eMarket2 Blogs

Sales-ready leads - sorting the wheat from the chaff

“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”

Alexander Hamilton.

Today I want to turn to the thorny problem of lead qualification.

In my experience, many businesses are happy to turn their sales people loose on anything that might qualify as a lead in the hope that if they throw enough mud then some of it will stick.   For example, it’s common practice to pass B2B web inquiries – e.g. – prospects who might have filled in a web form to acquire a free download, etc – over to the sales team as ‘leads’.  But, at this stage at least, these records do not qualify as leads. Yes, they’re a valuable asset, but only in the sense that an egg is a valuable asset. But, like eggs, leads need incubating before they can be effectively hatched. 

So what does it matter if most leads go nowhere? After all, it’s a numbers game, isn’t it?  Far from it; pursuing unqualified sales leads can mean the difference between profit and loss and, in some cases, failure and ruin!  

It’s crucial to understand that effective lead qualification equals good time management.  If your sales team are occupied with contacting people who aren’t yet ready to buy, then they’re wasting their time. And, by making inappropriate contact, they’re also in danger of making people feel they’re being hassled and alienating them for the future. 

You’re also in danger of demoralising your sales team, because if they perceive that the majority of ‘leads’ passed to them are no good, they’re unlikely to spend time tracking prospects down – even when they’re genuine. It’s like the shepherd boy who cried ‘Wolf!’  Do it once too often and people cease to believe you!

So how do you weed through all those records and web enquiries to get to those that are genuinely ready for the sales team to engage? 

The trick is to develop a lead qualification process which converts casual enquiries into viable sales leads and enables you to manage incoming leads swiftly and effectively. 

Step 1 – Create a marketing funnel

A marketing funnel brings everything together into a single CRM database and enables you to classify leads according to their sales readiness and business fit.

Step 2 - Create your lead definition criteria

These are the questions your sales team must have answered before an enquiry is worthy of being called a lead:

√  Check company size, industry, and geography.  At this stage you may want to delete records based on specific marketing requirements or limitations. For example, foreign email addresses, student email addresses or contacts in locations or industries that you don’t serve. Where possible, remove enquiries that contain false information. It’s amazing how creative people can be! Remove duplicates and invalid names and email addresses. This step alone will reduce 5 – 10% of records!

√  When creating a web form, ask specific business situation questions, such as number of users, current systems platform, etc.  What is the prospect’s job title?  What is their role, if any, in the buying process? But bear in mind that simple forms generate less invalid information, while lengthy, time-consuming forms are likely to frighten all but the most determined prospects away. In one recent campaign, we trimmed the registration form down to an ultra-simple, two-field form. As a result, conversion rate more than tripled.

√  Based on their business need, how can you help the prospect? At what stage are they in the buying process? Are they just conducting some general market research? If so, these contacts are valuable and should be nurtured and managed over time, but they clearly aren’t ready to buy.

Step 3 – Score your leads

Based on the above information, score your leads in order of priority.  Give higher scores to those further along in the buying process depending on their level of engagement.

Step 4 – Based on your scoring, qualify high priority leads by telephone and / or email

Lead scoring has got you to this point. But you can only go so far before you’ll need to talk to someone and engage them in conversation.

The phone remains the gold standard for qualifying leads; there’s no better way to engage with a prospect.  And combined with email it’s the best way to create a one-to-one dialogue. Remember, if you lack the experience or resources to do this in-house, it’s highly cost-effective to outsource your lead qualification. 

By using this system it’s possible to nurture each lead, while slowly adding to the personalised and relevant information over time. In the process, some leads will inevitably fall by the wayside, but, just as inevitably, many will become tomorrow’s ‘hot’ prospects.    

Forgetful? Try this trick…

Here’s a nifty little something, courtesy of the RealAge.com website / John Ford Copywriters’ Round Table newsletter:

If you forget where you put something, try pinching your nose. Specifically, try pinching only the right side of your nose. Because the oxygen you’ll take in with the other nostril might help jog your spatial memory.

You might also find it easier to remember faces with the right side of your nose pinched. It might even make you feel more creative, though I wouldn’t recommend it in client brainstorming meetings.

Alternately, pinch the left nostril if you’re trying to focus better on a conversation, solve linear problems, or figure out the tip on a restaurant bill.

If you’ve guessed this has to do with the whole “left brain/right brain” thing, you’ve guessed right (you can stop pinching your nose now). Air that goes in on the left side feeds to your right brain. Air that goes in on the right side feeds to your left brain.

Thanks for reading. As ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business