If you’re considering lead management software (LMS) and customer relationship management (CRM) software and want to save money, can you choose one or do you need both? Are they so similar that it doesn’t matter which one you get over the other?
While there are similarities between the two types of software, they’re not the same. Lead management software generates fresh leads that you can then turn into customers, while a CRM helps you manage the entire customer journey. A CRM can be used for lead management, in addition to customer relationship management and retention. So, one type of software isn’t necessarily better than the other, and one isn’t a replacement for the other.
Throughout this blog, we’ll cover the following:
What Is a Lead Management System?
Lead management is an essential part of the sales process. If you have to do everything manually, things will fall between the cracks. And that’ll be like leaving money on the table. Using a lead management system, you’ll be able to find and capture leads, stay on top of their behavior and activities, inform them about the key benefits of your offering, and prepare them to be handed off to your sales team.
Implementing a lead management system allows sales development teams to:
Capture Leads
You’ll begin collecting essential information about your leads once these people start responding to your lead generation efforts. This data is critical since you’ll be able to comb over the information to determine whether or not specific leads are worth pursuing.
Here’s a look at some tried, tested, and proven strategies to get the data you need:
- Provide lead capture forms whenever you offer potential customers content like webinars, whitepapers, or instructional videos. You’ll want to use these capture forms to get data like full name, email address, and phone number.
- Leverage tools like Google Analytics to drill down and find out how people are using and interacting with your content. It’s also vital to understand how they’re winding up on your website—whether through organic search, email, or social media—where they’re based, what devices they use, what pages they’re visiting on your side, and more.
Score Leads
Lead scoring is essential because it helps your sales team identify where leads are in the buyer’s journey and prioritize the ones that are close to making a decision. Some leads may enter your funnel (and CRM) ready to buy, while others may be exploring various options. A lead scoring system assigns a numerical value to leads by adding or subtracting points based on engagement, demographic, or other criteria. So, based on the following example, you might score a lead in the following way:
When you have a lead score system in place, you’ll be able to prioritize your leads better, make things easier on your sales department, and potentially close more sales. It’s about doing things more efficiently, leading to higher productivity and generating more revenue.
You’ll also be able to specifically target leads based on what lead score they’re assigned. Suppose you have leads who aren’t yet ready to make a buying decision. In that case, you can gear your content towards educating them, answering their questions, explaining the unique value proposition of your offering, and giving them the data they need.
Nurture Leads
Lead nurturing is about building and nurturing trust with leads who haven’t yet reached a point where they’re ready to purchase anything. The goal at this stage is to educate these leads about how you can help alleviate issues they’re struggling with. This can be done by sending them targeted content that genuinely speaks to them and making sure they know how to reach out when the need arises.
But don’t assume that lead nurturing is solely for people who have yet to buy from you. It’s also an effective way to stay in touch with people who have previously interacted with your business. You can use lead nurturing as part of your after-sales support program. Sending these customers exclusive deals, letting them know about upcoming promotions, and even inviting them to webinars can build trust between you and your customers.
What Is CRM Software?
CRM software can help your small business manage interactions with current and potential clients during the sales process. It stores all the information you need to enhance and manage customer-patron relationships in a way that’s mutually beneficial to both sides.
You’ll be able to collect and manage the data of customers and potential customers. A CRM brings the following benefits to your small business:
Provide Better Customer Service
You can use a CRM solution to manage all your contacts. Leveraging the information you gather from leads, you can create profiles for current and potential customers. This means your sales representatives will better understand client behavior, like purchasing history and previous conversations with other sales representatives. Consumers won’t have to rehash everything every time they contact your company because the CRM will inform sales representatives of the details they need from the start.
Additionally, a CRM is incredibly beneficial for a seamless transition from the sales rep, to the account executive, to the implementation manager, and onto the ongoing account manager. From start to finish, every step can be shared on a CRM to save time from having the same conversation and keep potential and ongoing customers satisfied with their experience with your business.
Generate More Sales
Your small business can also streamline and improve sales by automating processes, constructing a sales pipeline, and analyzing revenue data. More efficiency, productivity, and sales will result from such efforts.
Have a Higher Client Retention Rate
You stand to retain more clients if you have a CRM solution that helps your small business provide better customer service. Some CRMs have features like automated ticketing and sentiment analysis—features that will benefit consumers.
You might wonder when it makes the most sense to use a CRM tool. If you have a lead management solution and find the leads are coming in faster than you can manage, it’s time to think about getting a CRM tool. A CRM solution helps your small business to manage the lead management process. You’ll also find it helpful to get a CRM solution if you’re losing leads but don’t understand why this is occurring.
For the full scoop on what you can do with CRM software, read our blog here.
Similarities Between Lead Management Software and CRM Systems
Both help sales teams and marketing teams through quick and easy data access, appointment scheduling, giving a comprehensive view of consumers so customer care professionals can see where a consumer is in the sales pipeline, and process automation.
Consider buying a CRM if you’re using different applications to help with lead management. CRM tools have integration features that let you keep data in one place. And, as was mentioned before, a CRM is a good idea if leads are coming in faster than you can keep up with.
But a CRM tool isn’t a silver bullet that can help if your lead management process is faulty. You should skip buying a CRM tool if you outsource lead management to a third party that can handle the entire process for you. You won’t need a CRM because the service provider will handle the whole lead generation process. Your sales team can focus on other essential things for your company.
Benefits of a Lead Management Software vs. CRM
If you’re a small business owner looking for a CRM solution or lead management system, you’ll want to look at some of the key differences to get a feel for what each application type brings to your small or medium-sized business.
Here’s a quick list of benefits that each type offers:
How To Select the Best Solution for Your Business
The best option for your business largely depends on who will be using the software. A CRM solution can help the marketing team, your C-level executives team, your administration team, and other teams and departments across your small business. CRM tools are useful company-wide; there are those that include integrations like calendars, email, social media, live chat, e-commerce, and help desk software. So, go with a CRM if the tool is needed across the company.
A lead management solution is more for helping your sales team throughout the sales process. It’s a streamlined tool designed specifically for sales teams, and it helps your staff move leads through the sales pipeline to a purchasing decision. Having a lead management process in place is beneficial because it can help build and sustain a healthy sales pipeline that yields long-term results.
For more insight into what it means to have a lead management process and how to use it to grow your business, check out our blog here.
Key Takeaways
When looking at lead management systems and CRM applications, you might need one or both. It’s essential to know what both types of software are, what the similarities are, what the differences are, and how to tell whether to get one or both of them for your small business.
Do you need help with your business’s lead generation strategy? Abstrakt Marketing Group has you covered. Get in touch to learn about how our lead generation services can help your small business, and how we’ll give you access to a lead management application for the leads we generate. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Contact us to find out more.
