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The Purpose of Qualifying Interest For Sales Leads
The Purpose of Qualifying Interest For Sales Leads
Qualifying sales leads is simply a task of gathering information. However, the reason why its so important is because the success of a sale depends on that same information.
Encino,
CA (California),
United States of America
(prbd.net)
07/03/2012
It's an increasing trend among modern counter-cultural movements (ironic that by itself sounds) to slam popular lead generation methods for advertising. Of course this might just be prevalent in the B2C sector of the market, where outspoken consumers are decrying the disruptive nature of advertising in their daily lives.
However, some of their sentiments can be seen carrying over to the B2B side. Some executives are now complaining about telemarketing calls and wonder why they can't demand Do-Not-Call registers to protect them the same way the outspoken consumers have.
Such a scene is even more ironic, sadly. It's either these people have never engaged in a B2B transaction in their entire business career or probably just give other methods a little too much credit.
It seems that a lot of people are forgetting that the very purpose of such methods is to simply determine interest. It may not be as evident in the flashy, fast-paced executions of ad campaigns but it is clearly so when it comes to telemarketing for B2B leads. See when professional telemarketers call, they don't even try to sell something to you. They just simply ask you a few questions about your business and inform you that there is another firm out there that you can look to in case your business ever needs something. Usually this involves them offering the convenience of setting an appointment with them for you.
On the other end, if you're the one outsourcing the telemarketers, it is still up to you to convince the prospect to buy. Let's say you're an SCM software group and you want to outsource your software appointment setting to lead generation companies that use telemarketing. The qualities you're looking for shouldn't be the capacity to convince prospects to immediately buy but to simply point prospects in your direction. And yes, there's a fine line between convincing and simply calling the attention of a particular type of prospect.
In the latter, what telemarketers do is study first the targeted prospect and see if they meet your specifications. If the receiver is clearly not interested, there is no more need for conversation. The calling agent politely hangs up and proceeds to the next number. If the receiver is interested however, they ask some more and in case the prospect is undecided, promise to do more follow up calls.
Such a process is critical so that you can avoid turning off your prospect by coming off as pushy or hasty. An established, qualified interest is the basis on which you make your negotiations and make you sound more convincing. Also, aside from getting information on your prospects, you need a speedy and continuous flow of leads to fill up your schedule so that you can pursue them ahead of your competitors. Some might not take comfort in this but competition has and always will be a fact of life in the business world. If you leave a lead hanging in the air too long, chances are someone else is going to steal it from under your nose.
There you have it, the basic but important purpose of generating leads. So now that you know, what are you waiting for? Start qualifying your leads today and contact a lead generation firm!
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