Leads are the lifeblood of a great CRM system. For most CRM systems, a CRM lead is a kind of customer who could already be in your sales pipeline but has not completed their lifecycle yet.
Unfortunately, not all leads are made equal. Focusing on the wrong ones can be detrimental to both your company’s budget and your teams’ time. So what are the types of leads in a CRM system?
3 Main Types of Leads
Information Qualified Lead (IQL) – Cold Lead
In the early stages of interacting with your customers, companies are often given contact information in exchange for freebies, promotional offers, or relevant information. With a stream of nurturing activities from marketing and sales teams, IQLs need to learn more about your company, your offerings, and how it answers to their particular needs.
IQLs can be considered cold leads. More often than not, it’s good to keep tabs and regularly maintain your relationship with them. However, they shouldn’t be a priority for your team’s follow-up strategies.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) – Warm Lead
Marketing Qualified Leads are a kind of lead that is likely to convert into sales. While they’re not likely to buy right now, they are likely to respond better to being nurtured. MQLs are also called warm leads. After a combination of time and effort, they can become paying customers.
Different companies will have different ways of qualifying an MQL. It is often a combination of the prospective customers’ positive interactions with your marketing campaigns, their existing history, or how well they fit into your ideal customer persona.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) – Hot Lead
A Sales Qualified Leads is also what you call a hot lead. The main difference between MQL and SQL is their readiness to commit to purchasing your product or service. After being qualified by marketing, prospective customers are nurtured by sales teams to avail of your product or service.
Through careful vetting, sales qualified leads to feel that their needs are understood. The marketing department’s budgets are also better spent, and the sales teams maximize the effort they are putting in.
Nurturing Every Kind of Lead
The key to a great CRM system is knowing exactly where each lead is in their buyer’s journey. As a rule of thumb, it’s always best to prioritize the hottest leads first before going after the colder ones.
It’s not enough to have a lot of leads. You also have to find good quality leads. With limited time but a mountain of opportunity, sales teams need help to find the best prospective customers at the right stage and the right time.
One way to make sure that each lead is taken care of until they are ready to be closed by sales is by working with Voice to CRM enablement companies such as Hey DAN.
With their data management system, consulting services, and opportunity spotting technology, they can help you nurture each kind of lead at every stage of the sales pipeline.
FAQs
If you're just starting out in your journey to find the right CRM for your business, let us show you the 3 types of CRM – analytical, operational and collaborative and how they are different.
What are the 3 different CRM categories? ›
What are the 3 types of CRM? There are 3 types of customer relationship management software that you can use for your business: operational CRM, collaborative CRM, and analytical CRM.
What are the three main models of CRM? ›
The IDIC model emphasises personalised interactions, the QCI model focuses on efficient issue resolution, Payne's Five Process Model provides a comprehensive approach to CRM implementation, and the CRM Value Chain streamlines customer-focused processes.
What are the leads in CRM? ›
A 'Lead' is a potential customer or prospect. Generating a lead is the first step of the sales process in CRM. Lead records are designed to store all known information on lead, including company name, address, contact details and the lead's current position in the sales funnel.
What are the 3 essential components of CRM? ›
The 3 Components of CRM Software
- Component #1 – Marketing Automation.
- Component #2 – Sales Force Automation.
- Component #3 – Customer Service Solutions / Case Management.
Optimizing your CRM data requires making sure your data is crucial, correct, and consistent — or what I like to call, “the three C's.”
What are the 3 main modules of CRM? ›
6 CRM Modules for Robust Customer Relationships
- CRM Module 1: Leads. Customers are the most valuable assets for your business. ...
- CRM Module 2: Marketing. ...
- CRM Module 3: Workflows. ...
- CRM Module 4: Apps Marketplace. ...
- CRM Module 5: Reports. ...
- CRM Module 6: Content Repository.
The 3 types of CRM are analytical, operational and collaborative: Analytical uses data as the foundation of the platform. Operational is based around automating workload. Collaborative breaks down silos.
What are the three most basic pillars of CRM? ›
The three foundational elements of customer relationship management are Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support/Service. The Marketing division orchestrates campaigns to attract new clientele.
What are the 3 leads? ›
Einthoven's Lead System
Einthoven could measure the tension between the right and left arm (lead I), the right arm and left leg (lead II), and the left arm and left leg (lead III).
3 Main Types of Leads
- Information Qualified Lead (IQL) – Cold Lead. In the early stages of interacting with your customers, companies are often given contact information in exchange for freebies, promotional offers, or relevant information. ...
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) – Warm Lead. ...
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) – Hot Lead.
ECG lead aVR, aVF and aVL (Goldberger's leads)
In these leads the exploring electrode is compared with a reference which is based on an average of the other two limb electrodes. The letter a stands for augmented, V for voltage and R is right arm, L is left arm and F is foot.
What are the three major types of CRM? ›
What are the types of CRM?
- Collaborative CRM systems.
- Operational CRM systems.
- Analytical CRM systems.
The overall business goals of CRM systems are to help organizations 1) capture new leads and move them through the sales process; 2) support and manage relationships with current customers to maximize their lifetime value to the company; and 3) boost productivity and lower the overall costs of marketing, sales, and ...
What are the three activities of CRM? ›
Top 4 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Activities. Providing customer relationship management activities in an effective way is very important given the importance of retaining customers so that they would not switch to your competitors. Marketing, sales, support and feedback are the main arms of CRM.
What are the three main modules of CRM? ›
6 CRM Modules for Robust Customer Relationships
- CRM Module 1: Leads. Customers are the most valuable assets for your business. ...
- CRM Module 2: Marketing. ...
- CRM Module 3: Workflows. ...
- CRM Module 4: Apps Marketplace. ...
- CRM Module 5: Reports. ...
- CRM Module 6: Content Repository.
To start, there are three main types of CRMs: collaborative, operational, and analytical. To help you get your bearings, we'll cover what a CRM is to begin with, how the three types of CRMs differ, and how to select the right product for your company.
