December 2018 Rethinking lead management in an omnichannel sales environment

Both NSCs and Dealer Groups generate their own leads, manage lead management tracking processes, operate business development centres and use third party lead providers. Legacy systems and tools complicate activity in every part of the process, resulting in duplication of data, effort and communication. There remains little end to end visibility of the customer flow from an NSC or Dealer point of view; whilst most players see some of the flow, no one sees all, and the result is that, from a customer point of view, there is no seamless customer journey.

New tools and third party providers are emerging to better integrate the legacy methods and frameworks, as pragmatic bolt-on solutions to whatever is already in place today. However, there are a number of issues to be addressed to better integrate lead management with wider omnichannel strategy:

• Resolving and mitigating the long-standing issues created by the complex IT legacy

• Addressing the fair use of customer data and journey history within a competitive franchised network

• Focusing on the quality of customer experience and relevance of communication, rather than a focus on process and auditing of process adherence

• Deciding on the role of third party solutions in integrating the flow of information and customer experience

We interviewed National Sales Companies, systems providers, dealer groups and third party lead providers in order to clarify current typical and leading practices in lead management, and thoughts on future direction. In our webinar, we discussed the picture today and our evaluation of what needs to happen next to make lead management more effective for all partners in an omnichannel environment.