All sales transactions start with leads. A more efficient lead generation process will result in higher quality leads, which in turn will translate into greater sales. This article will show you how to manage your lead lifecycle effectively in your company.

What’s a Lead Lifecycle?

A lead Lifecycle is simply a set of actions that you and your leads take to affect the growth of their relationship.

It has three phases: activation, acquisition, and nurturing. This simple concept has allowed marketers to grow their businesses by understanding the process between sending an email to marketing automation software, and when it leads to a client decision (and possibly a sale).

How to Define the Lead Lifecycle Stages

To get the most value out of a lead generation campaign you need to be willing to put in time and effort to improve customer relations management. What should you do if a lead is generated outside of your marketing efforts? What are the opportunities available at each stage in their life cycle?

These questions can be answered by B2B companies that track leads at various stages. They use software to make it easy to assign actions.

Lifecycle Stages

Five stages make up the prospect’s lifecycle. Each stage serves a purpose and helps business owners monitor their leads’ progress.

1st phase –

The Lead Screening Stage is the first phase. It includes several steps that will allow you to identify your prospects and eliminate those who aren’t suitable for your product.

It’s also possible to learn about their skills so it’s easier for you to target them with your products or services.

2nd phase –

Profile Building – Prospect Research is the second phase. This Phase is about trying to understand where you are in the leadership development process. It also includes who they are and their needs.

3rd phase –

The third phase is the Qualification Phase – Working with your prospects. This is when you have decided that these prospects may be the right fit for your service or business.

Reaching out to high-value clients is a way to reach them now. This involves talking to them about their needs and confirming that it is a good idea to engage with them.

4th phase –

The Bait Phase – Attraction & Qualification (AQ) is the next phase. These are the steps that help you to convert prospects into clients and move further along your lead lifecycle.

Natural techniques include viral marketing campaigns such as Facebook ads or using an email program called Acuity Scheduling which tracks click-through rates for emails sent to cold contacts. It does not have a reason to expect them to engage with your messages.

You should make your goals clear and then plan the various strategies to help you reach them. Perhaps some people respond well to certain messages or emotional triggers. This could be based on past interactions with your brand and whether they are interested in what you have to offer.

5th phase –

The final phase is to get those prospects into a formal sale process. This is usually done by creating a sales page/page for them to confirm their interest in the next step.

It is as easy as having someone from your staff contact them. They will work out the best time for you and your prospect.

How to deal with leads that don’t fit the mold

Remember that leads that aren’t relevant to your sales process will likely be engaged with the company right now. These contacts are not worth changing in their lifecycle. Instead, they should be prioritized for retargeting or other marketing activities.

Why is the Lead Lifecycle Important?

It’s possible to spend a lot of time studying your competitors but it’s not possible to understand who they are without knowing what their lead lifecycle looked like.

You will also notice that you use the same marketing and selling strategies as your competition. If it worked for them, it will likely work for you.

It’s not a good idea to change things early in the process, such as approaching customers incorrectly or selling obsolete products. This will make it more difficult later. If your website or marketing strategy isn’t working, it is crucial to map out where your leads are located – what they do, when and why, how you speak to them, and what their jobs are.

This lifecycle map will ensure that leads close in on their sales cycle and don’t get sold too soon.

You now know the lifecycle stages, but how do you use them?

Consider where your leads are at the moment in their lifecycle. Next, create a plan using these lifecycle stages to move your leads through different customer journeys.

Even if it’s not something you are doing right now, it’s worth thinking about what this could mean for your business goals. This will allow you to be one step ahead of companies whose sales cycles are too short or too long to accommodate these changes over the life of their company.

Marketing efficiency can be improved by using lifecycle stages. This automates certain tasks and allows everyone involved to target marketing efforts more specific to their business goals and needs.

These can be used to map out leads and prioritize who should be followed up with.

Return-acquired customers that have been disengaged completely can be reorganized in advanced lifecycle stages to allow managers like yourself (or another member of your team) to get off the roads and set up a system that allows each contact to be tracked in its spot.

You can use behavior-driven marketing to understand your customers and their buying habits. This will help you differentiate between products or services that are more secure, regardless of whether they are cheaper or better.

Conclusion

You will use the lead lifecycle to convert prospects into customers. Your leads could be people interested in your product or services if you work in a B2B sector.

There are many ways to nurture and create them, so they can become customers.

This is it for now. We’ll see you again with a new topic.