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In order to grow your business you always need a few leads in the pipeline, but what makes a lead a particularly good lead, and how can you decide which ones are just not worth pursuing? That’s what we’re going to talk about today as we explain how to identify qualified leads to help make your sales process more efficient - and more effective, too!

All sales teams need leads to work on. It’s what keeps them busy at the end of the day! Whether it’s an enquiry through your website, a message on your social media platforms or an inbound call, a lead is a lead - but there are some that are ‘hotter’ than others.

Unfortunately some leads are nothing more than opportunities to have a conversation, and they might even be based on a mistake made by someone who got in touch thinking that you offered a different service. In which case, pursuing this lead is a waste of not only your time, but theirs too.

If every lead that came our way was a qualified lead then your sales team’s efficiency would go through the roof and every single conversation would be with a potential customer who is on the verge of signing up with you or making a purchase. So the question is, what is a qualified lead, and how do you spot one?

What is a qualified lead?

A qualified lead is the kind of opportunity that comes about through a conversation with someone who might genuinely become a customer based on a series of details they have provided or criteria they have met during your research.

If the person meets the criteria of your sales campaign, and seems engaged and enthusiastic during your initial conversation, then this person would be classed as a qualified lead who has shown a genuine interest in your proposition.

In contrast, unqualified - or cold - leads, are those that come through and have little or no intention of becoming a customer and don’t actually meet any of the criteria you would usually look for before picking up the phone or sending them an email.

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How do I identify a qualified lead?

The best way to spot a qualified lead against anyone else on your list is to identify a number of key criteria that enable you to learn more about that lead and how closely that matches your needs or campaign objectives.

When working on any sales campaign you need to do your research into what it is you’re promoting, and who you’re promoting it to, in order to find the perfect match. A prospect with a genuine need for a product or service, based in the right part of the country - or world - is a far more qualified lead than someone who doesn’t currently have a need or interest, but it may be that you can qualify them if they meet certain criteria relating to your campaign and they might wish to pick up the conversation down the line.

We take a range of key metrics into consideration to help deliver the very best opportunities to you as part of a Clarity Stack package. We know that time is at a premium and you want your sales team to be able to reach out and have productive conversation with everyone they speak to, and that’s why we’ve been so rigorous to separate the poor quality leads from the qualified leads.

For instance, if you’re looking for an opportunity in the web development sector you want to ensure that every lead you speak to actually offers web development services. A common mistake here is to identify and speak to a lead who might work in marketing or I.T. but has nothing to do with development. Similarly, you may be working on a campaign for a company based in the South West of England, and you need to know that the leads you’re speaking to either operate in that area themselves or - if not - that the company is willing to work with businesses from further afield otherwise that lead is also going to be a cold one for you.