The sales department receives leads
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 3:43 am
pass it back to Marketing. The question is simple but critical: Is the prospect ready to enter the buying cycle? If they are not ready to sell, they are moved to the Recycled stage.
Reusing leads
Recycling does not mean that the lead has reached the “end of the road” – instead, it is in another holding stage, much like “Names.” When leads enter the recycle stage, their score is reduced – either to zero or to a relatively lower value determined by how high a score they had achieved before being sent to recycle. Your lead scoring rules now kick in again. Once a recycled lead has achieved a high enough score again, it will be passed to sales for requalification.
Now you can see the many roles that lead scoring plays throughout your revenue cycle.
The red words “Lead Scoring” mark the stages of the sales cycle where lead scoring plays a key role.The red words “Lead Scoring” mark the stages of the sales cycle where lead scoring plays a key role.
Establishing Lead Service Level Agreements
Now that you've mapped out your revenue cycle and have a qatar phone number data good idea of how to implement your scoring rules, it's time to determine how you'll follow up with your sales reps on newly ranked and prioritized leads.
The best way to ensure rapid follow-up of sales is to reach consensus between sales and marketing on a reasonable Service Level Agreement (SLA) up front. An SLA sets a time limit for completing a task and will be different for each company. Companies with large call centers may have an SLA measured in minutes, but other businesses may find two weeks to be a reasonable service period. This may take a little extra time, but the marketing incentives should be aligned with sales managers: fast follow-up of leads translates into more deals in the sales funnel.
It’s not uncommon to have two or more agreements per lead: the first SLA focuses on “touching” the prospect via phone call, email, or face-to-face meeting, and the second SLA is considered when the lead is about to become a legitimate or “refined” opportunity. If your qualification process has multiple stages, you may want to set SLAs for each stage to ensure the flow is accurate.
Fulfilment of lead service level agreements
What happens if your agreed-upon SLAs are not met? You need a plan to ensure the successful implementation of the new process. One common tactic is to increase visibility into leads that have missed their SLAs. Use missed SLA emails to notify reps and sales managers that a particular “hot” lead is currently “going cold.” This is a great way to keep salespeople who are traveling or who rarely log into the company’s CRM system on the uptake.
Prevention is better than cure. Send a notification to the lead owner when the SLA is in danger of being missed. If the SLA is missed, a follow-up warning email can be sent to the sales rep and their manager. If the agreement is still not met, many companies issue a third notification to senior managers and executives.
Reusing leads
Recycling does not mean that the lead has reached the “end of the road” – instead, it is in another holding stage, much like “Names.” When leads enter the recycle stage, their score is reduced – either to zero or to a relatively lower value determined by how high a score they had achieved before being sent to recycle. Your lead scoring rules now kick in again. Once a recycled lead has achieved a high enough score again, it will be passed to sales for requalification.
Now you can see the many roles that lead scoring plays throughout your revenue cycle.
The red words “Lead Scoring” mark the stages of the sales cycle where lead scoring plays a key role.The red words “Lead Scoring” mark the stages of the sales cycle where lead scoring plays a key role.
Establishing Lead Service Level Agreements
Now that you've mapped out your revenue cycle and have a qatar phone number data good idea of how to implement your scoring rules, it's time to determine how you'll follow up with your sales reps on newly ranked and prioritized leads.
The best way to ensure rapid follow-up of sales is to reach consensus between sales and marketing on a reasonable Service Level Agreement (SLA) up front. An SLA sets a time limit for completing a task and will be different for each company. Companies with large call centers may have an SLA measured in minutes, but other businesses may find two weeks to be a reasonable service period. This may take a little extra time, but the marketing incentives should be aligned with sales managers: fast follow-up of leads translates into more deals in the sales funnel.
It’s not uncommon to have two or more agreements per lead: the first SLA focuses on “touching” the prospect via phone call, email, or face-to-face meeting, and the second SLA is considered when the lead is about to become a legitimate or “refined” opportunity. If your qualification process has multiple stages, you may want to set SLAs for each stage to ensure the flow is accurate.
Fulfilment of lead service level agreements
What happens if your agreed-upon SLAs are not met? You need a plan to ensure the successful implementation of the new process. One common tactic is to increase visibility into leads that have missed their SLAs. Use missed SLA emails to notify reps and sales managers that a particular “hot” lead is currently “going cold.” This is a great way to keep salespeople who are traveling or who rarely log into the company’s CRM system on the uptake.
Prevention is better than cure. Send a notification to the lead owner when the SLA is in danger of being missed. If the SLA is missed, a follow-up warning email can be sent to the sales rep and their manager. If the agreement is still not met, many companies issue a third notification to senior managers and executives.