Do you have too many leads sitting on your table or in an infinitely long excel sheet?
Are they staring back at you as you rack your brain on how to hit them up before they go cold?
We aren’t going to lie — you’ve got a serious problem on your hands, especially if you consider two sales stats:
No wonder they say literally, “get it while it's hot.”
But don’t panic just yet; there’s a solution to your problems, and it’s perfectly within reach (and budget) for 99% of salespeople.
It’s called a lead information system.
Not surprised? Well, what else were we going to say? A genie in a bottle? 🧞😜
Jokes aside, stick with us for about 25 minutes, and you’ll learn:
Interested?
Cool beans. Let’s get grilling started then (sorry, that GIF made us hungry).
Since we only met a few minutes ago and we don’t know that much about each other, we think it’s a good idea to take it slow and start basic with a definition of the concept.
A lead information system is pretty much any piece of software that manages prospects, leads, and the sales pipeline in a systematic and organized manner.
It helps salespeople:
Alright, now onto the more important stuff.
Companies use sales CRMs and other types of lead information systems for a wealth of different applications, including:
All that sounds fine and dandy, but why does it matter to you?
Simple.
Leads are the lifeline of your company and the most significant challenge sales and marketing professionals face.
It’s hard and labor-intensive to generate them.
And it’s even harder to engage with them and convert them into paying customers.
Just think that, on average, a mere 3.9% of leads turn into sales.
Ouch.
And in a nutshell, that’s why you need the help of a friendly digital assistant, a.k.a. a lead information system.
Particularly if you work in the cut-throat and time-sensitive world of insurance sales.
Repeat after us:
Lead information system, sales leads tracking software, online lead management system, lead tracking system.
Confused, right?
Don’t worry, so were we for a while.
These terms are so similar that it takes an IT expert to unravel the nuances and a psychology expert to explain why certain people and companies prefer one over the others.
And honestly:
But at the end of the day, the vast majority of people using these terms refer to exactly the same thing:
A software tool that helps salespeople better organize and manage their leads and sales pipeline, with the ultimate goal of improving conversion rates and selling more.
Different companies make different platforms, add different functionality, and name them differently. But don’t sweat it — we’ll get around to this later on in this article.
However, in the meantime, there’s another term we need to bring up as it’ll pop up dozens of times as you do your research:
Sales CRM.
Mark this term into your long-term memory as it’s by far the best type of lead information around.
Why?
Because these tools are packed with a wealth of features that give you control over pretty much everything lead-related with a single set of login credentials and one monthly bill.
What kind of features are we talking about?
Here’s a teaser:
And here’s an infographic from our “industry mate,” Salesmate, just in case you’re more of a visual learner:
Sales CRMs are simply the way to go when it comes to getting a new lead information system.
But we’ll do more than just say it; we’ll prove it by deep diving into the benefits of implementing such a platform.
We’ve been talking for quite a while now, so let’s give the power to the people and offer you two ways to absorb the key knowledge in this section:
It’s up to you.
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Benefit |
Why it’s essential to salespeople |
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Better sales pipeline management |
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More organized data |
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Lead scoring and prioritization |
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Sales and marketing automation |
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More sales, higher profits, more bonuses |
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Are you feeling like this right now?
Yea? Then go ahead and skip forward to the next section, “How To Choose a Lead Information System for Your Firm.”
Not quite there? Then we suggest you read more about these five benefits; we might still be able to twist your arm a little and bring you over to the light side of the force (pun, intended).
A sales CRM offers you superior sales pipeline management thanks to a visual dashboard that looks something along these lines:
This real-time overview of your opportunities makes it a piece of cake to quickly see how your team’s workload is looking and plan for every eventuality.
No lead will ever slip through the net again and go untouched for too long.
This easily accessible data also has the pleasant effect of shortening sales cycles by up to 14%. That’s 4 days if you’re currently working on 30-day cycles!
One more thing:
A sales pipeline is pivotal for creating and sharing a company-wide sales process with your sales staff — a clearly defined set of pipeline stages (like the ones below) ensures your entire team:
This benefit is pretty much a given with any type of lead information system; however, nothing compares to a sales CRM.
And it’s not just us saying so; it’s the cold hard data:
74% of CRM users stated that their CRM platform gave them improved access to customer information.
You’ll literally have everything at your fingertips if you choose sales leads tracking software with an integrated mobile app.
You can finally forget about scrambling for crucial information during a sales call because all the intel you could ever want will only be a few clicks away.
Well, as long as you and your colleagues remember to keep your CRM updated.
One of the most important parts of your job is distinguishing high-quality leads from those that not even Joseph Samuel Girardi could sell to.
And how do you go about doing that?
You could call them up one by one and qualify each lead individually. But that would take up a lot of time, and you might not always draw the correct conclusions from a 10-minute call.
Or you could rely on the power of AI and get your sales lead tracking software to do the initial legwork for you.
Which one sounds better?
Hands down, the second one. And here’s some data on the benefits of lead scoring according to LeadX360 to back that claim up:
If you’re anything like the salespeople we know, you’re surely juggling too many tasks.
But don’t take it personally and blame it solely on yourself.
It’s an issue affecting all of us — research points out that nowadays, sales reps only spend circa 35% of their time actually selling.
The remaining 65% is spent on low-value-adding activities like repetitive tasks, admin, and meetings.
What can you do about it?
Turn to marketing automation and sales automation technology and free up a good chunk of your day, so you can spend more time on the things that really matter:
Building rock-solid relationships and making sales.
Just think about the results you could achieve if you upped that 35% to even 50%.
Speaking of results...
If you properly implement and roll out a lead tracking system, your company can look forward to:
These three powerful stats help to explain why research has found that sales CRMs can deliver ROIs of up to $8.71 for every dollar spent.
Awe-inspiring stuff.
If you agree, then keep scrolling as we’re about to show you:
First up:
We know you’re dying to get to the platforms themselves.
So that’s why we’ve summarized all the tedious decision criteria in the following table to make it easier and faster to get through.
Enjoy!
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Criteria |
Why it matters to your company |
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Price |
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User-friendliness |
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Features |
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Mobile-friendliness |
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Customer service |
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Alrighty then, now you’re prepped for:
Ringy is our company’s pride and joy.
It’s an all-in-one sales CRM that doubles as a:
What more could you possibly ask for?
How about raving user reviews and it only costing you $109 a month regardless of how many users you have?
Sorted.
And yes, working with Ringy is that easy.
Price:
$109 a month + cost of credit packages (as of November 2023)
Key features:
Pipedrive is a must-include in any ranking of the top software for sales lead tracking.
Why?
These numbers don’t lie — Pipedrive is a world-class sales CRM and lead information system that excels in the SME space.
It’s particularly suited for businesses that sell a wide range of products/services and need a different pipeline for each one.
Price:
$15 to $119 a month per user + $39 a month for the “LeadBooster” lead gen add-on + $49 a month for the “Website Visitors” tracking add-on (as of October 2021)
Key features:
Are you looking to test out a lead information system for free before you commit?
If so, you have two options.
So what’s the catch?
Only one thing — Hubspot’s paid plans get expensive very quickly, so you might need to move to a different platform when you upgrade, doubling your learning curve.
Price:
$50 to $1,200 a month (as of October 2021)
Key features:
Is your company an SME where sales and marketing come under the same roof?
If you’re nodding your head in agreement, Keap might be the lead information system for you.
It combines a world-class CRM, marketing automation, and a payment platform into a single piece of do-it-all software.
However, all this added convenience doesn’t come cheap, especially if you have large databases to upload and manage.
Keap is only truly worth it if you don’t have the time to integrate separate pieces of software, say a leading sales CRM (with a lead information system) and an online payments platform.
Price:
$79 to $499 a month per user + $30 a month per additional user + a $499 one-off payment for Expert Coaching, a.k.a. onboarding (as of October 2021)
Key features:
Monday.com is a relative newcomer to the world of CRMs and lead track software.
But don’t let its young age trick you; we’re talking about a serious contender for the title of best lead information system on the market.
What makes it unique?
The incredible speed at which you can get started — its learning curve is one of the flattest we’ve ever seen.
Oh, and by the way, we should also mention that monday.com has a “free forever” plan that gives Hubspot a run for its (no) money.
Price:
$10 to $20 a month per user, minimum three users (as of October 2021)
Key features:
This is an easy question to answer.
Just pop back up to our ranking of the top five lead information software and discover everything there is to know about these five platforms:
P.S. The following three solutions deserve an honorable mention as they narrowly missed out on a place in the sun:
You have three choices if you’re looking to keep costs low:
We always recommend you pick a web based lead management system (also known as a cloud-based system).
It combines the five benefits we discussed earlier in this post (jump back if you’ve missed them) with three more crucial advantages:
With the help of a lead information system, duh!
But let’s widen our net and share these five other ways to master the leads game:
It’s already time to say goodbye. But that’s no reason to get teary-eyed.
You’re off to far better places than this blog post.
You’re ready to take flight and transform your sales process into a digitally enabled ABC machine with the addition of a lead information system.
By the way, ABC stands for “always be closing” and not the alphabet.
But before you set off on your exciting journey, you should take a moment to cover two final things.
One, a quick recap of what you’ve learned today about lead information systems:
|
Definition |
Benefits |
Key Criteria |
Top Software |
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A piece of software that manages prospects, leads, and the sales pipeline |
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Two, a short but sweet call to action:
Don’t forget to request a commitment-free, personalized demo of Ringy to see how our all-in-one sales CRM does the job of a lead information system and much, much more.
And that’s all the selling we have time for today, so thanks for reading and good luck!