What are the 5 requirements for a lead to be considered sales qualified?

Leads or prospects, as we call them, form the foundation of a business. However, this process requires constant efforts on behalf of the inside sales team. Identifying your prospects is just the first step in the sales cycle. After you target the potential client, the inside salesforce executes the engagement and follow up steps to convert that prospect into a sales qualified lead. By definition, a sales qualified lead is the one that is ready to close a deal with your organization.

So, what does it take for a lead to be deemed as sales qualified? Let’s have a look at the 5 prerequisites of a sales qualified lead.

Prospective buyer’s needs

In the B2B sector, identifying pain points and the challenges your prospect is facing is the foremost requirement of a sales qualified lead since it informs you if that business needs your products or services. If not, then there is no point in investing time in that lead.

Providing solution to prospects

A prospect will be ready to take things further with you only if your company is providing the relevant solution that it needs and whether the collaboration will be feasible for the client’s business. Hence, before considering the lead as sales qualified, it is important to discover whether your company has the right product or service for your prospective buyer that will take you one step further towards closing the deal.

Budget 

Cost is another relevant factor that decides if the lead can be sales qualified. It determines how much the prospect is able and willing to spend on your proposal. This will give you an idea while preparing an offer for the client. If you are providing the required solution that is not affordable by your prospect, then maybe it is time to move on to other leads. It is also possible that the prospect might return to your offer after some time.

Authority to make a commitment

Determining a sales qualified lead also depends on the level of authority of the prospect with whom you are dealing. In small businesses, a decision-maker is usually a single person who makes decisions on behalf of the organization. But, in medium to big-scale businesses, there are mostly 3-4 top-level officials. For a lead to be sales qualified, the sales reps should communicate with those leads who have inbuilt authority to perform purchase-related decisions. This will help accelerate the sales process for your firm.

Timeline

When a prospective buyer explains business needs to the sales reps, it is imperative to find out if they need a solution at present or after a few months. This will help the sales team decide where to put their efforts first. For example, a lead requiring immediate action should be the top priority of the inbound sales force than the one that will need your services at a later time. 

Generating leads is not difficult, but turning those into sales qualified leads requires research and expert analysis. Specialized inside sales companies like FunnL.us can help you achieve sales and business development goals. Our only business is B2B sales qualified lead generation. We offer flexible, efficient, and cost-saving engagement models to our customers. Every step we take brings you one step closer to your leads. Contact us today at FunnL.us.