Lead Management through Salesforce Sales Cloud

Most businesses rely on converting leads into customers as part of their sales process. This makes lead management a crucial part of the business strategy, and when done properly it can be a great driver for sales. Many businesses struggle with managing their leads, which led Salesforce to create the Salesforce Sales Cloud solution to fit the specific processes whether the goal is to pursue big deals or high-quantity-low-margin sales.

The Sales Cloud platform comes with numerous built-in features and tools for your business to successfully convert leads into sales. In this article we will go through a selection of important functions and showcase how they can bring value to your business.

Salesforce Sales Cloud lead management is fed with leads through different methods, such as for example:

• Integration with marketing automation tools
• Form submissions
• Importing lists generated at offline and online events
• Manual lead creation

An important aspect of lead management is to make sure that the marketing department’s efforts in generating leads are not wasted by feeding leads into a system where nobody is taking the actions to pursue the leads.

To avoid such a situation processes and responsibilities need to be clarified. When leads are generated in Salesfroce Sales Cloud rules can be set up to assign them to certain sales reps depending on different criteria.

Leads can also be assigned to queues that several sales reps have access to. Business rules can be configured to notify sales reps or managers when a lead has been assigned or has been idle for too long. Individual sales reps can track their performance and similarly the sales team leaders are able to keep track of their team’s performance, while managers can get an overview of the entire sales organisation.

Some businesses may experience periods where more leads are added to the system than they can effectively pursue. In this case, the built-in Salesforce AI called Einstein can help. What is Einstein in Salesforce? Einstein is an AI tool that can score leads to help sales reps prioritise which leads to pursue. The AI runs complex algorithms that use billions of data points to predict which leads are most likely to be converted and even which steps sales reps should consider for their next action to make the sale.

Sales Cloud offers a dynamic and interactive ‘record page’ for each lead, from where sales reps can get a complete overview of all the information available on the lead and see which activities have been conducted, such as for example calls, emails and meetings. From the record page sales reps also have access to a visual path that shows how far the lead is in the defined conversion process and which actions should be taken at each step of the process. Sales teams can collaborate on leads by tagging each other in a chat feed or assigning tasks to each other.

This article only scratches the surface of the features of lead management in Salesforce Sales Cloud. So, to summarise, the solution comes with numerous built-in collaboration tools, processes, enforcement rules and AI and reporting functionalities to ensure that businesses follow up on – if not all – then at least the most prominent leads. 

At KPMG, we offer our Salesforce consulting services to analyse, assess and improve your lead management processes. With the help of our expert Salesforce implementation team, we configure your Sales Cloud to support those exact processes to help your business convert leads, drive sales and increase profits.

Please feel free to download the report that elaborates how the unique features of Salesforce Sales Cloud can add value to your digital landscape. You are also encouraged to reach out to our specialists to further discuss the possibilities for your business.