Although lead generation is often regarded as one of the most challenging aspects of sales, it is crucial to get Diligent qualifying leads that will keep your sales funnel humming.
The question is what you should do once you have those leads.
Sales organizations require leads to start the process of nurturing prospects and interfacing with them. As you might have guessed from the title, not all leads can be treated equally.
There are two types of leads: marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads. A study found that 61% of B2B companies transfer all marketing leads to sales. However, only 27% of those leads qualify.
Businesses make the error of trying to sell all their leads in one go. They end up wasting time and leads that don’t convert into sales.
It is essential to distinguish between marketing and sales-qualified prospects. We should then address them accordingly.
What Are Qualified Sales Leads?
A qualified sales lead is a potential client who is interested in your product or services and is willing to move up the sales ladder.
A person visits your website to request a product demo, compare prices, or view a list of service packages. These are all strong indicators that the individual is ready for a decision. Sales representatives should use this information to communicate with them and help tilt the balance in their favor.
You can get qualified sales leads from many sources such as social media, proactive outreach, and organic search. They may also come from sponsored ads or when they convert from marketing-qualified leads to sales-qualified leads (more later).
What Makes It Different From A Qualified Marketing Lead?
Market-qualified leads are those who have expressed interest in your company but aren’t ready to meet with a sales representative. They may have signed up for your email newsletter, filled out a form to receive a free piece, read a blog article, or liked your social media profiles. These are all possible triggers that indicate they are interested in the content or articles you have written, but not ready to purchase.
Your marketing team might continue to nurture these prospects to help them become qualified sales leads. Candidates are free to raise their hand and begin dialogues. Your information, posts on social media, and emails are the best way to inform prospects about your product.
The main difference between these leads is how and what they engage.
To maximize sales professionals’ time, it is important to know the difference between a marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads. Each salesperson has a set amount of time each week to reach out to prospects and move them along the sales funnel. They might be wasting their time on leads that aren’t interested, and they could be missing out on prospects who are interested in buying.
What Do I Do With Qualified Sales Leads?
A lead scoring and qualification process should be in place to allow sales and marketing to communicate about lead status. Marketing must be able to identify the differences between these types of leads before they are passed on to sales. It is a good rule of thumb to prioritize leads who are open to a dialog over those who are interested only in passive participation.
Once you have identified a qualified sales prospect, your goal is to move them through the sales funnel until they are ready for purchase. This is possible only if you understand what a qualified sales lead is and the triggers or behaviors that will help you track their progress.
Sales-qualified leads are people who are open to talking. If your marketing team did their job well, then the lead was already determined to be a good fit for what you sell. The lead is aware they might benefit from the products you offer. It’s now up to them to establish trust, investigate price alternatives, and make a decision.
