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The difference between ‘leads‘ and ‘prospects‘ is critical in sales.
Leads are people who have shown interest in your product or service. Prospects are people who have shown intent in buying what you’re selling.
In simple words, lead qualification is – a systematic process that helps you find and connect with sales-ready prospects faster.
This is how it works –
- Firstly, lead qualification helps you quickly identify relevant sales opportunities from your pool of leads.
- Secondly, it helps you better understand their needs, pain points, aspirations, and other vital signals so you can personalize your sales pitch for maximum impact.
When you qualify your leads, you narrow down from a long list of cold leads to a smaller list of warm prospects. And when you have qualified prospects, you can reach out to them first.
To understand the impact in detail, here are the three important advantages of lead qualification that every sales team should know.
You Understand Your Prospects Better
Trust is very important in sales. Once people start knowing and trusting you, selling becomes a lot easier and effortless.
According to Forrester’s research, companies that nurture their leads and build trust can generate up to 50% more sales opportunities at 33% lower costs.
Qualifying leads is a two-way street – you can ask questions to understand prospects better, and buyers can gather the information they need to make informed purchases.
When you qualify your leads, you start from a position to understand them first. This forms the basis of knowing who your buyer is and how well your product or service will suit them.
Ultimately, you’re selling to people, not numbers. And people like to buy from people who can understand their needs better.
Here are three steps to get started –
- Ask relevant questions about their problems and goals.
- Determine their ideal solution and how soon they can make a purchase.
- Probe if they’ve tried other solutions before you or are evaluating more options.
Answers to the above questions will give you visibility on prospects who’re just showing interest versus those who are ready to buy.
Helps You Save Time & Money
The value of time is immense for every team chasing targets, yet it’s surprising to see how many sales teams waste their time chasing wrong leads and poorly qualified prospects.
According to a study by Salesforce, sales professionals spend only 33% of their time selling; the rest of their hours are taken by repetitive, mundane, or irrelevant tasks.
Not every lead is worth spending your time on; having a lead qualification framework will help sales teams only work on high-intent leads.
Here are three steps to get started –
- Use automation tools to capture basic details like – location, age, industry, etc.
- Evaluate leads based on their budget and purchase intent.
- Ask them about their ideal time frame for purchasing a solution.
Once a lead is qualified, sales reps can decide how to spend their time and which leads to work on first.
Based on the inputs to the above parameters, you can then assign scores to qualified prospects. The higher the score of a lead, the higher they get to be on your priority list, and the more time you should spend dealing with them.
Building Better Sales Relationships
Companies that understand their customers better build better relationships over time and consistently convert trust into growth and success.
To consistently grow sales, your company's goal should be to build better relationships with your prospects and customers.
According to Salesforce, 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.
How does lead qualification help you with relationship building?
At the core of lead qualification is context. Context about who your target buyer is, what problems they face, and why they have shortlisted you as one of the probable solutions.
This context can help you have better conversations. A salesperson with more context about their prospects has more to talk about and value to offer during a conversation.
Here are three steps to get started –
- Ask them about their goals and what challenges they want to solve.
- Explore their doubts or specific questions regarding your products or services.
- Personalize your pitch around their pain points and share resources that can be helpful.
Empathizing with your prospects' pain points helps in two ways – first, it sets the tone for trust in their minds, and second, it gives you more opportunities to talk to them.
Once you gain a precise understanding of your prospects, you can have valuable conversations with them and easily nurture them through each stage of their buying journey while gaining the ultimate advantage in sales – trust.
Are You Qualifying Your Leads?
Lead qualification is an irreplaceable step in sales and marketing processes. It guides sales teams to work on leads that truly matter and helps support nurture cadences.
Even though lead qualification is essential, it is a tedious process. Your sales team spends about 50% of their work time on just qualifying leads. This reduces productivity and wastes time and money.
SquadStack helps you qualify leads accurately and efficiently and helps your sales team only work on hot leads with high intent. We save time and increase conversions of your team by using a combination of outreach methods and analytics to identify the best leads for your business.
Lead Qualification With SquadStack
SquadStack is India’s most secure and transparent telecalling partner, with no fixed seat costs, best-in-class connectivity, and powerful analytics. With us, you can scale risk-free with a highly trained and trusted telecalling team.
Lead qualification with us will help you;
- Increase your connectivity, reduce drop-offs, and reduce sale costs.
- Boost sales team productivity, as they only work on qualified ‘serious’ leads.
- Reduce hiring and training costs & scale up without increasing your team.
- Hold your lead gen. team accountable with clear and actionable data on lead quality
Want to know more about SquadStack?
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