Best Lead Management Software & Tools (Free & Premium)

Marketing teams achieve success by generating a high number of leads. But what if the team cannot convert the leads into customers? The cost of generating leads becomes a liability for the business. Lead generation is one of the top concerns businesses of all sizes face today.

Here, using the best lead management software comes into the picture.

This buyer’s guide to lead management software covers all the topics relating to lead management tools and how to select one to get the most out of it. Let’s start with the concept of lead management and move on to in-depth information about lead management systems that help you make the right purchase decision.

Lead management is a process that includes capturing leads, tracking their behavior and activities, segmenting & qualifying these leads, and consistently putting in marketing efforts to convert them into customers. The primary objective of efficient lead management is to drive customers through the sales funnel until they reach the point where they make the purchase decision. If your business generates leads but is not managing them properly, you will probably fail to provide exceptional customer service and ultimately lose sales opportunities.

Thus, it becomes necessary to follow a systematic approach to lead management to ensure the business's sustainability and growth. To better understand lead management, let's examine the different components of the lead management process.

Lead Planning

Planning marketing strategies to acquire leads is the first step in any lead management process. The target audience is approached using outbound and inbound marketing strategies, including email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, webinars, and other paid advertising methods. Leads are generated when the audience responds to any of these marketing efforts.

Lead Scoring

The next step after generating leads is to identify and score those leads based on their purchasing decision authority, budget, and willingness to convert. Scoring the leads is important as it helps prioritize and execute personalized marketing strategies to ensure maximum conversions.

Distributing Leads

The qualified leads are then distributed to sales and marketing personnel with complete information about their demographics, age, preferences, etc., so they can put exemplary efforts into converting those leads into loyal customers.

Nurturing Leads

The sales and marketing teams then nurture those leads with a high possibility of conversion by following up with them through email or phone calls. Lead nurturing requires implementing efforts to educate the clients about the products/services, like providing demonstrations, free trials, etc., to prepare them for purchase.

Conversions

The lead management process ends when the leads get converted into customers.

The lead management process seems simple in theory, but it becomes complex when the number of leads accumulates consistently. Below are some challenges that businesses usually face during lead management.

Lead Leakage

Some leads that do not become immediate sales opportunities leak out of the funnel due to a lack of time devoted to those leads. These leads are not nurtured efficiently; thus, they lie in your CRM and may become your competitors' opportunities. When the number of leads is high, it becomes difficult to answer all the leads equally. This is where many qualified leads get segmented as unqualified, resulting in losing sales opportunities.

Missed Follow-Ups

Following up with the leads is one of the most significant activities that can shorten the sales cycle. But, many times, sales and marketing professionals miss following up with many leads due to a lack of interest or overload with the number of leads they receive daily. Missed follow-ups mean lost sales opportunities, ultimately leading to financial loss for the business organization.

Lacking Engagement

It becomes highly important to keep the leads engaged with the different options in products and services, pricing packages, etc., so that they make immediate purchase decisions. However, engaging leads is not as simple as it sounds due to constantly increasing buyer competition and awareness. It requires meaningful and consistent interactions with the audience to improve engagement. Many times, sales and marketing teams fail to do that due to a scarcity of time, energy, and resources, which adversely affects business profitability.

A lead management solution can greatly help overcome these challenges. So, let's examine what exactly lead management software is and its capabilities that can take your business to the next level.

Lead management software, also known as lead generation and tracking software, minimizes the human efforts required to generate, track, identify, nurture, engage, and convert leads. It automates many tasks related to lead management, eliminating flaws and closing more deals effortlessly. It simplifies organizing and streamlining the sales pipeline, analyzing critical sales data, making informed strategic decisions, and achieving desired conversion rates.  

Earlier, the sales and marketing teams had to put in much human effort and invest their time to complete all these jobs manually. Now, with the help of a lead management system, they can automate and schedule their follow-up emails, qualify and identify leads quickly, and immediately put their ideas into action. The lead management solution also helps evaluate the sales performance of each team member based on different dimensions, ensuring they meet their sales goals effectively and grow their business.

Let's glimpse the capabilities of lead management software that can help modern businesses survive and grow exponentially.

Streamlines Information

Business lead software can be a single source of information for your sales and marketing personnel. They don't have to manually juggle files, folders, and Excel spreadsheets to find the information they require. They can access all the information at their fingertips using the best lead management tools.  

Qualifies Leads

A lead management system helps you follow a systematic process that enables you to qualify the leads accurately based on their purchasing authority, budget, and many other factors. This systematic approach eliminates the lead leakage problem and helps you make the most out of the generated leads.  

Tracks Lead Activities

The best lead management software allows you to track your leads' activities, including their emails and conversations with the sales and marketing team. Approaching the leads with a personalized strategy based on their activities can delight them, help improve conversions, and improve the profitability of the business organization.

Nurturing Leads

Leads that are not sales-ready require consistent nurturing and building relationships. A lead management system can schedule emails and social media posts to help nurture leads and engage them with your brand. This ultimately leads to increased sales and business growth.

Efficient Follow-Ups

When you launch a marketing campaign, many leads pour in, and handling them all equally becomes a tedious job. In such a situation, you may miss out on approaching many leads with your offers. The lead management system ensures efficient follow-ups with every lead by sending reminders and notifications, helping you improve efficiency in follow-ups.

So, these were the basic capabilities of a business lead software. These capabilities can vary depending on the lead management solution you choose. Look at different lead management tools based on functionality, deployment, and price.

A. Functionality

Many lead management tools have basic features that allow only storing and managing information when it comes to functionality. On the other hand, robust lead management apps with features will enable the categorization of leads, automate email marketing and social media campaigns, track and monitor lead behavior, and manage the entire sales cycle. 

So, while you select your lead management solution, check that it is compatible with your business workflow and processes. Therefore, many businesses opt for customizable lead management apps, whereas others go for readymade lead management solutions that are available immediately. Let’s have basic information about each of them.

i) Readymade Lead Management Software

As the name suggests, readymade lead management software includes predetermined features that cannot be tweaked. Readymade lead management solutions can be on-premise or cloud-based. You need to install or sign up to start using the system instantly.

ii) Customizable Lead Management Software

There are many free and open-source lead management tools that you can install and customize according to your business requirements. You need to possess the technical expertise to customize this type of lead management system to get the maximum benefit from it. Many companies hire software development companies or freelancers to build a lead management system that suits their business workflow and logic.

B. Deployment

i) On-Premise Lead Management Software

On-premise lead management software is the type of software that can be installed on your server and operated within your business premises. When deploying on-premise lead management tools, you must have proper infrastructure and technical staff to maintain and manage its updates regularly. You have three options if you are planning to deploy an on-premise lead management software -

1. Download free and open-source lead management software and get it customized by your technical staff to make it work as per your business requirements
2. Hire a software development company or freelancer to build a lead management solution that can be hosted and managed on your server within your organization’s premises
3. Purchase a license of a readymade lead management software, get it deployed on your organization’s server

ii) Cloud-Based Lead Management Software

The cloud-based lead management system, or online lead management software, is hosted on the software vendor’s server. You don’t need to worry about its installation, maintenance, and upgrading - the vendor handles that. All you need is an internet-aided device to use the cloud-based software from anywhere at any time.

C. Price

i) Paid Lead Management Software

Whether buying a licensed copy of a lead management software or hiring a software development company to build your lead management software, you need to invest a considerable amount in owning the software. You must pay a monthly/yearly subscription for cloud-based software to use the lead management platform. The lead management purchase decision would be based on your business requirements and budget.   

ii) Freemium Lead Management Software

Freemium lead management software is free to use for a certain period or has limited features and users. You can choose this option to check the software’s features and whether it includes all the functionality your business requires. It is always better to make purchase decisions by testing a freemium version of the lead management platform.

iii) Free Lead Management Software

Open-source lead management solutions are free to download and can be customized according to your requirements. Specific cloud-based lead management software, like EngageBay and LeadFeeder, provide free pricing options with limited features. This free lead-tracking software perfectly suits startups and small businesses with minimum requirements.

As per the research report, the lead management software market is likely to grow at a CAGR of 17.39% during the period 2017-22. The reason behind that is the need for large-scale client management among business organizations.

Lead management software is a tool that most successful businesses use these days to improve and scale their sales & marketing processes and manage their leads flawlessly. Below are some benefits that businesses derive from implementing lead management software.

Focusing on Quality Leads

The CRM lead management platform allows you to segment the leads based on their purchasing authority, preferences, and budget. This segmentation will enable you to identify qualified and sales-ready leads and approach them with personalized offers, leading to improved sales and profitability.

Engaging with the Right Context

Lead software stores complete information about the leads and communication with them in a centralized location. This helps the sales and marketing teams approach the leads with the proper context and improves conversion rates.

Improving Productivity

The sales lead management software automates the entire lead management process, such as sending emails, notifications, reminders, launching marketing campaigns, etc., allowing the sales and marketing teams to focus on planning successful strategies that yield results.

Responding Quickly

Sales lead software helps sales and marketing teams access crucial information about leads, such as their contact information, buying intentions, purchasing authority, budget, etc. This enables them to respond quickly and accurately to leads and increases the chances of conversions.

Increasing ROI

The sales lead management software allows you to identify marketing platforms and strategies, bringing better results in terms of quality leads and conversions. This helps in planning effective marketing strategies for the future, which leads to increased sales and ROI.

Measuring Performance

The lead software provides insights into important information about different aspects, like the success ratio of different marketing campaigns, buyers' behavior, etc., helping in measuring performance. This helps in making improvements to the processes and workflows, benefiting your business financially.

Easy to Use

A user-friendly lead generation software would encourage your sales and marketing team to adopt it quickly and get things done with minimum human effort. This would save time and help them focus on strategic and revenue-generating tasks, helping you improve the business organization's productivity and profitability.

Implementation Support

Ensure you get the required support from your software vendor until your team is comfortable and fully operational with the lead management software. If you have chosen cloud-based software, you need not worry about the implementation support.

Price

This is the most important criterion most buyers look for. The price of the software should be worth the features and functionality it provides. Moreover, it should also fit into your budget. If you are not confident with the lead management software functionality, go for a freemium version first and then make the purchase decision.

Customer Support

Before you purchase lead management software, you need to check whether the vendor provides prompt customer support. Check customer reviews about the same and choose the software with exceptional after-sale support to ensure a smooth lead management process in your organization. 

Dashboard

Most lead management software includes a dashboard that provides a glance view of metrics that you want to check frequently. You need to ensure that the lead management software you have chosen allows you to customize the dashboard according to your preferences and that easy-to-view charts and bar graphs will enable you to grab the insights you require.

Integrations

Switching between different applications to get a task done can be a tedious job. The right integrations within your lead management software can help you get other tasks from a single interface. Integrating different tools would also allow you to import/export required data and save time on manual data entry. Thus, you need to ensure that the lead management software you choose includes the capability of integrating other tools you are currently using in your business.

Mobile-Friendly

In this fast-paced business environment, where most tasks are done using mobile devices, why not manage leads? If you are required to manage your leads and monitor the activities of your sales and marketing team, even while you are traveling and moving places, you need to ensure that the lead management software you choose is mobile-friendly.

You must adopt future-ready lead management software to stay ahead of the competition, achieve the impossible, and set unique benchmarks. For that, you need to consider the below-mentioned latest trends in lead management software.

Chatbots

Chatbots can provide 24/7 customer support, and so they have become quite popular among brands these days. They have enabled businesses to answer leads' queries at any time with minimized human efforts. Thus, you need to ensure that the lead management software you purchase can integrate with chatbots, as most businesses these days are implementing chatbots on their websites to nurture leads and provide exceptional customer service.

Voice Search

The number of people using voice search is growing steadily, and you need to ensure that your lead management software is compatible with this new trend. People post context-specific long-tail keywords through voice search, which should be considered while executing lead-capturing strategies using your lead management software.

Personalization

As per recent research, 90% of US consumers find personalized marketing very or somewhat appealing. You need to ensure that the lead management software you choose includes the features that support you in implementing customized marketing efforts and approaching your leads in a customized manner.

Video Marketing

These days, people prefer watching videos rather than reading text. Videos have taken a prominent place in social media marketing. The lead management software you select should be compatible enough to execute this trend within your digital marketing efforts.

Artificial Intelligence

These days, marketers are using Artificial Intelligence to identify the quality of leads and implement better decision-making strategies. The use of AI in lead management may not be new, but it is evolving and becoming more popular. AI focuses more on probabilistic decision-making and thus helps businesses make their sales and marketing processes highly accurate and effective.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is based on data science and can optimize and improve the performance of marketing campaigns. It can also help in qualifying leads more effectively and allow high-level decision-making with ease. Implementing machine learning in your lead management process means future-proofing your business and achieving heights beyond your expectations.

The cost of the lead management software depends on the features it includes and its deployment. There are many lead management systems available, starting from $1/month to $1000/one-time subscription charges.

For example, Miraget Leads is available for $1/ month, whereas Salesmate CRM is $12/month, LeadSquared is $150/month, and LeadSpedia is $1000/month. You can select the best one based on your features, requirements, and budget.

If you are not comfortable with monthly subscription plans, you can choose a Lead Scrape, which is available at $97/year, or Integrate, which is available at $9995/year, depending on your business requirements and budget.

The businesses do not prefer many times, monthly, and yearly subscription plans. They like to pay one time and own the subscription. There is lead management software like Teknovate CRM at $750 and DigitalCRM at $1000 one-time subscription charges that you can consider.

Most of these lead management solutions, which are available at subscription-based prices, include free trial options so that users can try them before making a purchase decision.

If investing in new software is not on your list right now, you can select a free and open-source lead management software that can be customized and implemented without investing a considerable amount. In this case, you may need to spend on the required infrastructure and remuneration for your technical team.

Still, there is a dilemma about which lead management software would suit you in terms of price and functionality. We would recommend you to go through the list of the best lead management tools curated by the Goodfirms team because -

• Goodfirms follows a systematic approach toward listing software and services based on various important parameters and selects only the best in emerging technologies and techniques.
• Besides providing detailed information about each lead management software, Goodfirms also includes authentic and legitimate reviews to help you make smart purchasing decisions.
• Goodfirms is considered one of the most trusted research firms. We update details about software, services, and reviews frequently, helping you access the latest and authoritative information.

Generating leads is not enough; you must also have an effective process for managing them to gain more conversions. Lead management software can manage innumerable leads generated from multiple marketing campaigns, whether online or offline. Streamline all interactions with your leads, score and qualify them efficiently, and ensure that you gain maximum conversions with minimum effort.

We hope that this buyer's guide to lead management software has helped you select the right lead management system for your requirements. You can also contact our experts and consultants for more information on this subject.