What makes a sales-ready lead?
A sales ready lead is an inquiry that has been qualified and ranked by criteria that both the Sales and Marketing department agree upon.
A sales ready lead is qualified and ranked by its likelihood to buy before the lead is distributed to the sales team.
According to Ann Holland, President of MarketingSherpa, “Typically, only 10-15% of sales leads generated by a b-to-b marketing department are truly ‘sales ready’ at the moment the leads come in. Another 15-20% are completely unqualified. What happens to the remaining 70% or so of leads in the gray area?”
Do you know which of your leads are “sales ready?”
If your company passes all inquiries directly to your sales team without qualifying and ranking them, you’re wasting your sales people’s time and lengthening your sales cycle, and increasing your cost-of-sale.
An automated lead management system (such as SmartLead) delivers the right leads to the right sales people at the right time. Only the hottest leads go to your sales team
If your inquirers aren’t ready to buy, you can automatically nurture them until they become sales ready leads worthy of distributing to your sales team.
How to define your sales ready leads
However, before data is uploaded into to an automated lead management system, both Sales and Marketing must agree on the criteria that comprise a sales ready lead.
Each company has its own definition of what makes a sales ready lead. Here are a few questions to help define what makes a sales ready lead for your company:
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What is the job title of the inquirer or their department of respnsibility? If you sell your products primarily to purchasing managers, it’s unlikely that a sales ready lead would have the job title of administrative assistant. The lead management system will be configured to screen out non-applicable job titles.
- How soon does this inquirer plan to buy the product? The sooner they plan to buy the hotter the lead. The lead management system will instantly distribute hot leads to the appropriate sales person.
- Does the inquirer have budget money set aside for the purchase of this product? If not, the lead may not be ready to go to a sales person. Instead, we recommend nurturing this lead until they are ready to buy.
Identifying what makes a qualified lead is the first step to increasing sales by sending the right leads to the right sales person at the right time.
Call SmartLead to discuss how our consultative approach to lead management can help your sales and marketing teams define sales ready leads for your organization. 1.800.735.3237
