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What Is Lead Management?

Elyse Archer, Founder and CEO of She Sells

Level up your lead management with best practices and software recommendations, and increase your win rates for good.

August 1, 2025

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Lead Management FAQs

Effective lead management empowers reps to focus on the leads that are of the highest value to the business. That value is calculated in a number of ways, but typically depends on the likelihood of closing, the likely value of the deal, and the probable loyalty or retention of the customer once a deal is closed.

Leads can come in from any number of places and often represent an array of characteristics. A CRM allows sales teams to consolidate lead engagement details and profile information, consolidating data and calculating the highest-value leads based on metrics like likelihood to close and estimated deal value. Most CRMs also have built-in analytics capabilities, allowing sales teams to track lead engagement, close rates, and retention.

Lead scoring is a calculation of a lead's perceived value based on the likelihood of converting, the estimated amount of a closed deal, the probability of retention, and lifetime value. Lead scores can (and often are) customized to meet the unique needs of a business, customer base, or industry.

A lead manager is the "quality control" for lead generation, overseeing the lead capture and qualification process to ensure that leads are properly engaged, nurtured, and passed to sales teams. They lean heavily on lead data to track this, guiding their optimization of lead generation strategies.