In the sales industry, work flow-automation technologies are some of the most important time-saving strategies for salespeople and managers.

Customer relationship management (CRM) applications, for example, have changed the way sales leads are managed. With a CRM system, sales leads generated through telemarketing, response cards, trade shows, Web forms, and other sources are entered into a central database and automatically routed to the correct salesperson.

Managing these leads once they’ve been routed to your virtual in-box can be daunting, but adopting some of the following practices will help you stay on top of your sales leads:

• Don’t let leads pile up in your in-box; tackle them as soon as possible.
• Sequence leads to cycle through them in order, whether you tackle the hot leads first or save the best for last.
• Allow ample time to move through an entire batch of leads without interruption.
• Once you connect with a lead and establish a groundwork for sale, upgrade the lead to a contact and maintain the record in a database.
• Update your records regularly as you develop a history with a client.
• Dial in from the field to update your data at least once a day. If you wait two or more days, the updates will pile up and take longer to download.

There are different ways to work with CRM platforms, depending on your budget for the technology and on how your salesforce should best access it. Read Web-Enabled vs. Web-Based CRM Solutions for an overview of some of the key choices.

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