RevOps as a Service - Lead Status

In the fast-paced business world of today, optimising revenue generation processes is crucial for staying ahead of the competition. This is where Revenue Operations (RevOps) comes in - a comprehensive approach to revenue growth that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success teams to work towards a common objective. One of the essential elements of RevOps is Lead Status, which involves tracking the progress of leads through the sales funnel and providing insights for ongoing enhancements.

This blog delves into how businesses can effectively manage their Lead Status and achieve sustainable revenue growth with the help of RevOps as a Service.

Why RevOps as a Service?

Many businesses struggle to maintain a sense of invincibility. This is particularly true in the realm of revenue operations (RevOps), which involves systematically maximising revenue potential. Unfortunately, few businesses have a dedicated team of RevOps experts to guide their go-to-market strategies and analyse their revenue models. Instead, these responsibilities often fall to random sales or marketing employees, resulting in subpar outcomes. Simply having "revenue" in a job title may not necessarily indicate a deep understanding of RevOps principles.

When a business turns to a company that specialises in offering RevOps as a service, it can experience the same feeling of invincibility. This is because outsourcing their revenue operations to experts can provide numerous benefits, without the need to hire a full-time, in-house RevOps team. These experts can review the current processes of the business and provide recommendations on how to optimise revenue potential in a repeatable way.

Lead Status - What is it? Why is it Important?

Tracking lead status is crucial to managing the sales and marketing cycle effectively. Essentially, lead status represents the current stage of a lead in the sales or marketing funnel. Without proper tracking and management, leads can easily slip through the cracks, resulting in missed opportunities and lost revenue.

However, by implementing a lead status system, businesses can ensure that all leads are accounted for and that no opportunities are lost. By clearly defining the various stages of the sales or marketing cycle, businesses can ensure that leads are handed off seamlessly between departments, reducing friction and streamlining the process.

Furthermore, tracking lead status helps teams prioritise their actions and plan their next steps more effectively. By understanding where a lead is in the sales or marketing cycle, teams can tailor their approach to the lead's specific needs, increasing the likelihood of success.

A RevOps as a Service company can help businesses optimise their lead status management by mapping out the different stages of the sales and marketing cycle and identifying areas for improvement. By working closely with businesses, these experts can provide insights and recommendations to drive revenue growth and improve customer experiences.

Stage Definitions

Having well-defined and agreed lead status descriptions for each stage is crucial to ensure that leads are handled properly and not prematurely moved from one stage to the next. With RevOps as a service, businesses can trust that their lead movements are handled in a timely and effective manner. Let's take a closer look at the different lead status descriptions that are commonly used:

• Nurture: These are inbound leads that marketing dept is nurturing to hand off to sales team. They mainly consist of leads who have occupied MOFU (middle of the funnel) or TOFU (top of the funnel) forms.
• Recycle: These are leads that may have expressed interest but are not ready to move forward with a purchase at the moment. They are a good fit for the product or service but need more time to make a decision.
• New/Not Contacted: These are leads that the business has not yet reached out to. This includes leads that are handed off from marketing dept after nurturing them and any who filled BOFU (bottom of the funnel) forms.
• In Progress/Sequence: These are leads that the business is actively working on in a sequence, reaching out to them through a series of emails and/or calls.
• Connected/Replied: These are leads that the business has been able to make contact with but are not yet opportunities. This lead may be waiting on a booked meeting or working to establish a budget.
• Attempted to Contact/No Reply: These are leads that the business has attempted to communicate via a sequence but didn't connect with. There is an opportunity to send them back to the marketing team for a nurture campaign.
• Open Deal: These are leads that have expressed interest in buying and have booked a meeting. They have a deal associated with them.
• Unqualified: These are leads that will never be fit for the product or service, and the business should not waste time pursuing them.

By understanding the definitions and the progression of each lead status, businesses can have a more comprehensive view of their sales funnel and make data-driven decisions on how to optimise it for sustainable revenue growth.

Guidelines

A team of RevOps experts typically follows a set of guidelines to maximise the effectiveness of lead status in HubSpot. Here are some examples of these guidelines and their descriptions:

• Contact Ownership: The team will review the current process and set clear guidelines for ownership of contacts between marketing and sales teams.
• Categorise Sales and Marketing Content: The team will categorise current and future content based on the top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) to understand the contact's buyer journey use those categories within lead status filters.
• Understand Sales and Marketing Activities: The team will review current sales and marketing activities and align them with the defined lead status stages.
• List Filters: The importance of filters used in lead status will be communicated, and they will be customised as per partner requirements.
• Universal Usage: All contacts in HubSpot, except lifecycle stage subscribers and contacts beyond the customer lifetime value (LTV), should have a lead status assigned.

What results to expect?

Effective lead status management ensures that each contact has a defined ownership, whether it belongs to marketing or sales. It provides a clear process for recycling and unqualifying leads, organises the pre-deal funnel for the sales team, and ensures that all contacts are properly segmented based on lists and workflows.

Rev up your RevOps

If your business is struggling to develop a robust RevOps plan, partnering with a trusted RevOps as a service provider can be a game-changer. Real Inbound offers proven RevOps services, ensuring that your business is equipped with the best practices and strategies to achieve sustainable revenue growth. With Real Inbound's expertise, you can achieve a newfound sense of confidence and invincibility in your RevOps plan.