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One of the hardest tasks in sales is prospecting and qualifying your leads. Asking the right questions and listening to your clients can help you better understand their needs and make a sale. In this video we’ll look at what prospecting is and the different types of leads.
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There are two different strategies for
0:00
coming up with a list of leads, lead
generation and prospecting.
0:02
With both prospecting and lead generation
you are searching for
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a prospective customer.
0:09
Your differences lie in the approach.
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With lead generation, you're focusing more
on customer cultivation and nurturing.
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Whereas with prospecting,
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you're trying to fill up your sales funnel
as soon as possible.
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Let's start with lead generation.
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Your goal with lead generation should be
to generate awareness about your
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product or service, and to generate
qualified leads slowly over time.
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Let's take a step back, though.
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What are leads?
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A lead is a person who has indicated, in
some way, interest in your
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company's product or service, most often
by providing you with contact information.
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With lead generation, you're primarily
going to engage in activities that
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inform the customer, increase brand
awareness, and position your offering at
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the top of their minds when they're ready
to engage in the sales funnel.
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A lot of the activities we talked about in
the marketing section,
1:00
things like inbound marketing, social
media engagement, and
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others, are all activities that help you
build leads.
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With prospecting on the other hand,
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there is a more urgent need to fill up the
sales funnel.
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The end goal is the same.
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Ending up with a list of qualified leads,
but the activities are totally different.
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You engage in activities that provide
quicker results.
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Things like purchasing mailing lists or
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business directories, attending networking
events and conferences, and so on.
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As we mentioned earlier, your objectives
are the same.
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With lead generation, you're essentially
playing the long game.
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And with prospecting, you want quick
results.
1:38
Depending on the situation, you use one or
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both strategies to optimize your sales
goals.
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Lead generation works better when, you
want to build awareness of your product or
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service among your potential customer base
before you reach out to them directly.
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You're not in a rush to build leads and
can invest time into
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activities that establish you as a thought
leader and increase your brand awareness.
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You want to invest in a strategy that
builds a constant flow of leads.
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You want to engage with qualified leads
that are warmer.
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Now, a qualified lead is someone who is
both indicated that they're interested in
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your product or service and who has the
ability to make a purchasing decision.
2:18
On the other hand, prospecting works
better when,
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you need to fill up your sales pipeline to
hit your quarterly goals.
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You need a more aggressive strategy.
2:30
You want to focus your efforts on small
identified niches of customers.
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You aren't concerned with brand awareness
prior to engagement.
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And you are comfortable engaging directly
with customers and
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convincing them directly on your value
proposition.
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It does not matter if you have qualified
or warm leads to begin with.
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The strategy you use depends on your
business, time frame and goals.
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You can use either strategy, or a
combination of both.
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Regardless of the strategy that you use,
one of your initial objectives is to
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whittle down your list of leads, to obtain
qualified ones.
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What are qualified leads again?
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Now we said that a lead was a person,
3:12
was has indicated in some way, interest in
your company's product or service.
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A qualified lead, then, is someone who is
not only interested but
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has provided further information that
allows us to
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convert them to paying customers much
easier.
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Do they have a budget to make a purchase?
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Are they a decision maker in the
purchasing process?
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Do they have a need for your product or
service?
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And have they specified a time frame
during which they can make that purchase?
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Unlike certain industries,
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prospecting doesn't do too well when it
comes to web products and services.
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Lead generation, through inbound
marketing, generates better results but
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takes more effort.
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So, why bother with qualifying our leads?
3:53
Now on a per-lead basis, basic leads,
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even though they cost less than qualified
leads, lead to a very low conversion rate.
4:00
Therefore a greater investment is required
on our part to convert these
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leads to customers.
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With qualified leads however, since the
conversion rates are much better,
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we have a much better return on
investment.
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When you engage with a lead, you need to
take them from being a lead,
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to a qualified lead, to a paying customer.
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This isn't a one-step process and
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is what separates the skilled sales people
from the pack.
4:26
And that's what we're going to get into
next when we
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talk about sales presentations
4:32
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