How much time do you think your team spends managing leads? If you spend more time sorting your prospects instead of working to make them paying customers, your lead management process may need a major overhaul. 

You know it's important for your business, but if the thought of spring-cleaning your process feels overwhelming, Zapier has you covered. We're an automation tool that allows you to send information from one app to another, so you can reduce manual tasks such as importing leads from a form and spend more time closing the deal. 

Whether you're struggling with managing your leads from social media or need an extra kick to your nurture process, we've collected a few Zaps—what we call Zapier's automated workflows—so you can whip your lead management into tip-top shape. 

Many businesses use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to track customer interactions and deals. A CRM won't solve all your problems, though. While it's a great source of truth for many business operations, it can be unwieldy to manage without some organization and automation.

You can improve your whole process—from collecting leads to distributing them and nurturing your prospects—by adding automation to your systems.

Streamline your lead collecting efforts

There are so many ways to source leads that it's a little overwhelming. Do you use a website landing page or a form? Social media or events? What about ads? 

Many businesses will use a combination of methods because potential customers are everywhere. When you're trying to acquire leads through multiple channels, it can be difficult to track, organize, and maintain systems long-term without automation. 

Landing pages

Landing pages are great for putting the focus on a specific product or service. Visitors can fill out a form to learn more about your product—and you can validate what resonates with them.

These workflows will automatically add leads from your landing pages to your CRM, email list, or wherever else you need them. 

Forms

Forms are a classic lead generation tool, hearkening back to paper sign-up sheets. They're a quick way to gather the information your sales team needs, while also gathering extra information to help you close the sale—for example, why they're interested in your service.

If you're struggling with managing incoming form submissions, you can try these workflows to route information where you need it. 

Events

While events are a labor-intensive and sometimes costly lead generation tool, they come with benefits other strategies can't offer. They're personal and a great way for potential customers to get a taste of what your business is all about, while also participating in something relevant to their interests.

Whether you're doing an in-person event or running a webinar, these Zaps will ensure your leads are automatically captured.

Social media ads

While many businesses are alread on social media, placing an online ad can be an effective form of lead generation. For example, Google and LinkedIn allow users to enter information on a form without a redirect—perfect in this attention economy.

You can ramp up your lead strategy on social without the administrative labor with these Zaps: 

Think about how your leads flow

It's important to think about your sales cycle. When is it time to create a deal for a prospect? How do you know if a lead is sales qualified, marketing qualified, or none of the above? Map out this process first. Then, start from the beginning. Once you have a qualified lead, who on your team needs to know?

If you're struggling to get visibility on your leads as they come in, these Zaps will automatically alert you when a new lead is added to your CRM.

You can use filter steps or paths—available on our paid plans—to automatically send leads where you want them to go. For example, maybe you want your marketing-qualified leads added to a newsletter subscription list, while you want your sales team to be notified in Slack for your sales-qualified prospects. 

Prefer using a spreadsheet to analyze your leads? With an automated workflow, you can first automatically add leads to your spreadsheet or database.

Then, stay updated on new leads when they come in by setting up automatic emails or team chat notifications for updates to that spreadsheet. 

Lead nurturing

Now that you have leads to work with, the real work begins: turning them into paying customers. Think back to your sales cycle. Once you have a prospect, how do you encourage them through different deal stages? Do they need to go into a drip email campaign first? How do you know when it's time for a sales call?

Every business has its own strategy for converting leads, but timely follow-up is universal. There's a short window in which you have a prospect's interest—automation can help you capitalize on it. 

Send a personal message to new leads

When someone expresses interest in your product, it's a nice gesture to let them know what to expect next from you. This could be a simple thank you email and a note that a sales rep will follow up soon, or even a text as a part of an SMS campaign. 

Try these workflows to give your prospects a personalized touch. 

Enroll in a campaign

A lead may not be ready to have that sales conversation right away. That's where email drips and SMS campaigns come in handy because you can encourage prospects over time. You can use a Zap to automatically add new leads to an email newsletter, a drip email list, or an SMS list. 

Book demo calls

Depending on the service you're offering, you may want to book consultation or demo calls with prospects. You can get started quickly with these workflows, which will automatically send call invites to leads when they're in a specific deal stage. If you use a booking or scheduling app, include your calendar link in the email message.

Let automation guide your leads

The sales cycle can be a long one, but that time doesn't need to be tied up on the administrative side of lead management or nurture. Automation can help you streamline the process, to focus more on making the best pitch to your prospects. 

Related reading: 

• 4 ways to improve your real estate business with automation

• 6 fatal mistakes in lead generation strategy

• How to segment leads from a quiz or survey

• The best lead management software

• 4 ways to automatically qualify your leads