Have you ever faced this frustrating scenario: pouring substantial advertising budgets into campaigns, only to see the generated leads disappear like stones dropped into the ocean, with conversion rates disappointingly low? In the home furnishing industry, where the standard sales path follows "phone number acquisition → phone/WeChat communication → final transaction," marketing performance often directly determines a company's survival.
For the head of Stonecross Logistics Navigation, transitioning from a service provider to a client role revealed a crucial insight: merely focusing on volume, cost control, and scale enhancement isn't enough. The real determinant of success lies in back-end conversion.
The Small Advertiser's Dilemma: Soaring Lead Costs and Dismal Conversion Rates
For resource-limited small advertisers, back-end operations present particularly severe challenges. Lacking professional CRM systems, these companies often struggle with incomplete user lead management processes and fail to establish standardized timelines. Lead follow-ups frequently depend on manual operations, resulting in inefficiency and significant human-factor interference.
Duplicate and Invalid Leads: A Costly Drain on Resources
The initial attempts by Stonecross Logistics Navigation yielded painful results. Nearly half of the $2,000 worth of acquired leads proved worthless—either fake numbers, unreachable contacts, or disinterested customers. In the home furnishing sector, where a single valid lead can cost $15-$60, such high wastage rates represent a devastating drain on advertising budgets.
The Silent Killer: Lead Attrition in Extended Conversion Cycles
The home furnishing sales process involves numerous extended stages where any oversight can cause quality leads to slip away. Stonecross's team once suffered zero conversion rates despite investing tens of thousands of dollars. Detailed analysis revealed the problem wasn't front-end advertising but critical flaws in the back-end conversion process.
A Turning Point: How Tencent's Lead Management Platform Changed the Game
A chance conversation with a successful training industry executive revealed their use of Tencent's lead management platform—surprising since the company had its own tech team. Intrigued, Stonecross began exploring the platform and discovered it effectively addressed their core challenges. The system combined powerful functionality with user-friendly operation, enabling unified lead management, faster follow-ups, and higher call connection rates—all significantly improving lead validity and conversions.
From Spreadsheets to Systems: The Data Management Revolution
Before adopting the platform, Stonecross relied on Excel sheets and WeChat notes for lead tracking—a primitive approach prone to errors that wasted valuable leads and burdened sales staff. Manual methods created fragmented processes with inconsistent formatting and frequent oversights. Each lead represented real advertising dollars, and delayed follow-ups directly reduced closing probabilities.
The realization came clear: lead management requires professional tools. Human-centric approaches invite employee fatigue, inconsistent follow-ups, errors, and transition problems during staff changes, while system-based management ensures stability and reliability.
Unified Management: Breaking Down Data Silos
Tencent's platform solved Stonecross's information silo problem by consolidating leads from multiple accounts and channels—including ByteDance platforms—into one view. Management efficiency improved dramatically as executives could monitor all lead activity without switching between platforms, saving time and preventing data loss while creating a stronger foundation for conversions.
Speed Matters: Capturing the Golden Window for Follow-ups
Among factors affecting lead validity, response time proves most critical. The sooner contact occurs after lead generation, the higher the chance customers remember their inquiry and maintain transaction intent. Previously, Stonecross frequently missed leads due to flawed processes, resulting in follow-up calls to customers who'd forgotten submitting their numbers.
Tencent's dual-notification system solved this. Administrators add employee information and provide public QR codes for binding, enabling WeChat alerts. When new leads arrive, administrators receive instant WeChat notifications to assign leads, while employees get alerts directing them to the platform's mini-program for immediate action—with reminders repeating every 15 minutes to ensure prompt handling.
SMS notifications supplement this system, sending texts to assigned employees with direct links to follow up. This dual-channel approach guarantees timely lead processing, dramatically reducing attrition.
For Stonecross, these alerts proved vital. Salespeople can't constantly monitor lead dashboards while handling customer communications—especially during evenings and holidays. The platform's automated reminders ensure prompt follow-ups while letting administrators verify response times, significantly boosting efficiency.
Boosting Connection Rates: Dual-Channel Customer Alerts
Call connection rates formed another critical challenge. Initially, Stonecross's team connected with fewer than half their calls, demoralizing staff. The solution came through Tencent's post-submission SMS alerts—automated texts confirming information receipt and promising contact within 24 hours. This pre-notification prepares customers for incoming calls.
Flash messages further improved results by displaying caller identity before answering, preventing rejections of unknown numbers. Combined, these features increased connection rates by 30%.
Long Conversion Cycles: Why Tools Make the Difference
Home furnishing customers typically undergo extended decision cycles—from initial renovation ideas to actual projects—during which they compare multiple options. Single follow-ups rarely secure immediate sales, requiring persistent communication to build trust.
For such industries, professional tools become essential. Manual approaches create chaos, as Stonecross learned through costly trial and error. Now, the platform's tracking features—including latest follow-up records, call counts, and optional recordings—enable efficient lead review and strategic planning for more valuable follow-ups. This system both reminds salespeople and simplifies supervisor oversight, creating a far more effective process.
Platform Advantages: Technical Upgrades and Advertiser Protections
After adopting Tencent's platform, Stonecross saw lead validity rates jump from under 20% to 60%—likely benefiting from Tencent's ongoing backend upgrades. Notably, the platform compensates advertisers for invalid leads, demonstrating commitment to client success. Stonecross recommends advertisers explore these policies to maximize returns.
The Future Belongs to Precision Operations
The Stonecross team concludes that traditional lead-volume-focused strategies no longer suffice. Many companies overemphasize lead generation while neglecting subsequent management, follow-up, and conversion—creating artificial ceilings when separating front-end and back-end processes.
Sustainable growth in today's market requires leveraging tools for precision operations that improve lead quality and conversion rates. Analyzing each lead's outcome should inform subsequent advertising, creating a virtuous cycle that reduces customer acquisition costs. In this context, Tencent's lead management platform delivers disproportionate value.
As the platform continues evolving, Stonecross remains eager to test new features, confident that optimized strategies combined with professional tools will ensure competitive advantage and lasting growth.