7 years ago
February 21, 2017

How to Focus Your Time on Qualified Leads

Here are 3 simple improvements any sales team can make to focus on qualified leads.

Rhys Metler

How_to_Focus_Your_Time_on_Qualified_Leads

Generating qualified leads for your sales team is one of the most vital aspects of your sales strategy. If your leads are unqualified then no matter what you do afterwards you’re going to be wasting a large amount of time and money chasing business relationships that won’t result in many sales.

A qualified lead is someone who has both the interest and ability to potentially purchase a product from you. For example a qualified lead must have a big enough budget to make the purchase, they must be in a position of authority where they can make the purchasing decision and they must have intent to make a purchase rather than simply being interested in some free information.

A non-qualified lead may seem interested but without the need or ability to make a purchase they will simply take up your sales team’s time and waste your money. Qualified leads are worth many times that of a non-qualified lead because their potential for a sale is much higher but it can be hard to tell the difference – a poor performing sales team is often spending far too much time on customers who will never make a purchase. So how can we make sure that our sales teams are focused on qualified leads and not unqualified leads? Let’s take a look at 3 simple improvements any sales team makes:

1. Teach all staff to qualify leads quickly

Any staff member who comes into contact with potential customers should be taught to quickly ask questions to decide if that person or company could be potential qualified leads. By understanding your ideal customer profile and communicating it to all of your staff you’ll more quickly recognize if someone is suitable or unsuitable based on their company position and resources.

2. Rate your leads based on potential

Qualified leads aren’t equally valuable – some are better than others. A potential customer with a company that hires thousands is always going to be a more qualified lead than someone who hires hundreds given similar interest levels. Once you’ve taught your sales team and others to recognize qualified leads you can then set up a rating system based on the potential size of order they might place and the likelihood of them doing so. This way the leads which are most qualified stand out to all staff and you can focus their attentions on these clients first.

3. Measure and track sources of leads

Most companies typically have various different ways of obtaining leads and it isn’t always immediately obvious which ones are best. By measuring which sources are giving you the most qualified leads and which give you the least you can make changes and significantly improve the proportion of qualified leads coming in to your company. For example if you notice one particular source of leads is giving you customers who take up a lot of your sales team’s time and energy but yield little practical results you can reduce the priority of these leads for your sales team.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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