Don't Waste Your Good Leads: Use Your Data Intelligently

Can you get too much data? The short answer is "yes"! The long answer is "no, but..." It's all about knowing whether to keep or toss your data concerning your leads. And when to use it to your advantage.

Create a funnel, track the behavior of your leads, and give them a lead score. By doing that, you know when they're ready to be sold to.

Does that make selling easier? Probably. But does it create more efficient sales? Perhaps not. It just means that you're working with relevant leads instead of cold leads.

In my job, I experience many companies that create a good sales funnel and invest a great deal in marketing, only to treat their leads to a minimal extent.

If they say “no” the first time, they’re not considered hot leads anymore and are dumped in the trash. In best-case scenario, they re-enter the marketing campaign to start all over.

To put it another way: The process is data-driven – but not in the last and probably the most critical part of the sales process.

I can only contradict this way of working because you risk throwing pure gold out the window. And the sales process does NOT become more efficient if you spend an endless amount of money on leads to treat them with a “there will come some more tomorrow”-attitude.

I want to emphasize that a sales funnel structure with cross-channel marketing and tracking of activity based on a lead scoring system is a stroke of genius. We do it ourselves at Adversus, where I’m speaking with potential clients daily.

It’s an essential part of our job when we want to get in touch with relevant customers, especially when we want to avoid disturbing people who can’t benefit from our product.

Remember that lukewarm leads often can be just as beneficial in the long run if you know how to handle them.

Obviously, many companies are skilled at making data-driven sales, who, as a matter of fact, manage their craft through the whole sales process.

But to speak the truth: It’s far from all companies that master the art of utilizing the full potential of the data that’s available. A classic mistake is to forget your data because there’s no follow-up.

The reality is that most companies have an extreme amount of data on their customers, but at the end of the day, they bite the bullet. Or they have forgotten that you still can make excellent apple juice with the apples that aren’t spotless.

Get the Most Out of Your Lead Pool

You’re experiencing that your conversion rate has risen. But has it risen enough?

The most common answer is “no”, if you look at the price per converted lead and the fact that your market, at some point, will be emptied for new leads. This means that you need to get creative to get new leads. This is the point where you should start considering if there’s a bigger potential in the leads you already spent money on. 

There’s a big chance you can get more out of them if you stop for a second and think. They need another approach rather than “buy and throw out”.

You’re probably thinking, “So? I already know that. Don’t waste my time.” But the fact that you already know doesn’t mean that you’re not having trouble handling your hot leads correctly.

If you work with data professionally, you also know that there’s always room for improvement. If we, for a second, don’t take the legal aspects of handling data into account, the big question is:

"How do you know that you aren’t calling leads with a blindfold on, but that you actually get the most out of your lead pool by using the data at your disposal?"

So… How do you take it a step further, so a data-driven sale isn’t just data-driven, to begin with, but actually from soup to nuts?

There are three words you have to remember. Planning. Planning. And more planning.

1. Activate Your Leads

It’s a classic mistake to use many resources to generate leads and then forget to activate them.

The sooner you can activate your leads, the better – it’s a shame to waste them. Some companies only upload their leads on a daily or weekly basis. Make sure your leads are added to an automatic flow right away.

Consider if you can segment your lead data into different flows, so it’s not just based on their lead score but also from different interactions with the lead. By analyzing your data, you can figure out which type of interactions create the best leads.

2. Find the Right Timing

I’m sure we can all agree that hot leads are the ones we want. All other things being equal, they’re easier to handle rather than cold leads. We also want to keep them hot or have the possibility to turn a cold lead into a hot lead again.

What’s essential here is timing. Take a look at how you perform at different times of the day and use your resources when it makes sense. It also applies when planning a callback.

The simplest approach is to find out when most calls are answered, when the sales are at their high, and which sales turn into satisfied customers that don’t churn.

Maybe you perform well at certain times of the day or week, but if the customers leave straight away, it could indicate that you need to change your strategy. Be aware that customers leaving aren’t solely based on timing but could also be triggered by other things. Maybe the salespeople aren’t able to communicate the product clearly enough.

Analyze if you’re saying the right things in your sales calls with call tracking tools, like Adversus and Capturi. By listening to your sales calls at every stage, you can find the recipe for what to say and how to say it.

3. Follow-up

Are you doing follow-ups? It takes more than one call to create the dialogue. But do you manage to follow up after the first call even though you miss each other the first three, four, or maybe five times you try to reach the lead? Or are you drawn towards the new, hot leads?

The leads you miss the first couple of times tend to be forgotten if you don’t systematically set up reminders or tasks.

It helps to have a tool that reminds you of a callback – or add them to new campaigns that automatically start when it’s time to call the lead again. E.g., if a lead is hard to reach during working hours. It will make sense to move the lead into a campaign with “Calls after 5 pm.”

4. Match Your Leads With the Right Salespeople

You can come a long way by segmenting your leads and assign them to the correct salespeople.

Try to spot tendencies. Some salespeople are better at one specific type of sale. By following your agents’ performance and actively using data from their calls, you can spot these tendencies that would help to optimize your success rate in the long run.

If you’re working with B2B, consider splitting your sales process into multiple steps based on which skills your agents have. The agents who are good at calling cold canvas could, for example, turn cold leads into warm or hot leads again, and then you could get great salespeople to close the deal.

If you let your agents do what they're best at, they're more motivated and more successful.

5. Enrich Your Leads and Add Them to a Loop

Enrich your leads with data dynamically so you know when to reach out to them again.
Make sure to set up an automatic process where you use triggers that automatically activates your leads when they’re ready to be sold. By doing this, you avoid doing it manually and avoid that a lead is forgotten.

An enrichment could be different tags on the lead, for example, why this exact lead wasn’t interested the first time around.

Maybe the product was too expensive. In that case, it would be preferable to contact the lead again if the product at some time is at a discount price.

Another strategic approach could be to contact the lead again in a month and offer a “light version” of the product to activate the lead and open up the possibility to upscale down the road.

There’s no doubt – the right tools could make your work easier and make sure that you use your data with good sense.

But remember,  even though you bought the best apple picker on the market, it doesn’t necessarily make you the best fruit manufacturer. It takes knowledge, patience, and a good understanding of what you’re dealing with.

 

Some last pieces of advice  Data isn’t the goal; it’s the tool. Look closely at what data is necessary and relevant to improve your sales. The rule of thumb is that you only should enrich your leads with necessary data. Ergo, if you don’t use your data actively, it should be deleted. So, make sure to use them to your advantage! Don’t do it all at once. Choose one or two areas and focus on setting up their flow. Test your strategies and adjust on the move when you can spot tendencies. Use tools that automate your processes. By doing this, you’re not just saving a hell of a lot of time (pardon my French) with multiple Excel sheets and manual work, but you’re also eliminating the mistakes often made by humans.

 

---

Read more about what opportunities you have to get more impactful insights. 🚀