Imagine that you have a very famous fast-food shop in your town. Every day, people line up and place their orders.
However, there’s a problem — you don’t have enough employees to take different orders simultaneously, and different people want to order different things.
The same thing happens in business, where incoming leads have different requirements or interests that need to be fulfilled by an appropriate salesperson.
For that, you need a system. A system that can direct incoming leads to the most appropriate salesperson available.
This system is called lead routing. You can use lead routing with your overall lead management strategy, and businesses of all types and sizes can use it.
If you have never used lead routing in your business and are thinking about it, we will tell you six compelling reasons for your company to allocate resources towards lead routing.
You get the maximum efficiency in your sales process.
The modern sales approach differs from the old one, where all they cared about was “pick up the phone and start dialing.”
Now, the salespeople need to go through a long process where they first see the past interaction of the lead with the company, their needs, interests, and expectations from the company, and then customize their conversation accordingly.
In this entire process, efficiency matters the most. If your business processes are inefficient, they are costing you time and resources, which can be used to boost the conversion rates further.
Consider lead routing a well-oiled machine that assures your sales and marketing efforts do not get wasted.
Once you implement lead routing in your system and define the rules, all the incoming leads will be directed to the right people or teams based on your defined criteria, such as location, product interest, or lead sources.
Crazy fast response time
No matter how big your organization is or how famous your products or services are, the fact is — people don’t want to wait.
So, don’t make them wait.
As a business, you have to answer any query as fast as possible. Otherwise, the customer will go to your competitors.
We do not doubt that if you do not respond to your lead within 60 minutes, you lose the chances of converting that lead by seven times.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. What will you think about that company if you raise a query with a company and get a reply within minutes?
Surely it will make a good impression on you.
On the flip side, you are waiting for days to just get a reply from the company. Will you continue business with that company? You get the answer.
Lead routing will distribute the incoming lead to your salespeople as soon as it enters the system, and your sales reps will get a notification via text message or email when the lead is assigned to them.
Say goodbye to generic responses.
Gone are the days when companies sent a single generic email to thousands of their customers. Your customers already receive hundreds of generic messages daily; if you do the same, it won’t make any difference.
This is the age of personalization. You need to speak directly to them and address their specific needs and interests.
With the help of lead routing, your sales team can personalize the communication with the customers.
Let’s say there is a repeat customer who wants to upgrade his subscription package from standard to premium. You can automatically assign this lead to the salesperson specializing in that offering.
When a customer feels that the salesman knows what he is talking about, they respect your brand more.
Better nurturing of leads
A lead inquiring about your product does not mean it is your immediate customer. Maybe they’re just getting more information to compare it with your competitors.
These types of leads need nurturing and education before they are ready to convert.
You can leverage lead routing to segment your leads and send them relevant content and information at the right time.
As routing leads to different teams and workflows, you can ensure that those ready receive immediate attention. In contrast, others who need more nurturing receive informative content and updates to keep them engaged until they are ready to make a decision.
Make your sales team more accountable.
Apart from motivation, your sales team also needs accountability.
Without it, tracking performance, setting goals, and measuring progress will be challenging.
Lead routing software not only helps in assigning the leads but also in tracking their progress through the sales funnel.
When a lead is assigned to a specific individual or team, it is easier to determine who is responsible for nurturing and converting those leads.
This accountability also allows you to find the areas where your sales team is lacking. With that information, you can provide additional training or resources to improve your sales team.
Scalability
Every business desires to grow and work continuously towards that goal.
As the business grows, the volume of leads also increases, and managing them manually becomes next to impossible.
Without an efficient lead routing system, businesses can’t respond to these leads on time and lose them.
Lead routing is a scalable solution that can adapt to your changing business needs.
Whether you’re a small startup or a multinational corporation, lead routing can be customized to fit your organization’s size and structure.
This scalability allows your business to continue growing without sacrificing the quality of your lead management.
Summary
If you think lead routing is just a fancy term, it’s not.
Lead routing is an integral part of a very successful lead management system.
It’s a game changer for businesses looking to thrive in a fiercely competitive market.
Lead routing has many benefits, such as maximizing efficiency, personalizing engagement, improving accountability, faster response time, better nurturing, etc.
If you are not already utilizing this amazing technology in your organization, it’s time to allocate resources toward implementing this robust system in your company.