How Leads Are Qualified
It is very rightly said that a business without qualified leads is just like a car without fuel; regardless of what kind of engine it has, it’s not going to move ahead. Especially, inbound marketing is proved to be an effective method of lead generation, where a lot of time is spent creating and promoting resources for consumers. Below 30% of inbound leads are sales-ready. The majority of the inbound leads you receive must be further educated by sending newsletters or emails instead of using sales mechanisms of making cold calls.
47% of potential customers read at least three to five pieces of content published by a business before starting a conversation with their sales rep – Hubspot
But do you have a tried and tested inbound lead qualification process?
This is the pain point of every modern organization.
The bitter truth about inbound lead generation
In inbound marketing, when you get a lead, you have no idea about who they are. All you know is that they were interested in acquiring the free report.
Things you would like to know are:
- Whether they actually need your products or services.
- Whether they can afford you.
- Whether an individual responder is a decision-maker or an influencer in the buying decision.
- Whether they are located in your service area.
There may be other more particular qualifying criteria such as “Whether they have a particular software program installed” or “whether they are responsible for purchasing a particular product category”.
Some of the best approaches to close leads in our inbound lead qualification include:
- Following up on your leads via an email that gives them information about your offer as a business and drives them to a micro-conversion, which helps you in understanding their pressing needs.
- Concentrate on impelling them to reply to your email, request a demo or contact you on the phone. This is because having a two-way discussion is the best way to understand how ready a lead is to convert.
- Make use of cloud telephony, integrated with a CRM to focus on following up your qualified leads promptly. This will help your sales team stay on track and keep a record of all the conversations they have had with consumers, which allows them to nurture the leads into customers.
In addition to inbound lead qualification by proactively contacting people that suit your right prospect profile, you can over and over again benefit from using their extra cycle time to enhance the quality of your prospecting database.
The final say
No doubt, that an effective inbound lead generation campaign is one that converts leads into sales, visitors into customers, without a lengthened sales cycle – that’s where inbound lead qualification also comes into play.