Indirect sales: Manage leads transparently and forward them digitally to sales partners
Indirect Sales: Your lead acquisition is structured and you receive many end customer inquiries via your automation processes? On the one hand, this is an importaant prerequisite for your business success. But what happens next when the leads are available for processing?
Lead management in practice
It is often very time-consuming to separate the wheat from the chaff and if you manage to capture your inquiries promptly at all, the further processing is rather shirt-sleeved. From here on, unfortunately, there are no more automation processes available and your lead is passed on to the next sales partner by e-mail, fax or telephone.
Lead management software? No such thing!
But now, of all times, it becomes difficult in indirect sales to track further processing. You don't know how quickly and how intensively your sales partner has taken care of the prospect or whether the inquiry even fits the partner's offer.
In the worst case scenario, you simply have no idea whether your passed-on lead has been "forgotten" or where possible predetermined breaking points are hindering further processing, which in the worst case scenario can lead to reputational damage for your company. Not to mention that you have to painstakingly gather and prepare meaningful data for your next sales meeting.
All in all, not very satisfying, is it?
Indirect sales "ticks" differently
Many digital solutions that work well in "normal" sales do not create the necessary performance and certainly not transparency in indirect sales.
More than 75% of all companies confirm that you often do not know how sales partners proceed with prospects.
The standard CRM systems (software sales) or solutions for marketing automation on the market can only be used to a very limited extent for your particular form of sales. Unfortunately, most software manufacturers only focus on the broad masses.
Understandable, because multi-level sales, with its very specific requirements, is a rather small target group. For this very reason, and also based on our own company history, we have developed a solution for indirect sales that works according to four simple principles.
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4 simple principles for successful lead management in indirect sales
You need a lead management software that creates the necessary transparency to forward incoming leads to the right sales partners and with which you are always up to date about the further processing. Only in this way is it possible for you to call up all important data and key figures transparently and clearly at any time and, if necessary, to intervene in the processing process.
We have defined the following four stages for this process:
Lead-Routing (Lead Matching)
Your inquiry always ends up with exactly the sales partner who is also perfectly suited for it, i.e. offers the greatest match with the end customer's requirements.
Criteria for a good match are, for example, the regional proximity of the partner to the contact, a possible degree of certification or the question of whether the requested product line fits into the portfolio of your sales partner at all.
Lead Escalation
No more leads are left lying around. If no dealer is found in the matching pool who is willing to take over the end customer inquiry, the selection of sales partners is expanded until someone takes over the lead and processes it quickly.
Automated feedback request
No more time-consuming follow-up phone calls and feedback! Your specialist dealer can simply provide feedback via his e-mail tool (e.g. Outlook), the web app or via his smartphone. This reduces effort for all parties involved and keeps you on top of things!
Lead Reporting
So you always know what's going on! What is the processing status and the processing process of your leads and how do your sales partners perform - you have the wheel in your hand and the key figures at a glance!
By the way, working with Leadtributor is absolutely intuitive and self-explanatory. A great advantage especially for your sales partners! One hour of training with our Customer Success Team and the handling of Leadtributor works.
This has also convinced the global corporation Huawei.
They are already working successfully with the Leadtributor lead management software and there are three compelling reasons for this:
Thanks to Leadtributor, HUAWEI can forward customer inquiries automatically and completely transparently to the appropriate sales partner, who processes the inquiry immediately. The fast processing of inquiries increases customer satisfaction and has a positive effect on the company's development.
And - don't worry - using our lead management software is just as possible for small and medium-sized businesses. The only requirement that makes it profitable is that you process at least 500 leads a year. So you don't have to be a large corporation.
The following 7 points are important for your success with indirect sales:
1) A clear process for your lead management!
For your indirect sales to really work, you need to control and keep an eye on the processes surrounding your lead management. Only then will you be able to intervene at any time if there is a problem
If you have your processes in view, you will also be informative about the current sales actions at any time, whether to colleagues, partners or in the next sales meeting. This makes you credible and competent yourself!
2) The perfect match between lead and distributor
Make sure that the request and distributor are a good match.
Matching criteria are, for example:
... etc. These criteria are important in order not to distribute leads according to the watering can principle, but to address them specifically to the appropriate processor. The perfect partner gets the deal!
3) Speed and transparency
A temperature change from "hot" to "cold" happens very quickly with leads. A functioning lead management process ensures that your inquiries are processed as quickly as possible. If nothing happens after three hours, the customer inquiry goes directly on to the next partner - until a suitable partner is found.
Pass on information!
4) Clear feedback rules
You have the responsibility to ensure that your requests are answered promptly and that you are informed about the status of the processing.
The easier it is for your partners to give you feedback, the more willing they are to do so. Keep it short and simple. Exchanging information with complex questionnaires wears you down and is not very promising. Automated processes and simple push reports make it easy for your partners and you are always up to date.
5) Motivation through support
Everything that the partner needs for customer communication should be available at any time and from anywhere in the current version. Your sales partners should be able to sell as well and as easily as possible.
Important info is for instance
Price lists
Special offers
Current data sheets
Cross- and upselling potential
Through continuous synchronization of all sales processes, your dealer sales force is perfectly informed and can react at any time.
6) Success can be measured - define the right key figures
A functioning lead management needs key figures, KPIs, to make success measurable. Define your KPIs and let your sales software determine the numbers.
Key figure #1 is the acceptance period
Check how long leads are on your offer list or waiting on average. Your leads should not be on the offer list waiting to be accepted for more than an hour.
KPI #2 is the contact initiation time
How quickly is the request actually processed, i.e. contacted, by the sales partner? If customer inquiries remain unanswered for several hours, they go cold and your conversion rate drops dramatically.
KPI #3 is the feedback rate
It is a key indicator of how willing your channel partner is to work WITH you. Measure what, when, and how often your channel partners report customer care feedback. Define clear thresholds for this.
Be sure to measure KPI #4, which is the conversion rate. This is the only way you can measure the success of your sales partners and sales regions, as well as the success of your lead sources (marketing campaigns) over a longer period of time.
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Webinar
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This is how you create measurable figures in indirect sales
In this 20-minute webinar, you will see how to create more transparency and better lead processing in indirect sales. Register now!
7) Keeping track
Keep the wheel in your hand! It's all about the success of your company, which you can best achieve together with your sales partners. Jointly defined rules are important here, but above all, it is important that you maintain an overview of what is happening. You should be able to answer the following questions at any time:
- Which product is selling best in which sales territory?
- Where do you have to invest to achieve a higher return on investment?
- Which sales can be expected when and from which sales partner?
With a sophisticated sales software like Leadtributor you are at the helm of your indirect sales. You have all sales figures of your partners in view and can track their performance at any time. This gives you the security of being able to react quickly and flexibly to possible breaking points in order to optimize your lead processes
Conclusion: Wouldn't it be a good feeling to have the certainty that your indirect sales function in a targeted, transparent and digitally optimally controlled manner, while you can track all important sales figures at any time via a sophisticated sales dashboard?
In multi-level sales, a special solution like Leadtributor is enormously important if you are tired of lost leads and thus lost sales. If you want to know how modern multi-level sales works today, then make an appointment with us now!
30 Min. Consultation
We will show you how to create a digital lead management cycle with your sales partners, specialist dealers, installers, distributors, sales representatives and field sales force - completely automated.
