The corporate world will tell you that it’s a real hassle to manage project deadlines.

Ah, the ever-persistent struggle of trying to meet a professional due date, we’ve all been there.

And yet, with no deadline in sight, there would be no feeling of pressure, focus, or desire to put things into motion.

It is in fact, thanks to due dates existing that we can boost professional efficiency, work harder, smarter, and better—and stare down that dreadful deadline with confidence.

Yes, projects can be delayed, and deadlines, fully ignored.

At the same time, the perils of not meeting a deadline or a given project due date may cost you double the time, money, and effort down the line.

The good news is, missing a due date can be a thing of the past.

Below, we dissect why deadlines are important and what you can do to ensure you never miss a due date again.

Why Are Deadlines Important?

So, why are deadlines important? Out of the many credible reasons, we emphasize the following:

• To make certain that we finish our task! It’s really simple to put off or overlook a project that has no set deadline. This will most probably be avoided with the use of deadlines.
• To promote a seamless working process. A project due date allows us to work together respecting a common objective and timeline, keeping complicated tasks right on schedule.
• To establish expectations. Due dates specify what we must deliver and when. This then tells us what we need to take charge of, seamlessly and confusion-free.

We don’t want to be too dramatic, but the inability to meet a deadline might potentially have catastrophic effects—think hospitals and professionals in these industries. At the other end of the spectrum on a day-to-day basis, it can impair your image and job chances no matter the industry you’re in—particularly if missing deadlines becomes a regular habit. From a team perspective, it can also be harmful to the association’s reputation.

Now that we’ve covered why (dreaded) deadlines are important, let’s now turn to why—and we are not playing the blame game here—project deadlines are missed in the first place.

Why Do We Miss Project Deadlines?

Right off the bat, postponing a single assignment may cause delays on other projects.

Consequently, this causes a chain reaction down the timeline management plan. Plus, constant delays hurt the whole team and its core performance and raise questions concerning the task manager’s abilities. In the worst-case scenario, delays can also make it trickier for these individuals to acquire future jobs.

As a rule of thumb, there are 5 chief reasons why we miss project deadlines, and they’re as follows:

• Inadequate preparation
• Inaccurate estimates
• Non-engaging companies or tasks
• Incompetence in the role assigned
• Continually shifting demands

You may want to focus on the tactics of managing deadlines and avoidable setbacks by inspecting these elements more closely.

Luckily, we’re here to let you in on what makes these aspects crucial in reigniting your workflow power.

So. How Should We Manage Deadlines?

Most of us are likely to embrace the given project due date. Still, it is critical to think about the project deadline thoroughly—and prior to committing to it.

Because employees and project managers routinely misjudge how long a task will actually take to finish, the timeframe you’ve been given may not correspond to what you can realistically achieve. If possible, project deadlines ought to be established unreasonably early, as to avoid complications surging from delayed delivery!

So, the most important question to ask before you even start a project due date is—how do you manage deadlines?

Wonder not!

Here are 6 tactics to get you from missing due dates to smashing them days early.

Tactic #1 – Determine What’s Considered Necessary

To begin, you must comprehend the nature of the given assignment. If you have a tight due date for a complex job or task, analyze the business requirements of the project, way before you even start working on it. Simply, just follow the structure, head to toe, and if you’re still missing something or can’t comply with the given project deadline, ask your manager or team leader for further assistance or relevant information.

Whoever gave you the project should, in theory at least, have put into consideration the base project’s intricacy. Here, there’s a slight chance of mismanaging the project.

To mend the issue, after you’ve determined what the actual project requires of you, estimate how much time you need to finish the task to meet the agreed-upon deadline.

Tactic #2 – Obtain The Required Information And Tools

Following the initial tactic, you should also double-check that you have every resource, piece of relevant information, and necessary tool possible. This way, you can fulfill your project deadline management more efficiently.

Have you been provided with everything you need to complete the task to the desired standards? Do you have access to the personnel, gear, instructions, or resources you will use to complete the task on time? These are not rhetorical questions.

If you don’t have everything that you need at your disposal to meet project deadlines, you may need to propose a longer timeline or quality reduction, or the scope of work you’ll be able to produce in the given time frame. There’s nothing shameful about being honest, respectfully approach your manager and inform them that you may not be able to finish the project by the due date without resources.

Tactic #3 – Be Prepared For Issues

Because situations don’t always go according to your original plan, it’s fundamental that you factor in potential issues arising in your project plan.

Next thing—Don’t panic!

Stressing out will only cause you to lose more valuable time in meeting the project deadline, and have you lose efficiency as well. You should always consider how you falling sick, equipment dying on you, or another top-priority assignment popping up may disrupt your workflow and have a major impact on the project deadline.

Determine the alternatives you might be able to create so you can lessen the blow. Also, make sure to inform your colleagues or team leaders of any issues as soon as they arise – maybe they’ll cover for you until you can regain your cool. Apart from this, communication is vital within any team-based task.

Tactic #4 – Develop A Detailed Scheme

The next thing you should consider is developing a thorough timetable and scheme so you can get your project deadline management up and running. Breaking things into bits and pieces, and setting a project due date for each and every single piece is a useful strategy to adopt.

In turn, you may discover that you’ll require more energy and time than what the total project deadline permits. Make sure to bring this up at once rather than crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. When you can monitor how you’re doing with the project management deadline you’ll get it done faster.

Tactic #5 – Keep Diversions To A Reasonable Level

Diversions frequently cause a project’s due date to be exceeded. These diversions can stem from any source. Either way, it’s critical to understand and prevent the things distracting you from doing so, and as fast as possible. Operate in silence, if listening to music has your thoughts all mixed up. Or, if you like some acid jazz to go with your data analysis, put on some headphones and get in the flow. If needed, remove yourself from bad working environments and find a place where your thoughts are clearer so you can get things done.

Tactic #6 – Don’t Leave It To The Last Minute

Waiting till the last possible second to complete your task will sway your project deadline management off track. It’s the worst possible thing you can do and rarely does anyone perform well under this sort of pressure. To try and catch up, workers tend to drive themself too hard and initiate key errors, leading to burnout and bad quality work.

To stay on track, begin your task immediately so you beat your deadline to the chase, not the other way around.

Ok. We’re Not Perfect. What Can We Do When We Miss A Project’s Due Date?

Yes, we’re all guilty of missing a project deadline or two.

There’s no point in sulking when you’ve missed a project due date. So, here’s what to do if you’ve fluffed your lines and missed a due date.

Tactic #1 – Work On Your Principles

That’s right, first, you should work on yourself before you get into another project deadline. Make a strong statement if necessary, learn to say “no,” or at the very least, allow yourself time to consider the project due date prior to agreeing. Make a mental shift rather than hating your project deadlines and have a constructive attitude about them.

Do not confuse “planned” with “performing.” It really doesn’t matter how great your idea is, at the end of the day, it’s still just an idea. Put it into practice once you’ve got it. Utilize your time frame wisely. You won’t get anywhere if you multitask—even the inefficient ones know that.

Tactic #2 – Refuel Your Body With Occasional Meals

Refueling your body and mind with occasional meals accomplishes dual goals. You’ll keep your energy at high levels while also staying updated with the project management deadline. Most individuals work too hard to reach a project due date and forget to take breaks and keep their tummy from being upset.

As a consequence, they’re likely to become lethargic, irrational, and unmotivated. All of this may be prevented by something as simple as a quick lunch and coffee break!

Tactic #3 – Limit The Consequences Of A Late Deadline

Regardless of your diligence and careful planning, you may still miss a project due date. Don’t worry and keep it cool, make every attempt to reduce the discomfort you’re feeling. Keep your clients updated on your development throughout the whole project, noting any challenges that might have caused the delay. This way, you can get by with your project deadline management.

You should also demonstrate that you’re implementing every resource. At the end of the day, if you don’t meet a certain project deadline, it won’t be 100% your fault. Moreover, if you don’t deliver the project in a timely manner, your coworkers and project managers will be aware of the problem—and more willing to lend a helping hand, too.

It’s vital that you cope with the problem at hand as swiftly as possible, and negotiate about reaching a newly established project deadline.

Good Project Management Makes the Dream Work

Whatever you do, try not to fall behind the team. Otherwise, you may find yourself driving down all of your coworkers to a professional rut—or worse, the whole company. Instead, take a breather, notice your progress and plan your way forward before tackling those project management deadlines like the pro you are!

Remember—not all delays will always be your fault since certain tasks can’t realistically be completed in the given project due date time without sacrificing quality!

Don’t burden yourself with these tasks head-on, and quickly ensure you have a few extra days or spare time to get ahead with your schedule. This is best done by addressing the team manager as soon as possible.

Lastly, you need to pay full attention to all intricacies the project comes with and recheck one last time before delivering.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to keep hydrated (water or coffee works) and don’t work on an empty stomach!

If your business is stagnant, doing the same thing day in and day out, it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to see growth and success. Every business needs to evolve to remain competitive in the market. So the question isn’t ‘do we need to change things up?’, it’s actually ‘how should we evolve?’

Business process improvement (BPI) is an approach that identifies areas where the business could improve, redesigning the existing business processes to increase effectiveness and optimize performance. For the modern organization, undergoing a business process improvement is an ongoing necessity.

Every business has hundreds of processes, whether they have to do with community management, procurement, onboarding, or sales. They usually fall into one of these categories – operational, management, supporting. Operational activities are those that repeat every day, such as administrative, advertising, and sales activities. Management activities concentrate on human resources, financials, monitoring, and delegation. Supporting activities are the remaining undertakings such as recruitment, accounting, and IT support.

All tasks and activities require regular evaluation to determine if there are inefficiencies or room for improvement. When opportunities for improvement are identified, that’s where BPI comes in.

Luckily, you don’t have to go into BPI blind. Several BPI methodologies can help you achieve your goal, as they give you a framework that you can apply to your strategy.

Here are a few of the most popular ones:

Six Sigma

Six Sigma was first developed in the 1980s at Motorola to measure defects and improve overall quality. It was then popularized by General Electic, who wanted to reduce waste, improve the quality of the product, and save money. Today, companies all over the world use Six Sigma. Six Sigma contains two methodologies – DMAIC, which is used to improve an existing process, and DMADV, which is used when you want to create a new process.

For BPI, you would use DMAIC, which stands for:

Define – Define the problem
Measure – Quantify the problem
Analyze – Identify the cause of the problem
Improve – Solve the issue and verify improvement
Control – Maintain the returns

One interesting branch of the Six Sigma methodology is the Lean Thinking approach. The Lean Thinking approach considers everything in terms of the value to the customer – if they don’t bring value, they must be eliminated. It’s a great way of thinking when looking for process improvement opportunities. The customer is usually at the core of our business, so putting forefront the notion that value-added processes should be valuable to them, ultimately increasing the customer’s satisfaction.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Under TQM, every organization section must draw customers, and their activities and processes should have customer values in mind. It aligns the entire organization to the same goal productively, and that’s what makes it unique.

One example of TQM’s success is AlantiCare, a healthcare provider located in New Jersey. Alanticare ensured that every individual in their organization gave essential feedback about the healthcare products they manufactured. Observing products from every perspective, including customer service, HR, marketing, etc., led to a total improvement of their products. Implementing TQM ended up boosting the company’s revenue, from $280m to $650m.

Implementing TQM in your organization can help everyone look for process improvement opportunities, as all employees will understand that customer values are at the center of the organization.

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

The Theory of Constraints framework uses a focusing process to identify constraints that affect the organization’s ability to achieve a goal and ultimately find a way to eliminate or work around it. This approach allows the company to increase productivity, streamline product flow, and optimize workflow.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical company, is a great example of how TOC can benefit an organization. Before implementing TOC, they faced high backorders and low supplier ratings. After implementing TOC, they tightened the supply chain to focus on better inventory management, finances, and project management. They started to track operating expenses, simplifying management accounting and reporting. Their success saw them win the best supplier of the year award.

When you think about the constraints hindering success and achievement in your organization, you will begin to see the opportunities for process improvement.

While these approaches provide us with a great framework to improve processes in our businesses, there are steps that we can follow to help commence the process improvement.

Step 1: Identify what needs to change.

The first step is to look at your business processes, across the categories of operational, management, and support, at a high level. Think about what needs to change and why. Here is where you will find the process improvement opportunities. Get people from different departments and ranks involved to help you gain diverse perspectives and understand the company’s pain points. Think about how changing resource requirement levels of different processes would benefit the organization, what saved resources could be put towards.

You can also start with a goal and think about what opportunities there are for process improvement that would lead to achieving that objective. Let’s take Howard Bank as an example; they wanted to spend more time connecting with their new customers during the account opening process. They chose to improve the process efficiencies to achieve this. With a more streamlined process, the bank could engage in more meaningful conversations with customers, learn more about their financial needs, and give them a better experience.

Step 2: Think about how you’ll realistically improve this.

Now that you know what needs to be improved, you’ll need to come up with a plan to execute. Analyze the process in detail, examining where roadblocks are being created, what is taking up the most time unnecessarily, where costs are being wasted, and the impact on quality and delivery. You’ll want to make sure you talk to the people involved here; gaining their perspective on where improvements can be made will help you deeply understand the process.

Step 3: Get the right sign-offs and resource allocation.

In every business, a change to a process will require certain approvals and authorization. Once you have a solid idea of what needs to be improved and how you’ll do it, you can bring this to the necessary people. Here is where you should have an understanding of the resources required as well. Let senior management know what you need from them to execute.

Step 4: Make it happen.

Now that you’ve got an understanding of the process you’re going to improve, how you’ll do it, the approvals, and the resources allocated, it’s time to get going. Organize this as a project because it is one. Plan it out, allocate resources, assign a team and dedicate a deadline.

Well-thought-out project scheduling allows businesses to establish when a team should begin and finish working on a deliverable, with resources and objectives in mind. Typically, a complete schedule will outline a variety of parameters like durations, dependencies, resource availability, and deadlines. As a result, this will allow the team and stakeholders to have a better understanding of the amount of work that has to be done, in what sequence, and at what time.

In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the benefits of project scheduling and why your team should consider reaping the benefits of this practice.

Let’s jump into it.

So, what is project scheduling?

Basically, a project schedule is an essential project management tool that helps teams navigate a project by defining the scope of work that has to be performed and the timeframes associated with it. Similarly, it outlines the necessary skills and the resources required for every task, the order in which they occur, project milestones and interdependencies, as well as the overall project timeline.

Along with that, an important part of project scheduling is analyzing resource availability—this enables project managers to understand the spectrum of resources that are available to their team, when they’re available, and under what conditions. Failing to take these aspects into account may often result in delays and discrepancies in the deliverables.

It’s also important to mention that project schedules come with a fair share of flexibility, allowing you to adapt to the people and organizations that use them. Here are a few common formats:

• Master project schedule — a surface-level roadmap that outlines the essential tasks and the time allocated to each of them. These schedules are typically used to provide a high-level overview for senior management or external stakeholders that don’t really need an in-depth breakdown of a project.
• Milestone schedule — these documents outline the major milestones of a project but don’t necessarily feature every task or deliverable. It’s a helpful reference point when reporting status and helping teams provide context for the progress made so far.
• Detailed project schedule — this document typically offers an in-depth understanding of the milestones and their subtasks and activities. It’s especially useful for the team and managers and allows them to keep track of every detail of the project.

What are the benefits of project scheduling?

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” is probably one of the most concise and insightful answers to this question—but it would be a shame if we didn’t explore this topic in more depth. So here goes:

Enables detailed analysis and planning

This is probably one of the most important benefits scheduling has to offer. By brainstorming and analyzing a project’s needs, deadlines, and deliverables, you’ll be able to foresee a wide array of potential issues and bottlenecks, as well as plan milestones in a more thoughtful manner.

It’s actually easier to outline the benefits of scheduling by thinking about how a project would proceed without this process in place.

Obviously, there would be a lot of guesswork in place that would result in a significant lack of sync between team members. As a result, this leads to missed deadlines and extra expenses for business owners, along with a variety of other issues that project managers would prefer to avoid.

Allows for better management and communication

Fundamentally, a project schedule is more than just an action plan; it’s a roadmap designed to make a project efficient and streamlined by aligning dependencies, resources, personnel, activities, deliverables, and a host of other crucial elements.

Aside from streamlining the project itself, a detailed schedule allows project leaders or project managers to communicate a team’s progress, performance, and success to stakeholders based on KPIs.

Helps keep close track of progress

Fundamentally, scheduling provides teams with a detailed framework that allows them to track the progress of a project. This ensures that the people on a team receive regular and valuable feedback about the quality of work and overall performance.

With schedules, project leaders can keep track of slipping tasks and potential delays, ensuring that these problems can be addressed and communicated as soon as they arise.

Enables efficient resource management

Scheduling is critical when it comes to planning, managing, and keeping track of the efficiency of the resources involved in a project that range from people to software and finances. Appropriately resourced plans help optimize the sequence and duration of activities and make sure that they alternate smoothly.

Stimulates accountability

We’ve published quite a few articles on accountability on the Teamly blog—we believe that it’s one of the most important components of a successful and efficient workplace. Schedules are absolutely critical when it comes to stimulating accountability because they provide people with a crystal-clear understanding of their responsibilities and the deadlines associated with them.

Furthermore, this provides people with a fair amount of context in regards to what their colleagues are working on and how a person’s work is codependent on the work of others on the team. Unfortunately, this is an often overlooked benefit of scheduling. This broader understanding of how your work ties into the work of others helps eliminate a whole array of issues and misunderstandings during a project, ensuring better focus and coordination.

Ensures better financial performance

Scheduling will have a massive impact on the financial side of a project. This is especially relevant when a project is under serious time constraints.

Developing products is a fairly costly affair and keeping things within schedule is extremely important for business owners and investors.

Furthermore, a disorganized development process also invariably leads to a wide array of bugs that will have to be addressed at a certain point, and, unfortunately, the further a project is into the process, the more costly it is to address these issues.

Adequate estimating and scheduling will help teams keep their costs low as well as prevent unexpected expenses.

Enables better quality control

Schedules are critical when it comes to ensuring and maintaining quality due to the fact that they enable teams to outline the project needs and stakeholder or client expectations. As a result, teams can strategize projects to allow for extensive product testing, avoiding last-minute changes and delays that will end up increasing the bottom line. So by ensuring that a project’s timeline and resources are well-thought-out ahead of time, there are plenty of opportunities to accelerate work and mitigate unwanted expenses.

The bottom line

There is a wide array of factors that make project schedules an extremely valuable part of any project and project management in general.

By taking the time to strategize over a project’s schedule, a team will be able to:

• Thoroughly analyze a project’s requirements and available resources and, as a result, establish critical codependencies, which will significantly boost delivery time and eliminate a wide array of bugs and issues.
• Communicate progress across the entire company structure.
• Stimulate accountability and provide the whole team with essential context to help eliminate a vast amount of bottlenecks and misunderstandings.
• Ensure higher product quality and less wasted resources.

Building up your customer base and figuring out how to manage leads can be challenging for many businesses. While some seem to do this easily and skyrocket to success, many don’t have that kind of origin story. There are many factors that determine how a company continues to grow its customer base, however, there is one in particular that these highly successful businesses have mastered. The one big thing these companies excel at is generating hot leads (and closing them)! For any business to succeed, they need to learn how to manage leads – and use them to increase sales!

What Are Sales Leads?

Sales leads are the people who are most likely to become paying clients. While these clients may easily transition from discovering your business to purchasing, most times, there’s a lot more that goes into converting a newly curious prospect into a hot lead ready for your marketing team to close the deal on a final sale! This process is called lead management, and when you have all the right steps in place, your sales will be on the rise.

How Can Sales Leads Help Your Business?

Having strong lead management is essential to any company’s workflow system. It’s more than simply increasing sales. When you have a proper strategy for managing sales leads, you’re able to provide your marketing team with hot leads, making their final sale much less time-consuming and easier to navigate any resistance from the customer. Not only is it reducing the stress on your marketing team, but when done correctly, it provides clear direction for everyone on your sales team, allows for greater collaboration, and creates a strong company culture.

Now that we know what sales leads are and how they can help your business, how do you manage sales leads effectively?

The 7 Best Practice To Manage Leads

There are 7 essential elements to creating a lead management system to support your team. While certain aspects of these may already be active in your company, when you combine them into one system working towards a common goal, they can become a powerful tool to accelerate sales!

1. Know Your Target Audience

This is essential to any business and is often something that is created early on in the development process, but will likely evolve over time. When you’re first creating your lead management system, knowing your ideal audience, and exactly who you will be curating your content to is something that can make or break the entire process. If you don’t already have a clear understanding of your ideal customer, consider asking yourself:

• “How old are they?”
• “What’s their gender?”
• “What’s their income?”
• “What demographic would they fit into?”
• “What would they want from your services or products?”
• “What benefit are you providing them?”
• “How would they find your products or services?”

All of these questions will help you create a picture of who you are marketing your services to, and it will help you develop your brand voice and marketing techniques across your online presence.

This is what will influence every other stage of your lead management system.

2. Assess Your Leads

As leads begin coming through, it is essential that you rank them according to how likely they are to become customers, with your hottest leads at the top and your coldest ones at the bottom.

The 3 main influencing factors to rate your leads include:

1. Timeline

If your leads are connected to a deal that has a specific time frame, it is important to include that in your rating system. The sooner the deal closes, the more important those potential clients become, as their sale has a natural expiration date.

2. Price point

Secondly, include how much the lead could generate in revenue. How much is this customer expected to pay? This will help you rate your best income leads higher on the list to make the most profit from all your incoming leads.

3. Actions

Lastly, be aware of your potential customer’s actions to help you decide if they are a high priority for your marketing team to engage with. Consider things like:

• How long they spend on certain, highly converting pages of your site
• If they spent a certain amount of time browsing your pricing page
• If they are engaging in your email campaigns
• If they are recurring readers of your blogs (and if they interact with them!)
• If they completed any forms on your site
• Or if they signed up for any promotional items you offer

All of these things reflect how likely a potential lead is to become a paying customer, and will help you with ranking any leads that come from the lead generating systems you have in place.

3. Define What A Hot Lead Looks Like

In order for your team to know which leads are most important to hand off to your marketing team, they must know how your company defines a hot lead. Your criteria can include:

• If a lead is coming from an email campaign, and at what stage in the campaign they are coming from
• If they are a recurring visitor to your website
• How they navigate your site
• How they arrive at your site (do you find higher converting leads from a certain social platform?)

While this information can overlap with your lead rating system, it is important to include this information as a hot lead definition to ensure your team collectively understands how to identify the hottest leads coming in, and send them to your sales team immediately.

4. Collect Information

Having top-notch landing pages and forms for potential customers to engage with is paramount. These forms are your first point of contact with the customer and are how you will ensure you get all the most important information prior to making direct contact with the customer. Both sales and marketing teams will need to develop these forms together to ensure no vital prompts for information are missing, allowing you to get a greater understanding of the potential customer and how warm they are.

5. Nurture Your Cooler Leads

Not all leads that come through will be hot, or even warm. Some people take longer to commit to a sale than others and will require you to build a relationship with them prior to moving on to any next steps.

An important aspect of nurturing your leads is an email campaign (or several depending on your business and what you offer). These campaigns will help you stay relevant and in their minds (so they don’t forget about you!) and help you create a foundation of trust with them. There are some important rules to follow when designing your nurture sequences. These include:

• Provide Value: Make sure every email you send provides the reader with some form of value. No one likes spam, and unsubscribe rates are high when customers see emails that lack relevance. The value you offer can range from links to blogs or podcasts, promotional items, or even free gifts that tie into your services. People love being rewarded for being part of your subscription list.
• Reference Past Emails: This helps the reader recall other posts and adds layers to the relationship you are building.
• Be Conversational: When you let personality come through your emails, people are much more likely to connect with the contents of it, and with your brand. Talk to them like they’re a friend.
• Keep Emails Brief: Long emails can seem daunting. When people open them, your run the risk of them immediately closing the email because of the time it will take to read it. If you do need to make your email longer, make sure it’s packed with value and is entertaining the entire read. Don’t add anything that isn’t relevant.
• Don’t Overwhelm Their Inbox! This is an important one. If you send a series of emails in a short period of time, you risk not only becoming annoying but also decreasing the importance and value of your emails!

Don’t give up on leads that aren’t hot and ready to buy. Nurture your relationship with them and over time, they may become a valued customer.

6. Address Any Lead Roadblocks

Occasionally, you’ll notice a lead pathway will become blocked, with none from that avenue making it through to a conversion. Sometimes this simply comes from the lead generation not reaching the people who would benefit enough from your product or service. It may also be that you’re reaching the wrong demographic and those being introduced to what you’re offering can’t meet the financial requests.

When this happens, there are two options you can turn to in hopes of opening up that lead generation system again.

• Edit Or Delete It: If you’ve noticed a particular system hasn’t been providing good conversion over a specified period of time, you can edit the bounds of it, adjust the settings of your ads, or rewrite sales pages. You could also choose to delete that pathway all together and begin developing a new one that may be a better fit for your target audience at that time.
• Open Up A Limited Offer: Limited-time-only deals are always a great way to bring a lead pathway back to life. This can help coax people into finally making the jump and purchasing, while also becoming more intriguing to newcomers.

7. Measure Your Lead Management

Once you have designed your lead system, and have fully implemented it, then it is time to measure the system’s success. Keep track of:

• where your highest-converting customers are coming from,
• how many hot leads turned into sales, and
• at what stage of the nurture sequence people transitioned into hotter leads.

Be aware of the conversions and know when they are happening most frequently. Use this information to optimize your lead management system for efficiency and success.