How to Qualify Lead? 40% of salespeople ask themselves this question. The Reason? Only 10-15% of the leads generated make a purchase. Of course, there is still a lot of room for improvement…
Leading leads is all about making sure they match your ideal buyer or show signs of interest in your offer. This saves you from wasting time and money talking to a consumer who will not buy your product or service.
So how do you get leads? All the answers in the article!
The difference between a lead and a qualified lead
Before looking at how to qualify a lead, it is important to understand the notion of “qualification”.
A lead represents someone who has interacted with your business. They may have filled out a form on your website, asked for advice on social media, or sent an email to ask about your benefits. It can also come from your point-of-sale campaigns or your participation in a professional event.
Regardless of the point of contact, the lead will have provided you with personal information (name, email, phone number, etc.), as well as information that would allow you to qualify. These depend on the specific profile of your prospects.
It is only when the lead fully meets these criteria that they are considered “qualified”. In this case, there is a good chance that he really wants to buy your product/service.
Qualified Lead Groups
Qualified leads can be divided into 2 main groups:
Qualified Marketing Lead (MQL)
MQLs meet the minimum criteria, but are sufficient to progress in your sales funnel. To become a “qualified marketing lead”, he or she must provide some important data such as:
- His name and the name of his company
- Email address
- field of activity
- a phone number
- Answer 1 or 2 questions to assess their need or purpose
Professionally Qualified Lead or SQL
The SQLs are qualified enough for a business standpoint. For example, a member of your sales team has spoken to a lead and can confirm their interest in one of your offers.
Unlike MQL, SQL displays budget information, company size, role, number of employees, or anything else specific to their industry. He also requested for a performance or quote. At this stage, they can be qualified as a possibility.
Why Qualify Lead?
67% of sales fail due to poor lead qualification. Before looking at how to qualify a lead, let’s first understand the point of doing so.
When you qualify leads, you move from a long list to a short list of sales leads. In addition to allowing you to grow faster, there are many benefits to your business.
better understanding of your prospects
With qualified leads, you ask questions to better understand their needs. This understanding helps you get to know your potential buyer and how your product or service might fit into their idea of an ideal solution.
You will also get to know who your target buyer is, what problems they are facing and why they chose your offer. Your reps can use the responses gathered during the qualification process as prompts, and use them to personalize your pitch and create conversations that lead to conversions.
time and money saving
Not all leads require the same attention. By giving them a pre-review, you can easily determine which ones your sales teams need to spend most of their time on.
Obviously, this step requires an investment of additional time. However, in the long run, your reps gain in efficiency by focusing only on leads that can generate revenue for the business. Result: Increase in sales!
How to Qualify Lead? our advice
Each lead that enters your purchase funnel shows different interests in your business or products. You can follow these 4 tips to learn how to get leads.
1) Define your ideal buyer profile
Before you start generating leads, you need to define the profile of your ideal buyer.
- to whom are you selling? A business executive, a mom, a millennial looking for productivity…?
- What issues/challenges do they face?
- Do they have to come from a specific industry or geographic region?
- What action should they take upwards?
To create this profile, analyze the historical data of your current customers. Look at the different elements that connect them and the actions taken before making a purchase.
2) Use the right leadership skills
There are a few techniques that companies use to speed up their lead qualification process. Let’s review the most famous:
Banto
The BANT method is based on 4 criteria to qualify LEED:
- Budget: Does the product or service fit the lead’s buying budget?
- Authorization: Can the lead make a purchase decision?
- Needs: Does the lead express an urgent need to buy or is it just curiosity?
- Timeline: Did the lead express a desire to purchase the product sooner or later?
BANT is the ideal technology for brands with expensive products and B2B companies.
Farm
Field means:
- Challenges: How are existing solutions for LEED failing?
- Authority: Can leadership alone make decisions?
- Penny: Does its budget fit your pricing?
- Priority: How quickly does the potential customer expect to act, are other possible solutions considered?
CHAMP uses the concept of priority rather than a fixed schedule. With this technology, a lead’s purchase time is determined by the priority they place on receiving your product or service.
You can use this method in situations where some leads do not understand your offer.
medical
Medic is a complex but effective prospect qualification technique. It focuses on several factors:
- Metrics: How do sales affect the finances of both parties?
- Lead’s company budget manager
- Decision Criteria: What does a manager need to know to approve a company’s purchase?
- Decision making process: how does the manager approve the purchase?
- Identifying pain points: what need is LEED trying to solve?
- Champion: Who in the lead’s company will verify your product or service, and how can you work with them to close the sale?
Medic requires the collection of a lot of detailed lead information. This works for companies that sell high-value products such as software or other equipment costing thousands of dollars.
permission
ANUM evaluates the same factors as the BANT model, but in a different order. It is defined as:
- authority
- need
- emergency
- silver
With ANUM, the decision-making power of the lead takes precedence. This method is ideal for B2B companies.
Unconscious
The FAINT model (Funds, Authority, Interest, Needs and Timing) is also a variant of the BANT technique. However, there are “interests” factors involved, which require you to gauge a lead’s interest in your offer.
FAINT works effectively for leads generated during cold calling.
3) Recognize the difference between intention and interest
With the help of CRM or marketing automation tools, you can easily track the activities of the visitors who get exposed to your marketing materials. If they read your blog and leave comments on your articles, it means they are interested in your company’s products or services.
On the other hand, if they visit your pricing page, it means they want to buy. So the latter are closer to conversion and more interesting to approach quickly.
4) Using your chatbot
Did you know that chatbots can capture leads in real time? Depending on the page the user is visiting or their level in the shopping journey, you can ask questions. For example :
- What has today brought you?
- Are you a customer?
- what is your goal with [notre produit] ,
- what do you know [notre produit] ,
- Are you the decision maker?
- what is your budget ?
- What is your availability for the demo?
With these questions, you can determine which leads are likely to purchase your product or service. Be sure to ask the important questions first.
Qualify your leads and move on to lead scoring
Lead scoring occurs after the qualification of the lead. This involves comparing qualified leads and assigning them a score, usually on a scale of 0 to 100. These scores are distributed according to demographic data, professional criteria, level of engagement and interaction with your content.
For example, signing up for your newsletter will fetch you fewer points than downloading a white paper or requesting it through your website’s contact form. If leads reach a specific score, you can assign them to schedule calls to your sales team or put them on a list of qualified prospects.
our tip
Would you like to assist in the acquisition and management of your contacts? Do you need someone who knows the qualifications to optimize your marketing strategy? Then post an ad on Kodur and take advantage of the help of our experienced freelancers!