How Your Business Can Identify Leads Using CRM

While 68% of B2B marketers say increasing the number of qualified leads is their top priority, 80% say their lead generation efforts are only somewhat effective. This struggle is the result of many smaller challenges, but the right CRM tool can help you move past these obstacles.

What is CRM?

CRM solutions offer a suite of technologies to help businesses manage new and ongoing customer relationships. That entails tracking interactions, consolidating lead and customer information, marketing workflow visualization and more. While many companies focus on these platforms as a way to maintain existing customer relationships, they can help you generate leads, too.

Specific features vary by solution, but CRM tools typically include contact automation, activity tracking, visualization tools, and integrations with third-party apps and data. This extensive functionality is part of why 56.5% of companies in 2021 cite CRM as the most valuable software, more than any other category.

How to identify leads with CRM

Like any technology, using CRM means making an upfront investment before you see results. That can be an intimidating prospect, but just as investing in an MBA unlocks new business opportunities, thoughtful CRM implementation can deliver an impressive ROI.

However, if you want to unlock your full lead generation potential, you’ll have to use these tools correctly. Here’s how you can use CRM to identify leads better.

1. Consolidate information across websites and apps

The first step to maximizing lead generation with CRM is using it to consolidate all your lead information. One of the most important features of CRM is that it pulls data from multiple sites and apps into a single point of access. That can make it far easier to see potential leads, how to interact with them and more.

Start by looking for a CRM solution with multiple third-party integrations. You don’t necessarily have to go with whichever has the most, but look for some that support the apps and sites you already use.

From there, make sure you connect your CRM to all these various data sources. That includes your company website, ecommerce sites, in-store data and other channels. Be sure to integrate your social channels, too, as most social media users use these sites multiple times daily.

2. Automate wherever possible

Another important step in identifying leads with CRM is to automate as much as possible. More than a third of all marketers say automation lets them generate more leads and improve lead quality.

Most CRMs can automate data collection, pulling information from other sources to give you more context for every lead. Many can also automatically reach out to these leads or analyze the data to offer more actionable insights about user trends. Even smaller automated processes like automatic task assignment, scheduling or data entry can be helpful.

By automating, you’ll give yourself more time to focus on identifying leads. Because automation often reduces errors in data-heavy, analytical tasks, it can also help you generate better leads and learn more about reaching them effectively.

3. Build a sales pipeline

Next, you’ll want to use your CRM platform to build and visualize a sales pipeline. While this may not seem like an essential step, it provides crucial context and makes it easier to spot important trends.

With multiple integrations, your CRM software can provide a single, easy-to-read display of all your leads and where they stand in the pipeline. CRM also makes it easier to share this information quickly with any collaborators. This level of visibility and accessibility helps you see what you’re doing that works well and what you can improve.

This consolidated view could show which actions helped similar leads move further down the pipeline, suggesting similar strategies could work with other leads. Alternatively, it could show if multiple users are stuck in one phase, revealing that something must change.

4. Ensure your data is clean

One crucial but easily overlookable step in CRM-based lead generation is data cleanliness. While CRM tools let you capitalize on vast amounts of data from multiple sources, this information is only helpful if it’s accurate and clean. Poor-quality data costs organizations $12.9 million a year on average.

The solution is to cleanse and organize your data before feeding it into analytics algorithms or otherwise acting on it. Some CRM platforms include data-cleansing features that can help streamline the process. If yours doesn’t, use a third-party data-cleansing program or protocol before sending data to your CRM.

Data cleansing tools should check incomplete records, fix duplicates and standardize data formats. These steps don’t take long but will prevent significant mistakes.

5. Review the process regularly

Finally, remember that optimal CRM usage requires adjustment over time. You likely won’t have the perfect approach from the beginning, and even if you do, your potential leads will change as trends shift. Regular reviews can ensure your lead generation process remains effective.

Set benchmarks and goals before using your CRM to identify leads, then review your performance at least annually. Some CRM platforms may even have automated features to help you monitor trends automatically.

As you review your results and changing trends, capitalize on both successes and failures. If a process isn’t working well, take that as an opportunity to try something new and improve. If something does work well, try applying a similar approach in other areas.

CRM can be a crucial lead generation tool

CRM is more than a tool for managing ongoing customer relationships. With the right approach, you can use it to boost your lead generation. These five steps will help you identify more and higher-quality leads with CRM. You can then make the most of your marketing efforts to ensure ongoing success for your business.