Implementing lead generation applications can help businesses and their sales teams to create, nurture and close good deals. Here are six tips of what to look out for when selecting the best application for your business:
1. Evaluate your need
Before taking any free trials of the lead generation applications it is vitally important to assess your business’s precise needs. Your sales and marketing staff may have similar goals, but may need very different functionality within the lead generation application itself. Always try before you buy if this is possible to see first-hand how each platform on your shortlist performs.
2. Growth and expansion
As some lead generation applications are available in a number of versions that contain different feature sets, think about your enterprise’s sales and marketing cycles and how you want to improve these with the lead generation software. Low start-up costs may be attractive, but can quickly become a barrier to sales if your systems are quickly outgrown.
3. User interfaces
Sales and marketing staff may spend substantial amounts of time working within your lead generation systems. Canvas their needs and then look closely at how these are actually delivered via the applications’ user interface. Intuitive user interfaces are important to ensure the learning curve with the new application is as shallow as possible.
4. Maintenance and support
As with any new application you buy for your enterprise, the total cost of ownership should be clearly defined in your implementation planning. Lead generation systems may be hosted, but they may still require some maintenance and troubleshooting. Consult your contract to ensure you have these aspects covered by service level agreements.
5. Testing and evaluation
All lead generation applications may appear to have similar features, but it is how they handle your live data that should indicate which platform is right for your business. It is important to try and see the platforms on your shortlist working with actual data. Try and develop a test scenario that you can run through each system to give you a chance to analyse how each system performs. You can then make your buying decision based on real-world results.
6. Features and integration
As your business is unique you may have specific needs and requirements. Talk to each vendor about these features to ensure they are either available or can be built into the system before it goes live. The integration with your current CRM is a vital component to get right especially if your enterprise is not using Salesforce.com
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