Running a successful business requires that you find individuals who need your product or service and convince them that your solution is well worth the cost.
Blanket, cross-platform advertising might seem like an effective option to reach prospective customers, but the reality is that you’ll spend a lot of your budget reaching only a small percentage of potential clients.
A far more effective method is to identify your target market and launch campaigns that reach them specifically. Marketing only to an audience that is more likely to be interested in your product or service costs less money and will result in a higher return on investment.
Lead Qualification and Why It’s Important
Simply put, lead qualification is when your marketing team determines whether potential leads are interested in your product or service and are also able and ready to buy it. Lead qualification isn’t only important for your advertising department’s bottom line but for your business as a whole.
Imagine you’ve gathered a list of 1,000 people to contact about your product. If you or your sales team begins to work through the list and doesn’t see any success, it will eventually feel as if time is being wasted. Ultimately, you’ll feel less motivated.
The Fundamentals of Lead Qualification
Broadly speaking, three stages make up the lead qualification process: marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads, and sales qualified leads. Potential clients are only considered fully qualified leads if they pass all three checkpoints.
Marketing Qualified leads
First, find marketing-qualified leads. MQLs are leads that have already been assessed by your marketing team (or automated solution). The team creates ads or website content to gain the interest of potential leads, often in the form of free offers or gated downloadables. These offers could be anything from free downloadable e-books or printouts to free trials for ongoing services. As soon as potential clients opt in to a free offer, they are considered marketing qualified leads as they have demonstrated a certain level of interest in the solution provided.
Sales Accepted leads
Next, the clients must become sales-accepted leads. After the marketing team has done its part, the sales team gets to work. A member of the team contacts the people who took advantage of marketing offers to ask additional questions. These in-depth questions help to determine the potential clients’ “sellability.”
Sometimes, leads are disqualified and marked as ‘bad’. Other times, the sales team opts to move them back to the marketing-qualified stage. However, potential customers who have the right answers for the qualifying questions become sales-qualified leads.
Sales Qualified leads
Sales-qualified leads are at the third and final step of the process. At this point, the sales team will determine whether potential clients have the budget, authority, need, and timing necessary to purchase. This is known as a BANT analysis. The process includes determining whether potential clients have enough financing for the product or service, whether they have an urgent need that needs to be addressed, and if they know the time frame in which they hope to find a solution.
Finally, the sales team must ensure they’re speaking to the decision-maker for the business. When potential clients pass all parts of the BANT analysis, they become a qualified lead and the deal progressed by your company’s sales representatives.
Lead qualification services
Thrifting through clients who aren’t interested in your business eats away at both your precious time and money. A lead qualification service can be an excellent solution to this issue. Dedicated professionals are available to answer your calls, ask qualifying questions and pass on strong leads to your sales team.
Contact HelloSells to start answering your calls and qualify your leads 24/7/365.