Lead Management And Sales Force Automation Two Sides Of A Coin
sales force automation system is being considered now as one of the most effective
tools of business development as well as a supportive process for improvement and efficient handling of Customer relation management [CRM]. The input of sales force automation system is now largely depends on lead tracking, lead distribution, and lead nurturing process and in this context we can safely conclude that effective lead management is great solution for professional and result oriented customer relation management process.Lets have a look how these two apparently two process can complement each other.
Lead Tracking and lead nurturing are two integral processes of lead management. These two processes are implemented after a sales lead is generated. Lead tracking system tracks down a lead and speculate the conversion chance of the same into sales prospects. Alternatively, lead nurturing process takes care of the leads as after sales service and builds a long term relation with the existing customer with the service providing system or with the new product range. The management process which initiates planning for building a long term relationship between the consumers with the concerned business unit is termed as Customer relation management or CRM; professional and efficient lead nurturing process contributes by all means in implementing efficient CRM solution for a business unit.
Nowadays many business units use CRM tools as an effective resource for sales force automation because successful ongoing relationship with customer base generates referral leads and further expansion of business. For example, in insurance providing companies, once an insurance lead turns into a prospect it generates one-time revenue for the said company. While lead tracking system will close the lead, lead nurturing system takes care of the existing customer to make a sustaining relation between the customers and concerned insurance company so that in the long run out of this initiative referral leads and further sales can be generated. In this way the CRM process converts an existing customer into further prospect as well as active resource for generating new sales prospects. Thus making a perfect circle of business development plan CRM also contributes in successful lead management because lead generation is one of the pivotal steps of lead management system.
In reality very often it is observed that sales and marketing plans of a company cannot work together thus cannot generate desired output, although these two plans being entirely different from each other are perfect balancing factors for successful business development. Sales force automation process makes a perfect combination of this two powerful due and extract best result out of the whole process. While lead managements takes care of leads, sales management concentrate on sales, and CRM maintains the floe of leads which inn three way enhances the growth potential of a business.
Sales force automation is not a single concept; it is combined process of generating sales and promoting the brand image of the concerned business unit. The process works on a fixed motivation and the impetus behind this motivation is to captivate largest market share in its own category. If sales force automation drives one aspect of business growth, Lead management supports sales and customer care process which again merges with CRM domain, and contributes forming the other side of the coin name business growth and development.
by: Anne Pastor Cissel