More than sixty percent (61%) of marketers consider lead generation a challenging task. Having the right tools (like a CRM system) can make the job easier.
Marketing automation can drive a whopping 451% more leads, and sales CRM is at the forefront of bringing automation to sales. For this reason, businesses are increasingly adopting CRM technology.
The global CRM market size was valued at $58.82 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a significant compound annual growth rate CAGR of 13.9% from 2023 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.
What is Lead Generation (and how does it differ from sales prospecting)?
Lead generation and sales prospecting are two different stages of the sales process.
Lead generation is identifying and attracting potential leads. This involves interacting with leads and informing them about the benefits of a product or service through marketing and advertising efforts and then gathering the contact information like email and phone numbers of those who express interest. Lead generation aims to fill the sales pipeline with potential customers who know about the product, are interested in it, and can be nurtured into customers.
Sales prospecting is a more targeted approach to identifying potential customers. This process involves identifying companies or individuals most likely to be interested in a business’s products or services. And then reaching out to them directly through channels like phone and email to build a relationship. The goal of sales prospecting is to identify and engage with prospects (people qualified by salespeople as potential customers) with a high propensity to buy and make targeted sales efforts to convert them into customers.
| Sales Prospecting | Lead Generation |
| It is mostly led by sales team | It is a collective effort by the marketing and advertising team |
| People are qualified as “potential customers” | People here express interest |
| Process of finding customers | Process on finding leads |
| Manual efforts are required | It is mostly automated |
Both lead generation and sales prospecting are important stages of the sales process. They are essential to build a robust sales pipeline.
How Can a Sales CRM Play a Role in Sales Prospecting?
Sales CRM can play a role in sales prospecting by offering lead management, lead scoring, and automation. It enables sales teams to identify and qualify leads efficiently and effectively. Also, it can offer valuable insights into a lead’s behavior and engagement, helping sales teams to personalize their outreach efforts.
What Lead Generation Challenges can Sales CRM Help Tackle?
Without sales CRM businesses might not be able to efficiently carry out the following tasks:
Identifying potential customers: By analyzing data from sources like website visits, social media interactions, and email marketing campaigns, sales CRM can help identify potential customers.
Prioritizing leads: CRM software can help prioritize leads based on their propensity to purchase and thus offer insights into which leads should be sought first.
Tracking lead activity: CRM software tracks lead activities like the websites they visit and the emails they open. These insights can help spot the most interested leads and the messages attracting leads the most.
Following up with leads: CRM tracks all prospect activity as they move through the sales funnel. It reminds agents of the right time to follow up with specific prospects – thereby efficiently, moving them further down the sales funnel.
Personalized outreach: As mentioned earlier sales CRM systems track a lead’s interactions with websites, social media, and other marketing channels. By analyzing this data, businesses can gain insights into the lead’s level of interest and behavior towards the product. This information can be leveraged to create hyper-personalized messages. CRM software can automatically send these messages at the right time and the right channels to increase conversion rates.
What are the Other Benefits of Sales CRM?
Apart from better lead generation and boosted conversion rates, here is what sales CRM can do for your business:
Streamlines operations: CRM software enables organizations to streamline operations by offering a unified dedicated platform for managing customer data, sales, marketing, and customer support. This can help reduce manual tasks of the support staff and improve efficiency, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.
Improves efficiency: With sales CRM, agents will not need to spend time emailing, calling, and meetings with prospects. As the software automates a host of tasks to improve the efficiency of the sales team.
More accurately identifies opportunities for cross-selling and upselling: By analyzing customer data and using ML-based recommendation engines, CRM software can help businesses identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities. This can help businesses boost revenue and build stronger relationships with their customers.
Integrates with other platforms to generate leads from, such as social media, email, call center, e-commerce site, etc.: CRM software easily integrates with social media, email, call center, and e-commerce for lead generation purposes and to manage customer interactions all from one place. This enables businesses to get a more holistic view of customers and be able to offer a better customer experience.
Automate forecasting for your sales performance: CRM reports help pull in key metrics like monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and year-over-year (YOY) growth which are essential for sales leaders to identify trends and develop performance-related forecasts.
Moreover, sales CRMs allow reps and sales managers to see which activities and sources generate the most leads. This data helps team leaders create sales projections for upcoming months and adjust the pipeline as necessary.
How can the Metrics from a CRM System Influence Future Sales and Marketing Campaigns?
One of the most significant benefits of sales CRM is advanced analytics. These tools effectively help you understand your leads better and measure the results of your marketing campaigns. Leveraging AI and ML technologies along with data mining techniques, you can figure out what your leads want and then offer them the relevant information in real time.
Moreover, reporting tools and customized dashboards built into your CRM facilitates analysis of your sales and marketing efforts. For example, they can help tell which campaigns and activities most profitable and why certain reps and agents are are closing more deals.
