Managing Leads in Salesforce makes use of the massive amounts of Lead data generated and allows you to report on it, providing visibility into your Lead processes to help drive decisions. There are many features in Salesforce that you can use to make this entire process faster, more automated, easier, and more successful overall. However, there are five things you should know before using Salesforce Leads if you want to manage leads effectively and increase sales.

 

Map Custom Fields for Salesforce Leads or Lose Your Data

To ensure that your data is not lost upon Lead conversion, you must map a custom field to another field on Accounts, Opportunities, Contacts, or a combination. To match the custom field on your Lead, you must match a field from Accounts, Opportunities, Contacts, or a combination of those. The value is then saved in this new field upon Lead conversion. You could, for example, have a custom Lead field called “Number of Children.”

 

Change Salesforce Leads Status Values to Fit Your Company’s Needs

Lead Status, like any other, is a picklist field. This means you can change, remove, or add new picklist values to the existing list. When a Lead is created for the first time, you can also specify a default value. Adapt your Lead Status values to your Lead Process: If a Lead must go through a “Nurturing” stage before it can be converted, add “Nurturing” as a Lead Status picklist value and rearrange the stage order as needed. You can go a step further by using Validation Rules to ensure that certain information is recorded on your Leads’ fields before Users can change the Lead Status.

 

Use Validation Rules to Keep Lead Data Clean

Validation Rules are an excellent way to ensure that Users do not attempt to qualify Leads that are missing information. They actually improve the user experience by informing users when information is missing, and they are also simple to set up. Validation Rules prevent a record from being saved if certain criteria are met. To begin, determine what information a Lead requires before its status can be updated. Make your own rule to enforce it! A Validation Rule, for example, can prevent a User from changing a Lead’s Status to “Ready for Conversion” if the “Company” field has not yet been populated. Simply write a helpful “Error” message for the rule so that Users know what information they need to add.

 

Use Auto-Response Rules to Quickly Email All New Salesforce Leads

Use Auto-Response Rules to respond to all new Leads that enter Salesforce from your company’s website. Auto-Response Rules are a simple way to send emails to any new Lead that enters Salesforce and meets a set of criteria. They are simple to set up and allow for multiple rules. This is extremely useful if you want to send different email messages to Leads based on various criteria. You can, for example, write multiple rules to reflect different responses for Leads based on their occupation. Simply specify a criterion, such as Occupation being “Education,” and then associate the appropriate email template.

 

Use Lead Assignment Rules to Assign Leads to Users Automatically

Lead Assignment Rules are another feature that is simpler to set up than it appears. Lead Assignment Rules are used to automatically assign a Lead to a specific User or Queue when it meets certain criteria. If you have multiple departments or teams that should handle a specific type of Lead, you can use this feature. For example, if your company handled Leads based on location, you might want all Leads from NY, or New York, to go directly to one specific User. You can configure this for multiple regions to ensure that all new Leads are routed to the appropriate person. All Leads will have an owner who is assigned to that Lead for a specific purpose with Lead Assignment Rules. This improves lead management because lead owners will know exactly how to nurture that Lead into a customer, increasing overall sales for your company!

 

 

Conclusion:

Now we are familiar with the five things you should know before using Salesforce Leads if you want to manage leads effectively and increase sales.