How furniture manufacturers can effectively make lead management easy

Furniture manufacturing is a wide and diverse industry, from stunning hand crafted, artisanal pieces that stand out as unique, to mass produced simplicity, there is a huge range of products, designs, and styles - and a vast pool of potential customers looking for them. The challenge comes in connecting your business with those customers, standing out from the crowd to be the manufacturer of choice, and to generate worthwhile leads on a regular basis. In this article, we look at why lead management can be challenging for furniture manufacturers, how lead management can be made easy with the right software, and what you should be looking at when selecting your lead management tools.

Why can lead management be so challenging for furniture manufacturers?

Furniture manufacture is a worldwide industry, one that sees massive variation from country to country, often dependent on the cultural aesthetic and traditions of that location, as well as a need for standardised designs and ranges that have a more global appeal.

This need to balance local aesthetics and a wider appeal means that furniture manufacturers have to have a clear idea of who they are going to target, where and when. Naturally, this means there are a lot of potential niches and areas to target, which can lead to large volumes of data, and a need to absolutely stay on top of your lead activity.

Lead management for furniture manufacturers can be further complicated by:

• Identifying specific customers for specific products on a set scale.
• Segmenting leads based on products and availability.
• Availability of materials making specific lines or products difficult to manufacture and require buyers of a certain size.
• Lack of data making lead generation difficult or of poor quality.
• Delay in lead nurturing process causing missed opportunities.
• Low conversion rates due to lack of touchpoints or team follow-up.
• Seasonal availability predictions being inaccurate.

Any number of these challenges can cause delays and inefficiency within a business, and as a manufacturing industry, companies in furniture manufacturing have to be extremely aware of their time scales, material availability, and what customers (both individual and retail) may want from them, or are contracted to supply to them.

With TEB Apps, data lies at the core of its efficiency. Supported by automation and smart structuring, the TEB Apps programs work together, to provide accurate, timely, and easily accessible information. This approach allows you to boost your team's sales performance with TEB.

How can the right technology effectively make lead management easy?

In order to streamline lead management, and ensure effective sales funnels are in place, you need the right tools and technologies.

Tools that you should be making use of, at a minimum, should include:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
• CRM with mobile application
• Team management tools
• Tracking and analytic software
• Reporting tools
• Customer journey tracking and visualisation
• Lead management automation
• Sales funnels that can be viewed / analysed at every stage
• Sales / Refunds / Returns integration
• Stock management system
• Resource management system

The combination of these tools allows your business to become more effective, and put your resources to work in the best places. Whether you are working on providing a contracted amount of a particular type of furniture, or offering unique designs, being able to monitor your resources, determine your stock, and target the right people or businesses with your goods is key.

By using a data-driven approach to your lead management, and overall sales structure, you can:

• save time and money
• reduce human error
• effectively control stock management
• improve management efficiency

The easier you make it for your team to operate, and communicate with your teams on the manufacturing floor, the better you can focus your lead generation strategies, based on data, the amount of resources or products you have available, and what you will be able to provide at any given time.

What should you be looking for in lead management software solutions for your furniture manufacturing business?

Getting the right tools in place means you need to know your own systems, and what will work with them. If you have not been strategically handling your data application, and developing a specific data architecture to support your manufacturing tasks, then you need to start with this.

There are a number of key elements that are essential for lead management solutions to work for you, and you need to be looking at:

• Scalability of the software: Will your chosen platform provide solutions for your existing needs, and be capable of growing with your business?
• Ease of use: Is the platform easy to use, and supported by training and / or a usable knowledge base that will allow your team to feel confident and learn at an acceptable pace?
• Automated features: The bigger your company grows, the more day-to-day tasks become time consuming, but they are necessary to handle accurately. Does your chosen tool allow for automation, so your team are spending their time where they are most needed?
• Customisable usage: Off-the-shelf solutions rarely provide all of the options that your business needs, and quite often come with ones that you will never use. The right tools will be flexible, and able to support your needs, and actually give you what you need.

Grow your furniture manufacturing business with TEB Apps

Furniture manufacturers all over the world are currently adopting TEB Apps to maximise conversions and accelerate growth by using powerful automation and data management features. You can streamline your lead management processes and drive your conversion rate with key features such as:

• Centralised lead data – Centralise all of your lead data in user-friendly funnel views to easily pinpoint how your deals are progressing.
• Automate lead assigning – Automatically assign leads to sales representatives to drive your lead response time and boost your conversion rate.
• Set automated follow-up reminders – Avoid missing a follow-up with automated follow-up reminders to nurture leads effectively.
• Understand customer requirements – With in-depth lead tracking, and the ability to leave notes and attach documents to leads, you will get a fantastic understanding of your customer requirements.

Book a demo today and begin your automation journey to maximised conversions, boosted revenue and accelerated growth.