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Want better follow-up? Make your own lead assignment rules!
Assigning leads is one of the core responsibilities of a sales manager. It’s a task that takes a lot of finesse. You have to know the who, what, where, why, and how of every prospect that comes into the dealership. If you don’t have a core set of lead assignment rules to govern the process, your salespeople won’t make the most of the opportunities handed to them.
There’s one thing you need to be successful with lead assignment: rules. If you want to see better follow-up, you have to lay down a standard.
How to guarantee better follow-up: 5 ideas for lead assignment rules
Rule #1: Only allow active players to take the field
When you allow sales reps to claim leads, you’ll sometimes run into a tricky problem. Someone will sign into the CRM system and claim a lead when he isn’t scheduled to work that day.
You can see how that would make follow-up less of a priority. He’ll come into the dealership the next day and try to contact the leads he claimed while relaxing at home the day before. Guess what? Those leads are gone. They’re probably already in the process of buying a car at another dealership.
Rule #2: Set a time limit on follow-up efforts
There is no better way to ensure proper follow-up than having a time limit on prospects. You’re basically saying: “When I assign you a lead, follow-up within thirty minutes or it will be passed to the next person.”
Of course, you have to make these lead assignment rules realistic and fair. You can’t assign a lead to a sales rep in the middle of a test drive and expect them to follow-up right away. Make sure you give out leads to people who have the time to follow-up quickly.
Rule #3: Be fair, but don’t be virtuous
Sometimes sales managers get caught up trying to please everyone. They’ll have a hot lead come in and wait until the “next person in line” is available. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be fair, but don’t let your virtues get the best of you. A lead is a lead—he needs attention by any means necessary.
In other words, don’t be afraid to skip over a salesperson for the sake of making a sale. You have to think of the dealership as a whole, as well as your individual salespeople.
Rule #4: Don’t allow reps to overload themselves
Your salespeople need to be accountable for their workloads. If they keep on saying they’re available for more leads, you’ll keep piling on the work. Meanwhile, they’re actually falling behind and letting quality leads slip away.
When you use a CRM system like AutoRaptor, your staff can update their statuses to “available” and “busy.” This feature allows you to assign leads to the right people and keep everyone at a steady pace.
Don’t allow your staff to overload. Make it mandatory that they update their current status so you have a better idea of who is ready to follow-up and who isn’t.
Rule #5: Require everyone to utilize the workflow steps in your CRM
You need a central communication device to keep the workflow on point. Everyone has their own way of doing things with customers and daily tasks. That’s great—they should be able to work in the way that best suits their productivity.
When it comes to team communication, however, a CRM tool allows everyone to work within the established workflows. For instance, if you send a lead to a salesperson in the morning, you’ll see updates in the CRM dashboard.
You never have to wonder if they forgot to follow-up. You don’t need to check with them, and they say “Oh, I made the phone call hours ago. We have an appointment set up for tomorrow.”
If you use a CRM all that information will be built into the workflow and easy for everyone to see.
Get feedback on your assignment rules and make adjustments with the team
Lead management is a team effort. You may have control of assigning prospects to your staff, but that doesn’t mean your salespeople don’t have opinions. Give everyone a chance to provide feedback on your lead assignment rules and make adjustments as you move along. Eventually, you’ll reach a fool-proof process and see your productivity (and sales) climb.
Do you have any lead management tips to offer? Share your thoughts with us!
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