While every business or organization is striving to generate more and more opportunities to grow their Business or create avenues for continuous flow of new business, various new sources were identified and formed by this highly respected Mutual Fund house. To effectively try and win business out of these opportunities, it becomes necessary to not lose connect with them at any level of required interaction. These opportunities called as ‘Data’ or ‘Leads’ need to be engaged effectively and managed well through a closely collaborated process and so was LMS (Lead Management System) formed in FY13-14, to generate business from the data or leads generated through the digital campaigns or marketing activities, managed by the marketing function.
The senior management observed that there was not much business growth through LMS with only 10% increase in gross sales year-on-year, with additional challenges of losing leads when they were assigned to our sales team and distributors for closure due to lack of tracking mechanism. In urge of quick and increased growth from every possible platform to help achieve the organizational goals, the CEO realized the huge potential of LMS in catering to all forms of data or leads generated by the organization and being a business generator it should be driven by sales. So, the current head of sales enablement & emerging markets, Mr Deepak Gupta who earlier co-headed retail sales was selected as the project head by CEO, viewing his vast experience and deeper understanding of the Business, to identify the problems and opportunities to frame a strong process and scale the business possibilities.
A team was then formed by him identifying and recruiting a fresh brain, Mr Niladri Chatterjee (Channel Manager – Client Engagement) as the main driver of this project for new ideas, and involved Mr Rahul Gulekar (Head – Business Excellence) to ensure detailed Quality assessment of the project.
Post team formation, some major actionable involved:
- Brainstorming sessions with functional stakeholders to identify new, sustainable and cost effective lead sources or engagement activities
- Set up of e-mail notifications / reminders to sales or distributors through a TAT matrix
- Designed and published detailed dashboards or MIS reports
- Published success stories internally and initiated rewards and recognition to motivate the lead generators and business drivers
- Product trainings and refreshers with soft skill development sessions, were conducted
- Brought 95% automation in the process by developing LMS module on sales CRM
The business acquired through LMS, doubled up from previous financial year. The number of opportunities or data generated for lead identification also increased 2.33 times, simultaneously improving the conversion rate. Increased our focus on Customer Centricity and convinced ourselves of sustaining the growth.
Lessons Learned
- Problems or challenges to be read as opportunities
- A logical closure with collaboration is a necessity for every activity or event
- Quicker connect with interested minds, lead to higher success
- Knowledge refreshers and regular recognition drives motivation
- Sustenance is the key to grow and scale up success.
- Tracking and monitoring helps to drive the business as desired