2 Steps to Determine Whether Your Lead is Qualified or Not

When it comes to prospecting, it’s all about gaining leads, leads, and more leads. Right?

Wrong.

The aim of prospecting isn’t to only gain leads, but to gain qualified leads. It may seem like a small nuance, but it makes all the difference in getting more sales per phone call. But what makes a lead qualified? And why is it so important that we need to write an entire article about it?

To start off answering these questions, we’ve described below the differences between unqualified leads vs. qualified leads:

Unqualified Leads:

• May not know what product/service they need for their company (are unaware of what problems they’re facing)
• May not be completely aware of how your product/service fits into their company
• May not be able to afford your product or service
• May not have the power to make a purchasing decision

Qualified Leads:

• Are aware of what their needs are and what solutions are required to achieve their goals
• Have completed their own research on what products/services would help them achieve their goals
• Have a clear budget in place and are ready to make a purchase within their financial means
• Have full power to make purchasing decisions on their own

The main thing you need to understand is that qualified leads are ready and able to buy what you’re selling, whereas unqualified leads (however interested they may seem) are not ready or able to buy. Thus, it’s in your best interest to spend your time nurturing qualified leads.

Now it’s time to cut to the chase – how can you ensure you spend your time talking to qualified leads instead of wasting your time with unqualified ones?

There are 2 steps you can follow to make sure this happens, and each step should be done at the very beginning of your phone call:

1. Determine ability: Next, you need to determine if your prospect is authorized to buy from you. They may inform you that all decisions need to go through the head of the department, office manager, or even company president. The smaller the company the higher up you need to go to get a decision maker. In larger companies, decisions that do not affect the entire enterprise are usually made at department head levels. Spending time with people who are not decision makers or strong influencers is only useful for information gathering. Such people will be very interested but are unable to make decisions.

2. Determine need: After you have concluded that your prospect is a good fit for what you’re selling and has the ability to buy, it’s time to evaluate need. Are they having problems that your company can solve? Would they benefit from consolidating suppliers? Are there advantages to using your product or service that they are not realizing from their current vendor? Interest level and need are directly related. The need will determine whether you will meet with them relatively soon, or you will place them into medium or long term nurturing.

At York Consulting, we understand that time is money when it comes to prospecting. That’s why we focus on helping you find qualified leads that are ready and able to buy what you’re selling.

Contact York Consulting and put our experience to work for you!