Not every lead is worth pursuing. Imagine this you sell and rent copiers, you might contact a potential lead and find out they just started a contract with a competitor. They’re unlikely to make any changes now, so you make a note to contact them a few months before their contract expires and move on to other leads. Qualifying a lead helps you avoid spending time and money pursuing a lead who isn’t in a position to invest in your product or service.
So, how do you know when you have a qualified lead? Lead qualification typically involves two key elements: the fit of the prospect, and their level of engagement during the sales process as they consider a purchase decision.
But what happens when your sales representatives schedule a meeting with a prospect and the timing is wrong or the customer is not fit?
You can learn about a prospect during an initial cold call to check whether the prospect qualifies. If you feel confident, then you have a qualified lead and are ready to pursue a sales qualified meeting.
By identifying the signs that you have a qualified lead before setting up the meeting will enable your sales department to close more sales. At FunnL, we shall guide you to identify whether you have a qualified lead and learn more about the Sales qualified meetings that can provide your company with qualified meetings with real prospects.
- Identifying the prospect’s role
The first step to a qualified lead is identifying the prospect’s role in the decision-making process. You might find a user or a person that works hands-on with your solution and a person that has the most to gain or lose from a decision to purchase. This type of prospect is a good first contact because it will help you understand the landscape of an organization, the key players involved in decision-making, and how decisions are made internally.
Overall, you need to learn how the contact factors into deciding to learn if they are the right person to meet with. That requires asking an important two-part question about whether the prospect has any say in the decision and then if not, who the best person is for you to talk to.
The best practice is to make sure the prospect is still looped into the process even if they are not a decision-maker. That way, the prospect earns your trust to help in your solution internally or that person comes back to you when another need or opportunity arises.
- The prospect is a good fit
To determine whether the prospect is a fit, you will use your pre-call research that includes general demographic information about size, location, and industry, then you will need to craft 1-3 essential questions that will get to the heart of the “fit” conversation.
An example of a “fit” question might be: “Does your company own warehouses, or do you contract for fulfilment?” Another question is: “Does your organization have a mix of device operating systems like Windows, Mac, and Chromebooks?”
Notice that you are not qualifying for sales yet, instead only they are the right fit at this stage. Based on their answers to these questions you can sense if there is a potential need for your solution.
- The prospects understand the value
This is a very important step as the prospect understands the value proposition of your product or solution. Sometimes, SDRs convince the prospects to take a sales meeting without confirming that the prospect understands what the company is offering. Later, when the sales team meets with the prospect, there is a lack of understanding as the prospect has not been qualified for a meeting.
Instead of the SDR taking a minute to ask the right questions on the phone or making an extra phone call to qualify the prospect for a meeting, the sales team wasted their time and the prospect will likely not want to do business in the future.
Conversely, if the prospect has a good understanding of the value proposition and they express interest in hearing more about your solution, then they have qualified for a meeting. The SDR accomplishes this by asking the prospect a direct question such as: “What are you most interested in learning more about?” This way, the sales team will come to the sales meeting prepared with answers about the value proposition.
- The prospect shows the interest
This is the last step where the prospect qualifies for a sales meeting. The prospect will show his clear interest in what the company is offering and also willing to invest time in a meeting to understand how your solution will help their organization.
This is the role of SDRs to get prospects to the point of expressing interest. That way, the prospect clearly understands why a meeting is taking place, what the value proposition is, and how your company can help address their need or opportunity.
Unfortunately, many appointment setting companies do not complete this process to qualify a prospect for a sales meeting. FunnL specializes in setting up sales qualified meetings for its customers.
FunnL’s core business is b2b sales-qualified lead generation that offers software-as-a-service. Our team has a cumulative experience of generating more than 10,000 sales-qualified meetings from Asset Management firms, Banks, Financial Services, and the list goes on.
If you want to generate leads. Don’t wait!
