A lot of marketers probably don’t realize this, but there is a significant difference between passing off leads to the sales department and passing off qualified sales lead.
Simply passing off leads without qualifying them first could be counter-productive as this means that the sales team will most probably get tied up on calls that won’t actually do much good for the business. On the other hand, qualified sales lead will get these salespeople on the right path that will actually yield a positive result in the end.
So what is the most effective way by which marketers could filter leads and sort them into bad leads and quality ones that are worth pursuing? In this article, we will show you several warning signs that a specific lead is a terrible fit and is something that you shouldn’t waste your time on.
Your Sales lead doesn’t have sufficient budget.
If your lead cannot afford your products or services, there isn’t really much you can do to get them to avail your offerings. However, the problem here is that finding out about the financial status of your prospect before you pass them to the sales department can be challenging and risky.
For instance, if you asked about the lead’s financial standing way too soon, it is possible that you will scare the potential client away. On the other hand, if you fail to ask at all, the salespeople may end up wasting their efforts and time trying to obtain this information or probably pitching to them.
So what is the right approach? Well first, you need to discuss with the sales department whether it is okay to wait until the prospect gets on the phone with one of the members of your company’s sales team before budget becomes a significant aspect, or if it is important that you qualify your leads based on this criteria.
If it is the latter, you should be very careful in trying to gather this sensitive piece of information. Instead of asking for the lead’s budget insight outright and on the very first form that you ask him to complete, you may want to ensure that your lead has already engaged with some of your content, and is already starting to trust your company. Also, instead of asking them to provide an exact amount, you may ask for a range instead. If you are going to ask them through a form, you can use a drop-down list for the choices.
Your lead is not a key decision maker.
One of the most important things that you should find out about a potential client is his or her job title. Just imagine, if the sales reps exert all their efforts into convincing the lead that your company’s offerings will be beneficial to businesses but unfortunately that person is not in a position to call up a budget and actually make the decision of availing your products and services, the hard work of sales will be totally useless.
Hence, it is important that you pass on sales lead that are actual decision makers, such as senior executives who have the power to make the call of buying your offerings or not. If you are finding it difficult to attract these decision makers, you should definitely reconsider your marketing plan and tweak it in such a way that it will be more appropriately aligned with the needs and wants of your targets.
Moreover, it is a good idea to modify your distribution channels as well. For example, you may want to put more focus on professional platforms such as LinkedIn in order to reach these types of people.
Your lead doesn’t actually need your products or services.
The logic behind this is pretty simple. Just think about it, how will you be able to convince someone to purchase something that that person doesn’t even need?
To address this, it is necessary that you have an idea of what your leads are looking for or are aiming to achieve. You will easily know that certain leads don’t need your offerings when they have said that they are not experiencing the challenges that your products or services can solve, or probably when they have mentioned that they are already using another company for the same type of offerings and don’t have any intention of switching to another vendor. Once you encounter this situation, it could be a red flag that your lead is not a good fit.
Your lead is located outside your area of coverage.
The thing about the internet is that once you get something out, people from different parts of the world can actually access it. With this, if your campaigns are not carefully and thoroughly targeted, chances are good that you will even get leads that are situated outside your selling territory.
It is a good idea to set some geographic restrictions if you are only planning to provide your products and services locally, as passing outliers to the sales department won’t yield good results. On the other hand, if you intend to obtain leads from different parts of the globe, it is more effective if you establish tailored experiences for each different location.
Final Thoughts
The first step to delivering quality leads to the sales department is, of course, having a good grasp of who you want and don’t want to partner with. One of the best ways by which you can evaluate your leads is through lead scoring.
Basically, when you employ a sales lead scoring system, you are somehow giving each lead a corresponding “grade” based on certain aspects and behaviors. With today’s advanced technology, it is also now possible to implement predictive lead scoring wherein marketers can use algorithms that will predict who is the most qualified lead in your database and who is not worth pursuing.
If you require a professional digital marketer who can get you more leads and qualify them for your sales team, contact Infinit3solutions today. Our digital marketing team can assist you starting from the planning of your lead generation campaigns, down to the execution, monitoring, qualifying of leads, and process improvements for better results.
So partner with us today and let us help you drive growth to your business!
