Lead Management Software: Pull Your Way to Success
I was recently chatting with a friend from the auto industry and our conversation turned to the topic of lean production. During this discussion, I noted that icoSales has leveraged many of these concepts to increase our clients' sales production and process efficiency, much like lean manufacturing increases auto output.
Lean production, a methodology that was originally developed by Toyota, is based on the following framework:
- Maximizing production from raw materials (leads),
- Increasing throughput (sales velocity),
- Pull production based on demand (lead distribution), and
- Continuous improvement (lead analytics)
These principles become powerful when applied to lead management software, particularly one that implements a core principle--on-demand or pull system.
Lead management software that uses a pull methodology inherently makes a sales organization more efficient. Reacting to the demand, capacity, and performance of an agent before supplying the next lead minimizes lead spoilage and over buying. This mechanism directly affects sales conversion. Requiring immediate action and disposition to get another sales lead also significantly improves lead tracking and sales performance.
A lean pull system beats a wasteful, low production push system everytime.
Sales Tempo
The general belief that a push system more quickly gets a lead to the right person is false. The obvious fact is that if an organization is managing their lead to sales capacity properly the timeliness in getting to a lead should be equal.
Managing lead distribution based on performance and ensuring that leads do not drop into dead queues are the keys to success. Therefore, in selecting a pull-based lead management process is a commitment to increase your sales tempo.
Pushing leads to sales people creates an environment where agents expect leads to be given to them. This builds a sales process with less respect for the prospect and the importance of follow through.
In contrast, pull-based lead distribution creates an expectation that every lead is earned. Everyone gets leads by meeting the quickly responding to the previous leads and meeting that previous customer's needs. If you are looking to increase sales activity, a significant edge goes to the push methodology.
Time to Initial Contact
In assessing time to contact, you might concede that with high performance teams there should be no difference between a push or pull system. However, I have never seen a consistent top to bottom high performance team. And, in push-based lead allocation, there is still the opportunity for the dreaded abandoned queue.
Inherently, the push system allocates each lead to a user on the system. However, is that user ready to work a lead. This is a dangerous assumption for a lead management system. Is the agent online? Or, are they on vacation? Maybe, they don't even work at the company anymore?
In a push system, you had better be very active in managing your user accounts. Otherwise, you may allocate valuable leads into "dead" queues and once allocated they nearly impossible to track--a very expensive mistake.
As you scale your sales team to hundreds or even thousands managing user can become impossible. You are battling the combined effects of size, scheduling, and typical a high turn over rate. This turns push lead distribution into a direct hit to marketing ROI. This approach to lead management routinely leads to gut-wrenching discoveries of hundreds of leads in "dead" queues--thousands of dollars lost and hundreds of disappointed customers.
Lead Nurturing
Pipeline management, the nurturing and cultivating of leads, is one of the most critical components of the conversion equation and the area where push and pull dramatically differ.
In the push system, leads are distributed to call queues. Then it is entirely up to the sales person to effectively manage their sales process. In the push paradigm you hope, you pray, the sales person calls the lead even once much less the 5-7 times it may take to close that prospect.
In contrast, a pull system continually forces pipeline leads back to the sales agent until a final disposition is reached--compelling the necessary calls. Add to this the power of intelligent lead selection engine to allocate the next best lead and you have a guaranteed conversion lift.
Sales Process
One final critical advantage to a pull lead software is the increase to sales velocity and lead conversion rates derived from a consistent and disciplined sales process. The difference between the two methodologies is about enforcing tempo.
The push approach puts a lead in a sales queue and hopes the sales person does something that closes a deal (note the lack of accountability). In contrast, the pull system compels the sales person to annotate and disposition every lead in order to "earn" the next lead. This creates a consistent sales process and instant feedback to sales team leaders and marketers.
Push v. Pull
So fundamentally, the push versus pull debate is one of increasing sales velocity and performance-based lead distribution. The pull method will always produce more sales and higher conversions. It will always achieve an accelerated sales tempo. Pulling leads on demand inherently enforces this behavior in organizations committed to high performance sales teams.
Obviously, pull-based lead management software has significant advantages in maximizing lead resources and sales production. If you want a push system, use your email inbox. If you want to improve your marketing ROI and increase your sales production then get a pull-based lead management software.