicators such as conversation rate, lead quality and more. Marketing and service modules are available as well, offering campaign and event management, change management, a contact center and more.
View of lead info in Creatio.
Questions To Ask Yourself
Selecting a sound lead management system is complex and time-consuming. It’s vital to gain clarity on your requirements and ask yourself and your vendors some key questions to help you make the right decision.
Use these questions as a starting point for internal conversations:
- Would a standalone lead management system or CRM software specializing in lead management suit you better?
- What is your short and long-term budget?
- Which deployment method is suitable for your business?
- Do you have any industry-specific requirements?
- Who will be the exact users in your organization, and if they’re comfortable with the UI?
Questions To Ask Vendors
Use these questions as a starting point for conversations with vendors:
About the Software
- How automated or customizable is the software?
- What industry does the solution cater to?
- How scalable is the platform?
- What are its integration capabilities?
- Are there any additional features not included in the basic package?
- Does it cost extra for the additional features? If yes, how much?
About the Vendor
- What sort of customer support do they offer? Does it involve any extra charges?
- Which type of businesses do they serve - SMBs or large organizations?
- Do they offer migration and setup services?
- How long does the implementation and onboarding process take?
- What security and redundancy protocols are in place to prevent data theft?
- Do they have a proven track record of customer success?
In Conclusion
The right lead management tool helps gather relevant data, automate processes for maximum efficiency, increase cross-selling activities, improve productivity, enhance customer satisfaction and retention, and increase revenue.
In order to create an effective lead generation strategy, you need comprehensive knowledge of the process. This guide is a helpful starting point. We recommend that you go deeper into these topics, particularly requirement gathering, to choose the best solution for your business. The more intentional you are throughout every stage of the journey, the better result you can expect.
Still feeling overwhelmed and can’t decide which software is the best for you? Check out our comparison report to gain insight into top software vendors. Good luck!
Product Comparisons
- Creatio vs. HubSpot Sales
- Zoho CRM vs. HubSpot Sales
- Freshsales vs. Zoho CRM
- Dynamics 365 For Sales vs. Freshsales
- Creatio vs. Dynamics 365 For Sales
Additional Resources
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