What Are Lead Indicators?
As technology advances, we are able to evolve and refine the sales process more and more and our sales tools are able to become more sophisticated. Online web traffic has obviously became a more prominent marketing avenue and leads are increasingly converting on our websites. So, it makes sense to segment this online lead flow using lead indicators, but what are lead indicators? Lead indicators are automatic triggers that switch the status of a lead in the CRM, based on their interaction with various parts of your website.
Why Use Lead Indicators?
Lead indicators can be convenient for alerting the sales team that a lead just viewed or downloaded something that shows interest in purchasing your products or services. Imagine for a minute that a lead has been downloading eBooks about what your services can do for a couple of months. However, just now they viewed your pricing page on your website. Now you have intelligence that shows they may have switched into buying mode and are starting to do their homework prior to making a purchasing decision.
When Does Sales Get Involved
Using lead indicators, you can switch the lead’s status from a regular lead to a “sales qualified lead” in the CRM. Once this happens, you can also trigger a notification to be sent to the sales team telling them to give a call to that lead. Sales can then contact the lead and begin the sales process. If the prospect was merely browsing, then the lead can be set back to regular lead status. If not, then sales has the opportunity to talk to the lead while the purchasing is fresh in their mind.
It is important to note that sales can be involved earlier as well. Sales can make the initial call after the lead converts on the website, but don’t be too pushy. Just let them know that you are there if they have any questions and send them an email with your contact information for future reference. It is important to be there, but not be too pushy.
Which Software?
Obviously, there has to be a software package that is suited to handle this type of marketing automation. While there are a couple of different options out there, I highly recommend using HubSpot. Their software is easy to use and it is very comprehensive, as it utilizes social automation, email marketing, blogging platform, SEO research tools, and visitor tracking & interaction.
If a lead responds to a Facebook ad and then converts on your website a month later, you can see every interaction that the lead had with your company between now and the initial contact. Because this tracking spans social media, blogging, etc., you have a better ability to track ROI.
If you are interested in learning more about marketing automation & inbound marketing, I have written a series of blog posts that go over the topic in more detail. You can find these posts on this overview page: https://blue-phoenix.net/sales-tools-inbound-overview/
