Did you know that 80 percent of leads never translate into sales? Do you worry that the quality of your leads is hurting your business’s bottom line?
If you have concerns about your sales leads, or if you just want to make your lead generation process better, you first need to understand what a good sales lead looks like. We’re here to help with that. Listed below are the top five things we look for to determine whether or not we’re working with a great lead.
1. Trying to Cope with a Challenge
The best leads have a specific problem that they’re trying to solve. If this is the case, then you have an opportunity to solve their problem when you do a good job of showcasing your products or services. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that you can convert them to a paying customer.
2. Shows Genuine Interest
A good sales lead will show genuine interest in your business. They might do this by signing up for a free download from your website, for example.
If they’re already taking actions that signify interest, that’s a good thing. It indicates that you ought to move forward and dedicate time and resources to showing them what you have to offer and attempting to close the deal
3. Responds with a Sense of Urgency
The best sales lead will make it clear that they’re looking to solve a particular problem and that they’re looking to solve it in an efficient manner. If their issue is time-sensitive, they’re going to be more likely to become a paying customer in exchange for your assistance.
One way that leads might show a sense of urgency is by confirming a date and time to learn more about your business or your products or services. For example, they might sign up for a webinar on a specific date or put an appointment on their calendar to talk to a sales rep (instead of just saying they’ll accept a sales call but not providing details on when they’ll be available)
4. Looks Like Your Existing Customers
In general, good leads look like the customers your business already has (or wants to have). When they share certain attributes with your existing customers, there’s a great chance that they’re part of your target audience and have a need for what you’re selling.
Your leads should align with your target customer demographics (this includes things like age, gender, occupation, income, etc.) or firmographics (such as industry, company location, company size, annual revenue, etc.) if you’re part of the B2B sector
5. Has Authority or Access to It
If you’re in the B2B world, your perfect lead also ought to have authority or easy access to it. They might be the CEO or Sales VP for a particular company, for example — someone who has the power to make final purchasing decisions.
Keep in mind, too, that a lead can also be valuable if they have less authority but have access to the higher-ups who make final purchasing decisions. Establishing a relationship with a lower-level authority figure gives you an opportunity to learn more about the company and tailor your pitch. That way, when you get a chance to talk to someone higher-up, you have a greater likelihood of closing the deal. How to Get Better Sales Leads Those characteristics of a perfect sales lead sound pretty promising, don’t they? Wouldn’t you like it if more of your leads possessed those features?
By following these three tips, you can improve the quality of your leads and convert more of them into paying customers
1. Use Questionnaires
One of the best ways to simplify the process of qualifying leads is through questionnaires. Questionnaires help to weed out onlookers and low-quality leads who are unlikely to actually make a purchase. This, in turn, frees you and your sales team up to focus more time and energy on the leads who have the greatest chance of becoming paying customers.
2. Create Great Content
Great sales leads come from great content. When you’re putting out high-quality content on your website, you’ll have a much easier time getting people interested in what your business has to offer.
This is especially true in the B2B world, where 93 percent of buying processes begin with an online search. If you have an article or video on your website that can address a problem your target audience might be having, you’ll see more high-quality leads reaching out and taking action as a result
3. Automate Lead Responses
Finally, make it a priority to automate lead responses. If your business is known for fast response times, this will get more people interested in reaching out because they know they’ll get the information they need (and potentially solve their problem) sooner.
Ideally, you’d get your lead response times to below five minutes. If this seems impossible, you likely need to invest in an automated lead response program. This will take the guesswork out of responding to leads and will make it easier for you and your team to focus on other lead generation and lead nurturing processes. Improve the Quality of Your Sales Leads Process Today There are plenty of ways that you can go about improving your sales lead generation process. Before you start doing this, though, you need to know what a high-quality lead looks like. Keep the features of a great sales lead in mind as you move forward and your sales will soon improve.
Don’t forget to apply the tips for better lead generation listed above, either — especially important to focus on automated lead response. This is one of the best practices to invest your time and resources in moving forward. It helps to streamline the process of connecting with leads and frees you and your workers up to work on other projects that help to grow the business.
If you need help with automating your lead response system, we can help at Callingly. Contact us to learn more about what we do or to get Callingly integrated with your CRM today.