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As the continuous cycle that is the sales process rolls on, sales’ need to capture more and more business grows. That’s why the sales representatives that are truly successful know the difference between sales inquiries, sales leads, marketing and sales qualified leads, and how they relate to one another.
Sales Inquiries
An inquiry is a response from a potential client. This usually follows some sort of sales promotion or advertisement. During this initial stage the prospect is typically just gathering information from the company to help them with their decision making process. Inquiries don’t usually come with much information about them, and require qualification to uncover details about their likelihood to buy.
The conversion of sales inquiries into actual sales is the key way to measure the effectiveness of a company’s marketing reach.
Sales Leads
While a lead can be derived from an inquiry, the difference here is that we have enough information about a lead to determine whether we’d like them to become a customer.
We can determine this either by the source of the lead (i.e. a direct referral) or through a developed lead qualification process that has gathered enough information to identify a potential prospect.
Marketing and Sales qualified leads
Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are the set of leads that marketing passes to sales because marketing believes the leads are ready for sales to pursue.
Sales accepted leads (SALs) are leads that sales have gone through and confirmed meet a predetermined criteria. These qualified leads are considered worthy of investing the time to pursue in an attempt to convert them into business opportunities.
How do these lead elements relate to each other?
Simply put, each element is part of a funneling process that sees an inquiry translate into a lead and a lead transform into a qualified lead that in turn becomes an opportunity.
Maximizing lead to opportunity conversion
According to industry experts, we can clearly measure the effectiveness of a lead qualification system by tracking the percentage of MQLs that become SALs. The ideal goal is to have 100% of the marketing qualified leads translate directly into 100% sales qualified leads.
As the marketing and sales alignment progresses and both departments begin to improve their efficiency, the company will see these percentages rise.
So what are the best practices of lead qualification?
Lead definition: Sales and marketing must define exactly what they consider a sales accepted lead, and exactly how each department will work to develop the process in which leads are passed on. To avoid wasted efforts, both departments must agree on how they will engage, qualify, nurture and close sales.
Lead nurturing: Build an automated process to gather enough information to move inquiries through the funnel, and to move MQLs to SALs. Offer marketing content through email and social media campaigns, and gate that content with questions whose answers will qualify leads. As marketing and sales sort through inquirires, immediately pull any lead that is considered a ‘hot’ prospect from the rest of the inquiries and have the proper sales associate follow up with that lead.
Lead qualification: Sales & marketing need to ask all inquiries specific questions relevant to the nature of the business, and those questions must be labeled accordingly. This way, sales will know the required details about the prospect when contacting them. An effective qualification process will also sort leads by likelihood to buy, and sales will spend their time selling to hot prospects.
Lead flow: Constant communication between sales and marketing is the only way to ensure that the appropriate amount of leads move to sales. That way, any lulls in the lead generation process can be gauged by marketing who can then balance or adjust their lead generating efforts.
It’s all about asking the right questions
When a prospect needs your services or product, it puts you in a very powerful position.
If you’re not sure of their needs, simply ask them. “Are you using our services now?” Followed by, “Why or why not?” You’d be surprised just how candid a prospect can be when you ask a simple, straightforward question.
The second key element we need to determine is budget. Sorting this out early on is as simple as asking, “How big is your business?” and “Is this purchase in your budget?”
Next, we need to be sure we know we’re talking to the decision maker. Too many times the one we initially begin to build a relationship with ends up not having the purchasing power needed to ink a deal. We can alleviate this stress by asking, “What is your role at the company.” and “Are you the one who will authorize this purchase? If not, who is?”
Finally, we need to know when they are planning to purchase. Ask, “How soon do you plan to start using our services?” Then, to be sure we express just how important it is they they don’t delay their purchase too long, ask, “Have you assessed what your return on investment will be?”
One last thing about lead qualification/generation and social media
A massive shift has taken place in the way consumers receive and proceed with referrals. Thanks to social media, many traditional processes now require modern approaches. It’s essential to include these elements in your planning.
Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook are the major players on which customers spend their time. To stay on or ahead of the curve, one useful and cost free solution is to follow the executive social profiles of the movers and shakers in your industry. This way you’ll know what they are sharing and what trends they follow.
In addition, it would be smart to subscribe to the InsideView blog. This way you can stay up-to-date on the ‘inside’ news and tips designed to keep you informed. Now go get them!