Evaluating and scoring potential leads is a helpful way to prioritize sales efforts toward those that are most likely to become customers. This process ensures that sales teams focus on leads that have a higher chance of conversion.
The lead qualification aims to determine which leads should be prioritized by the sales team. This is done by estimating how ready and willing a lead is ready to buy. It involves assigning scores or ratings to leads based on attributes such as contact information availability, engagement level with marketing content, business relevance, and interaction with sales team members.
These scores represent a lead’s potential on a scale, e.g. from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Team members can then sort leads lists by score and focus their time and resources on the leads rated 3 and above, for example.
Lead qualification differs from lead routing or distribution as it comes before assigning leads to specific sales reps. The qualified scores indicate how “hot” or promising a lead is overall rather than assigning it to a particular representative.
Some key benefits of the lead qualification include:
- Increasing conversion rates by spending more time on high-potential leads that are likely to convert into customers.
- Improving lead productivity and sales effectiveness by filtering out poor-quality leads.
- Enabling data-driven lead prioritization based on attributes that actually impact conversions rather than arbitrary sorting.
- Avoid wasting limited time and resources on leads that have a low likelihood of ever becoming real customers.
Through the consistent application, lead qualification helps sales and marketing teams focus their efforts on the leads with the best chances of success for optimized growth.
Benefits of The Lead Qualification
Higher close rates.
By spending more time on the leads identified as having the highest potential, sales reps can focus their efforts on where they will yield the most significant results. This leads to more conversions and higher close rates.
Increased sales productivity
Lead qualification helps sales teams avoid wasting limited time and resources on leads that have a low likelihood of ever becoming real customers. They can concentrate on the leads with the best chances of success for optimized productivity.
Improved lead sorting
A simple lead scoring or rating system provides an objective mechanism for prioritizing leads. Rather than arbitrary sorting, leads can be systematically focused based on attributes proven to impact conversions.
Data-driven lead prioritization
Lead qualification criteria are determined by analyzing attributes of past closed/lost deals and sales team feedback. This results in a scoring approach grounded in reality rather than guesswork.
Avoid wasted effort
Poor quality leads that do not possess the characteristics of a strong prospect will be filtered out during qualification. The team can avoid expending unnecessary effort on leads unlikely to convert into viable customers.
Accelerated sales cycles
By pre-qualifying leads, the time spent on each lead during the sales process can be tailored to their potential. This reduces time wasted on non-promising leads and ensures high-potential leads receive enough attention to minimize cycle times.
An optimized and scalable system.
With clear policies and consistent application, lead qualification can become habitual and scale effectively across teams and larger organizations. It transforms lead handling from an ad hoc to a process-oriented, data-fuelled approach.
How To Qualify Leads?
Assigning lead scores
The first step is determining a simple scoring system to quantify a lead’s potential, e.g. from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Leads can then be sorted and prioritized based on score.
Identifying lead attributes.
Discuss with sales reps and managers which lead characteristics, demographics or behaviors correlate with higher sales cycles and closed deals. Some examples include contact information availability, website visits, pdf downloads, etc.
Establishing qualification criteria
Define explicit policies for how certain attributes or metrics warrant which scores. For example, any lead with a phone number, company name, job title, and at least 2 engaged contacts scores a 3 or above. Matches to target customer profiles score 4 or 5.
Analyzing past deals
Review closed and lost leads/deals to identify attributes that actually influenced decisions and conversions. Look for patterns in demos, interests, touchpoints, objections handled, etc. of best vs. poorest leads.
Evaluating each lead
Systematically evaluate each new lead against the established qualification criteria and score them accordingly before passing them to a sales rep or team. Higher scores go to the sales management team for assignment to top performers.
A consistent and simple model.
Keep the lead scoring and qualification approach straightforward enough for anyone on the team to understand and apply properly. Complex models breed confusion and inconsistent application.
Monitoring lead results
Track how leads with different scores actually convert into customers. Look for any patterns or attributes that seem to produce differently than expected so criteria and scores can be adjusted accordingly over time.
Automating when possible
For high-volume lead handling, automate as much of the qualification process as feasible using tools and integrations. Artificial intelligence and natural language processing can help with things like lead matching, content engagement analysis, and contact information validation at scale. Manual intervention should still be included, especially for complex evaluations.
Lead Qualification Criteria
Establishing transparent criteria for assigning lead scores helps ensure fair, consistent qualification across team members. Some of the most important attributes to consider include:
Contact information availability: Look for leads with complete contact info like phone, email, address, company name, job title, etc. More available info indicates higher engagement and interest.
Nature and extent of engagement: How actively has the lead engaged with marketing content such as website visits, email opens, downloads, page views, etc? Higher and more frequent engagement throughout multiple touchpoints merits a better score.
Business and product relevance: Compare lead business details with target customer profiles to determine relevance and fit. Look for similarities in industry verticals, responsibilities, challenges, goals, keys to success, etc. Stronger relevance equates to a higher potential.
Lead source integrity and authority: Consider the source of each lead, prioritizing higher authority sources like content partnerships, sponsorships, online forums, peer recommendations, etc. over lower-quality sources. These types of leads tend to be more qualified as potential customers.
Interest in sales team outreach: Note if and how quickly a lead responded to and engaged with any sales outreach like email campaigns, LinkedIn messages, or calls. Proactively reaching out and building rapport early on shows enthusiasm and increases the odds of conversion.
Industry conditions and trends: Qualify leads based not just on their attributes alone but also factors like growth industries, changing regulations, or other conditions creating buying opportunities or pressures. Stronger implications of industry events or announcements on a lead’s business support higher scores.
Offset challenges: Qualify leads fairly based only on their attributes and potential rather than perceived obstacles or challenges. While harder-to-reach leads may require additional effort, they are not necessarily less promising customers. Challenges often just mean additional steps are required to address and overcome objections or hesitancies.
With consistent application of transparent criteria as mentioned above , teams can make data-driven decisions in qualifying and prioritizing new leads. Determining the attributes that truly correlate with sales success for a particular business is key to an effective lead qualification approach. Regular monitoring of results then keeps criteria optimized over time.
Implementing An Effective Lead Qualification Process
For a lead qualification to deliver real benefits, it must be implemented properly across the sales and marketing organizations. Some keys to implementing a successful lead qualification process include:
Define clear policies and guidelines: Establish explicit policies for how certain lead attributes and behaviors should be evaluated and assigned scores. Provide examples and guidelines to handle ambiguous situations and promote consistent application.
Train all teams thoroughly: Ensure all sales, marketing, lead routing, and related team members understand the lead qualification system, policies, benefits, and their role in applying them properly to all new leads. Additional training should be provided for any staff changes.
Make it a habit and regular process: Lead qualification should become second nature and an ingrained part of the regular lead-handling workflow. Score and sort all new leads before passing them to sales reps to focus on the highest potential opportunities.
Automate when possible. Automation helps speed and scale qualification, especially at high volumes. Use tools and integrations to automatically validate and enrich contact information, analyze content engagement across channels, match leads to audiences, etc. But human judgment is still important for complex evaluation.
Apply transparently and objectively: Avoid subjective biases by basing lead qualification entirely on factual attributes and quantitative metrics rather than personal opinions. Provide examples and guidelines to promote fairness and objectivity across the team.
Monitor results continuously: Regularly analyze how leads of different scores actually convert into customers. Look for any new patterns in demographics, behaviors, challenges, or other attributes that could warrant different qualification criteria or scoring. Make adjustments as needed to keep the process optimized.
Gain stakeholder buy-in: Ensure all stakeholders, especially sales leadership and executives, understand and actively support the lead qualification approach. Address any concerns proactively and be willing to compromise where meaningful while preserving the integrity and benefits of the overall strategy.
With clear policies, comprehensive training, automation where possible, objective and transparent application, continuous monitoring, and broad stakeholder buy-in, lead qualification can be properly and successfully implemented. The resulting focus on high-potential opportunities and optimized resource allocation will then maximize growth and business results. But lead qualification is an ongoing process that requires a consistent application to realize its potential benefits. Regular review and refinement help keep the approach relevant, fair, and impactful over time.
