The idea of running a business is indeed, thrilling. But to start with this venture, you need to set all your basics straight.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ‘business’? It is customers.
But how do you get your hands on customers? Do people turn into your paying customers from the very beginning? It rarely happens.
When you have your first interaction with a prospect, the individual is termed as a ‘lead’ – someone who leads you to business, your potential cash crops. You can understand how significant it is to manage them, correct? This blog is about how you can manage your business leads in Zoho CRM.
Let’s roll this out from the top.
A lead is someone from the broader spectrum of your target audience, a person who indicates their interest in your products/ services.
Leads constitute the first step of the lifecycle of transitioning from website visitors to customers. However, not all leads that you get hold of are the same. Their type and quality play a differentiating role in how well you can grow your sales and increase your revenue.
You can segment your leads into seven categories to get a better understanding.
These are leads who are at the beginning of the sales journey. At this point, they inquire about your products/ services and you provide them with relevant adequate information so that you can exchange their data like name, email address, location, etc.
These leads are individuals who have expressed interest in your products and engaged with your marketing efforts. Technically they are more aware of your products/ services. However, they are not yet ready to make a purchase and need more nurturing. These are warm leads that lie in the middle of the sales pipeline.
These leads are termed hot leads in business. They are the ones who are willing to make a purchase and have the means to buy your products. They lie at the bottom of the sales pipeline and have a high probability of turning into a sale.
These are prospects who have used your products and taken actions that indicate repeat business. PQLs typically exist for companies that offer free product trials or limited versions of their product with upgrade options with premium features that are available upon payment.
Cold leads are prospects that might fit your ideal buyer persona but have gone latent in showing interest in your products/ services. For example, they might have commented or replied to your social posts but remain relatively unfamiliar with your business. These leads require regular nurturing to rekindle their interest in your brand and convert them into qualified leads.
Recent reports suggest that 68% of marketers point out categorizing leads or lead scoring to be “highly effective and efficient” as a top revenue contributor.
Lead generation entails you to attract prospects from your niche audience and nurture their interest to convert them into paying customers. A successful business requires you to be proactive and reactive. One way to achieve that is by mastering both outbound and inbound strategies when generating leads and filling your sales funnel with viable ones. 79% of marketers say generating quality leads is their top priority.
Proactive lead generation calls in for outbound marketing. This technique involves gaining access to contact databases to reach out to prospective customers, kindling interest, and filling them in the sales pipeline. You can generate outbound leads through methods such as email marketing, direct email, cold calling, social selling, and so forth. You can narrow down a focused outreach strategy to advertise how your services and benefits can benefit your prospects.
On the other hand, you have an inbound marketing technique – the opposite of outbound lead generation. In this method, you need to focus on targeted content to attract ideal customers to your brand. Here, content includes informative blog posts, videos, social media, and infographics that help you establish a two-way relationship that gradually turns into a sale. This kind of marketing strategy is essentially reactive in the sense that your audience reacts when you table valuable content. Modern customers tend to research their required products/ services before interacting with salespeople and when you publish valuable content, it automatically attracts your audience to contact you.
The lifecycle of a paying client begins with lead generation and ends with competitive win/ loss. The stepping stone of their sales journey begins when manage and nurture them effectively. To be on the right track, you need the right tool. For you, that is Zoho CRM. Here’s how.
In case you are running a business that serves both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-customers) leads, then it is super-critical to manage them efficiently, Zoho CRM comes in as a handy tool. The software helps you create and manage both B2B and B2C leads from within the system.
When you log into Zoho CRM, you can view all the modules organized in an unkempt manner. You can select the ‘Lead’ module to check all the lead-specific details streamlined in each of the records. You can click on “Create a Lead” and fill up the information fields manually. The primary information fields include the following:
The only difference between a B2B and a B2C lead record is that the former needs company details (name, industry, contact tag, etc). For a B2C lead record, since company information is not applicable, you only need the contact person’s information. Once your lead is created, the system readily allows you to convert it further into a contact.
Besides creating lead records manually, Zoho CRM also helps you capture leads from different marketing sectors efficiently.
You invest a considerable number of dollars in developing a website that suits your brand style and differentiates you with your USP. It is the virtual storefront of your business. So it is obvious that your website visitors would like to inquire about your products/ services to evaluate if their requirements fit with what you offer. 68% of B2B businesses have strategic landing pages specifically for lead generation. Websites are even instrumental in improving your conversion rate. That is why you need to embed web forms that hold several information fields required to get a better idea about their needs and preferences. These online pages help your prospects enter personal data. So instead of you manually filling out their forms, you can allow user input via web forms.
Now when you integrate your website with Zoho CRM, you can seamlessly capture hundreds of leads with automation, in one go. The moment someone inquires, the system captures their information as a lead. You can click on the newly created lead to find all the captured data in respective information fields for accurate understanding.
Let’s pretend that your website is a virtual storefront and a live chat is a virtual sales rep, ready to help our prospects. Just like you would in a brick-and-mortar store.
A live chatbot as effective as Zoho SalesIQ adds a virtual touch when proactively interacting with inquiring prospects from your audience. It lets you track visitors in real-time, the pages they have browsed through before the interaction, chat with them and capture them as leads.
You can easily build this chatbot with canned responses. Banking on extensive research, you already know the commonly asked questions that your target audience can have. As per your knowledge, you can save these questions along with suitable response options for their selection.
In case you want to chat with them in person, you can click on the chat so that the system takes you to the widget. Here you can see all their information (browsing time, number of visits, locations, and so forth) so that you can optimize your website performance. Once they share their information, the CRM adds them as leads and embeds the chat transcripts in the attachment section, for easy access.
Social Media platforms, of course, exercise enormous power in audience engagement and lead generation. Zoho CRM helps you capture multiple leads from integrated platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Inside the ‘Social’ module, you can view a dedicated social tab from where you can configure your social pages. You can compose messages, post them on different social handles, and track customer engagement in one single place. Further, if you identify someone trying to engage with you by leaving a comment, you can assess and capture them as a lead. The system pre-populates their name and allows you to add their phone number, email address, or any other information that you might have.
Zoho CRM helps you capture leads from Zoho Mail, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and SalesInbox. In Zoho Mail, you can capture a lead by selecting their name. All you have to do is click on the ‘View on CRM’ information option and enter their details. If you are using the Chrome extension, you can import emails from Gmail so that details on their email signature are tagged together. For Microsoft Outlook, you can install a plugin to capture leads. The SalesInbox is an email client built into Zoho CRM that organizes your entire inbox for sales. Emails from new prospects get sorted in the CRM column to make them leads, just drag their emails into the contacts and leads column. You can set up SalesInbox with your existing email address if your email provider supports IMAP using any of these services you’ll be able to see a customer’s CRM details when you open up an email from them.
If you’re still working with spreadsheets, then there is a high chance that you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. To keep up with this fast-paced digital environment, you need to work smart. Zoho CRM extensively helps you with that.
Start by importing all your leads via XLS, XLSX, or CSV formats. The most crucial step of data importing is data preparation. Make sure you have a quality spreadsheet ready for importing. Since you are capturing leads via spreadsheet, you need to organize your columns according to your available data for accuracy. You can categorize your lead module, and name the column as per the information fields in the CRM (name, phone, email address, lead owner, and so on). If you want to share organization-wide data, you must specify the lead owner and their email address.
When you log into the CRM system and select the ‘lead’ module, you can see the ‘Import’ button on the top right of the screen. Click on the button ‘Import Leads’ and the system gives you the option to import your organization’s leads by choosing the right file. Once you do this, you can check the duplicate emails. The information mapping in this software is accurate. You can check all the data fields pre-populated as per your spreadsheet data. After review, check this importing task as ’Done’. All your imported leads appear on the screen. Viola!
Attracting new prospects is a hefty task. Every business faces such a challenge. However, attracting prospects and adding them as leads won’t meet your revenue goals. What you need is an all-encompassing tool to efficiently carry out your business operations. Right from capturing leads to winning opportunities. Zoho CRM does that for you. It extensively helps you capture multitudes of leads, streamline their information, and convert them – all done in a jiffy.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Schedule a free no-obligation 90-minute consultation with the industry experts right away!