Bad news. Not every potential customer is a legitimate buyer for your product or service. That is why it is of the utmost importance to qualify your leads before getting to the business side of things. To avoid the headaches, pain, and frustration we have come to save the day and to qualify your leads.
Qualifying A Lead
In short, a qualified lead basically refers to an individual who is authorized to communicate with your marketing department. Especially on a business-to-business level. Individually this is also a person who has shown an immense interest in your offerings and are ready to spend their money.
Simple enough. However, the rut lies in taking the best way forward when it comes to both sales and marketing. Let’s look into some simple and basic factors to think about before really deciding if a lead is genuinely qualified.
The Shot Caller
Before you get too absorbed in the discussion find out whether the person you are talking to is allowed to make the purchase. This mainly applies when your potential customer is another business.
Find out if you are communicating with their marketing head. You could even go as far as speaking to the business owner. It is plain and simple really. If you are not talking to someone in charge of purchasing decisions, then you are not doing business with a qualified lead.
Not Sealing the Deal
Generating new leads is not the be all and end all. Think of new leads as little seedlings, and as such need some nurturing to grow. Some new leads are just not ready to grow.
The most commonplace reasons are finances, planning, or not realizing how valuable your product is. This will be rather useful information to have. With this knowledge you can slice these leads appropriately and start your nurturing operations. The better you become at nurturing these leads, the better you can become at preparing for sales.
The Difference Between Good and Bad
Getting feedback is a necessary double-edged sword. You have to get comprehensive feedback from your marketing and sales departments about what would be a sturdy or weak lead. Opinions may differ here.The best approach would be to justify what would make a good or bad lead based on every sale’s person’s experience and approaches.
Ask them which aspects lay their sights on when they’re deciding which of their leads have merit. Work together on a feasible plan that can generate more of the identified leads.
Congratulations, you are now slowly edging your way to getting qualified leads. You don’t have time to waste. Anyway, in our final piece of this marketing puzzle, let’s explain the key rudiments of a qualified lead.
Key Foundations of Qualified Leads
When you look at lead qualification it is clear that there are two elements to focus on: probability and sales interaction.
Probability
Like we have said through much of this article, qualifying a lead relies on probability. If you or your marketing team want to qualify a lead, zone in on their ability to make a purchase.
When dealing with another business, aspects like a person’s title, the industry they work in, as well as their location plays a role. It is up to you and your marketing department to analyse what their potential qualified buyer looks like.
Some of the most basic principles include past trends where certain individuals actively participated in business dealings with you.
Sales Interaction
We know that your marketing team isn’t made up of fools. Many of these gifted individuals have the superpower to determine a lead’s level of buying interest. They look at a lead’s behaviour to pinpoint how serious they are to making purchases. Here’s a silly but factual example; it’s all good and well that someone has visited your website, they may have even given you a like on Facebook. Fantastic, they know about you but that doesn’t mean they will actually buy from you.
Opportunity arises when a lead actively engages with your business. Someone who asks for a demo or pricing information is likely one step away from telling you to shut up and take their money. Sales interactions include behaviours like e-mail communication, visiting your website, or interacting with purpose on social media.
Conclusion
A good rule of thumb to have in your business is that if your sales team is hesitant to qualify a lead, then the lead should not be qualified. You and your sales team will have to sit together and agree on what lead qualification is.
When you do find a qualified lead, keep communication going. When a qualified lead appears to stray away, nurture them until indications of buying interest reappear. Remember the seedling analogy we used.
Getting leads can be tough, but maintaining a relationship and their interest is crucial to your business’ goals.
