Engaging long-term leads to turn them into sales

Some sales take longer than others to complete. With large purchases it may even take a few years for a sale to come to fruition, and during that entire period it’s important to stay in touch and build a relationship with every potential customer. Proving to a prospect that they matter even before they’ve bought encourages a prospect to buy from you, and it builds a personal relationship for future sales and word of mouth marketing.

In Less Annoying CRM there are two different options to help you entice and keep track of those long-term sales. The first option is through a pipeline status, which allows you to easily view contacts in long-term follow up. The other option is through groups and the Mailchimp sync -- this option allows you to advertise and touch base with prospects interested in particular products.

Using a Pipeline to track long-term sales

Editing a pipeline is easy -- simply mouse over “Settings” in the navigation bar and select Pipelines from the menu.

This page will show a list of pipelines; pipeline names are customizable and may include the name “Lead” or something else. Additionally it is possible to have multiple pipelines, which will all be listed here. If you know which pipeline to use simply follow these steps (if you have multiple pipelines you can repeat these for each one you’d like):

• Select "Edit" next to the appropriate pipeline name.
• Click the "Create new status" button under the "Statuses" section.
• Enter a status name like "Long-term Follow Up."
• Create the status!

Now that you have this status, start using it! If you know a prospect is in it for the long haul, enter them in the “Long-term Follow Up” status. This status will be visible in the pipeline report so you can easily see those contacts, and you can use tasks for reminders!

Save notes about any contact interactions within the pipeline to keep data centralized so you can quickly and easily review past conversations as well as review the sale once it’s happened. Remember, you should enter all of your notes in a way that will make sense to you in the future; take the time to write out important details and information that will trigger your memory when you come back to it. Use those notes to change what you say based on who you’re speaking with -- entering personal details can be particularly effective when you bring them up with a contact later on.

Using Groups and Email Campaigns to encourage a sale

Long-term follow ups are an essential part of turning prospects into customers, particularly in regards to larger ticket items. An important part of this process is keeping your prospect engaged by reminding them of available products and options so that they know you’re there to help and you have what they want. Mailchimp can be used in combination with the CRM to stay in touch with contacts and remind them that you have the products and knowledge they need.

There are a few steps you’ll need to take to first get this set up.

1. Enter contacts into groups based on their interest.

Start by entering contacts into groups based on their interest, and make the groups specific to each different product. Remember, each contact can be tagged to multiple groups, so if someone doesn’t have a specific choice yet, add them to multiple groups! If you’re not sure how to enter contacts in a group, check out this article on groups.

Groups also allow you to easily access all contacts interested in a particular product! Simply mouse over “Contacts” in the navigation bar, and select the group from the dropdown.

2. Turn on the Mailchimp integration.

Next, set up the Mailchimp integration to pass names and emails over to Mailchimp for group emails. Mailchimp is a mass email marketing tool with a free tier; you can set up the sync by following instructions on the Integration page. If you’re not familiar with our Mailchimp integration there is a video on the right side of that page that helps explain how it all works, or you can read more about the Mailchimp sync here.

3. Start sending emails!

Finally, start sending out emails! When you receive a new product for sale, email everyone that has expressed interest in that item. If there is a product update or exciting new feature, send that information along to the group too. Every Mailchimp campaign will be logged to the CRM, so you can see on each contact which email campaigns they’ve received. These personalized emails remind a contact that you’re the right person to help them, and remind them of their interest in buying.