Lead management is a process of techniques and strategies to attract prospects, qualify, nurture, and convert them into customers. This process is critical for marketing and sales teams, as companies can lose up to 70% of their leads due to inadequate follow-up [1].
It is more than essential to use tools for lead and sales opportunity management automation. Fortunately, we are experiencing a technological revolution with Artificial Intelligence that can provide an ideal ecosystem for sustainable growth and long-term profitability.
Below, we will explain two very interesting cases where we can combine AI and lead management, resulting in the optimization of key strategies and indicators and an increase in sales.
Traditional lead prequalification vs. prequalification with Generative AI
The definition of lead qualification or lead scoring is the process of evaluating and determining the probability that a prospect can become a customer based on criteria established by a company.
However, the problem with most lead scoring methods (such as the BANT methodology) is that they are used after the potential customer has already been handed over to the sales team, which is contrary to the main goal, as they will likely focus their efforts and resources on unqualified leads or those with a low probability of conversion. Qualifying leads before they enter the sales process is ideal.
Traditionally, this can be achieved by evaluating leads when they submit a form, in a first contact call, or with a simple lead capture bot. By doing so, you can ensure that only leads that meet the correct criteria are sent. For leads that do not currently meet all the criteria, you can nurture them until they are ready. And for those who are not qualified, you can disqualify them before investing resources in them.
This process can be taken further with Generative AI: with the help of an Artificial Intelligence-powered bot, leads can engage in intuitive and natural language conversations. Thanks to Machine Learning, bots can ask as basic or complex questions as required, relevant and based on the context that the potential client provides and in the end they will be able to determine the real needs and pains of the lead.
The use of AI in lead qualification not only increases sales team productivity, but also identifies opportunities for immediate follow-up, leading to faster sales cycles and revenue growth. For example, you could schedule an appointment or demonstration on the spot or transfer it to a sales representative depending on the answers the lead has provided.
Learn more about IA here Access Now
Learn more about IA here
Access Now
Combining AI and lead management for lead nurturing personalization
Once the lead has been qualified, it’s time to guide them through the funnel and convert them into a customer. The traditional method of lead nurturing involves manual or semi-automated processes such as sending emails, making follow-up calls, or having in-person meetings. The problem with this approach is that it is often generic and not scalable.
For example, email campaigns created by human teams are usually generated en masse, more focused on business objectives than on the customer, and they do not resonate with the needs of all leads. Cold calls are intrusive and unwanted, creating a poor experience, or contacting both qualified and unqualified leads equally. In-person meetings can be valuable but consume many resources and limit scalability in managing multiple leads simultaneously.
AI technology provides a solution to these issues. Intelligent algorithms have the ability to analyze large amounts of data, such as lead behaviors and preferences, allowing companies to generate targeted and personalized actions and interactions that truly connect with the lead.
A great example of this is the layer of personalization that Generative AI can offer for content creation. A bot can analyze data such as interactions with specific product ads, website activity like abandoned carts, inventory and product alternatives, or demographic data, and use regionalisms and different languages. This way, emails, chats, SMS messages, or WhatsApp messages are more likely to capture the lead’s attention and lead to conversion.
While combining AI and lead management solves many challenges for the marketing team, it is essential to have a technological partner that can offer expertise in the field and provide an easy-to-use and implement tool. InConcert’s bot can seamlessly integrate into a lead pre-qualifier or an automated lead nurturing system, providing multiple benefits such as an increase in conversion rates, cleaner and more useful automatic qualification, improvement of indicators like CPL and CPA, fewer missed opportunities, and much more.
