Marketers and salespeople
frequently have differing perspectives about who is a qualified lead. When I’m working with a client on a demand generation project, I interview marketers and salespeople separately, canada telemarketing database and I ask a simple question: How would you define who constitutes a legitimate sales lead?
The marketers typically
say that a qualified lead is someone who works for a company that is in their target market, has an appropriate job title, and has expressed interest (in some way) in what their company offers. The salespeople, on the other hand, will usually say that a legitimate lead is someone who meets the marketers’ criteria and whose propensity (and ability) to buy has been established using criteria such as BANT.
When this kind of disparity exists, is it any wonder that marketing and sales are often at odds?
The solution to this problem, of course, is to involve both marketers and salespeople in the development of a lead qualification framework that both groups will use.
There’s certainly no need to start from scratch when you’re developing a lead qualification framework. With a few minutes research using Google or another search engine, you can find many examples to use as a guide.
Many B2B companies use
the Demand Waterfall(TM) developed by SiriusDecisions as the basis for their lead qualification framework, and SiriusDecisions has also developed a “Lead Spectrum” that defines seven lead qualification levels. I am an admirer of the work that SiriusDecisions produces, and I have referred to their models on several occasions in earlier articles.
When it comes to lead qualification frameworks,
however, I usually recommend that companies start with a simpler model. Then, you can add lead stages or lead qualification levels if you identify specific needs for the additional detail. The objective is to develop a lead qualification framework that contains as much detail (but only as much detail) as you really need.
The “starter” lead framework
that I typically use with clients has four lead qualification levels – Inquiry, Profiled Lead, Sales-Ready Lead, and Sales Opportunity.The conceptual approach underlying this framework is simple. The first significant event in the lead qualification process occurs when someone identifies himself or herself and indicates some initial interest in your company (or, more likely, in a content resource your company has published). This makes the individual an Inquiry.