Communication is more than how we pronounce a word – it’s about our definition of a word.
You say potato, I say Potaaahhto, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off. Sung by Billie Holiday and written by Ira & George Gershwin, this little ditty, sums up the debate on when is a lead a lead. Is the request for your brochure really a lead? Is leaving a business card in your bowl at a trade show, really a lead? Is filling out your website contact form to receive a white paper a lead? And does the definition of a lead affect the actions of your sales team? Is it potato or potaaato?
The above examples are not leads, they are inquiries. According to a Harvard Business Study, 80% of leads never receive follow up from the sales team. Why? Because what we give the sales team are more often than not, just inquiries. If you give your team those business cards from the trade show or a list of website form names and ask them to follow up, you’re setting your self and the sales team up for failure. So, what do you do to turn inquiry into revenue? Change your mind set and:
- Accept the difference between an inquiry and a lead
Define them: an inquiry has expressed an interest in your product and service, while a lead is
an inquiry that has been contacted, profiled and qualified according to specific business criteria like purchase time frame or needs match
- Define your process from Inquiry to Qualified Lead to Qualified Prospect to Sale Assign the qualification stage in the process to your inside sales team. Don’t have an inside
sales team, then outsource the qualification or assign to a marketing person. Don’t waste your professional selling team on the qualification step UNLESS you are selling a one off or commodity product that can and should be done in one prospect interaction
- Score and categorize the inquiry based on specific, defined criteria and then distribute according to the categories
You can increase the inquiry to sale conversion rate if you are honest and realistic about how you qualify, score, categorize and assign those inquiries. Reassigning the qualification step and allowing your professional selling team to focus on qualified leads rather than inquiries, will increase your overall sales, improve the quality of your sales, shorten your sales cycle and reduce your cost of sales. So, don’t call the whole thing off, just change your pronunciation
According to a Harvard Business Study, 80% of leads don’t receive follow up from your sales team. This ugly statistic means that what you define as leads are wasted and worst of all, you’re losing business. It’s time to rethink your definition of a lead and who acts on that lead.
There is a difference between a lead and an inquiry and ignoring this difference is the source of constant tension between marketing and sales. Marketing gripes that the sales team never follows up and the sales team complains that the leads are well, bogus. Why, because the definitions are all wrong. Here’s how to end the struggle and close more business.
First, start with the right definitions:
Inquiry: Someone who has expressed interest in your product or service
Lead: An inquiry that has been contacted, profiled and qualified according to defined criteria based on your company’s target customer.
Second, create a process for shepherding the inquiry through the process of becoming a qualified prospect. We suggest the process below:
|
Generate Inquiry |
Via marketing, advertising, trade shows, web, networking etc |
|
Capture Inquiry |
Basic information is captured and entered into a CRM system |
|
1st level Qualification |
The inquiry is contacted, scored and qualified based on a defined set of criteria specific to your company. This is when the inquiry becomes a lead |
|
Assignment |
The lead is prioritized based on the score and then assigned based on these action categories: self – nurture – discard |
|
2nd level Qualification |
Sales directly contacts the initially qualified lead and conducts needs and readiness to purchase assessment. This is an in-depth qualification – lead could change categories after this conversation |
|
Close the Sale |
The “selling process” begins as the lead becomes a qualified prospect |
|
Analysis |
Entire process is assessed, metrics established such as cost per inquiry, cost per qualified lead, per sale etc. |
Based on this process, there are four questions you must answer:
- Who conducts the first level qualification?
- What criteria should be used to score and qualify the inquiry?
- What process do you have to nurture the “not ready to purchase” inquiries or
leads?
Remember there is a difference between an inquiry and a lead. An inquiry only becomes a lead if it meets specific criteria but after the 2nd level of qualification a lead may still not be ready to purchase and thus needs to be nurtured.
- What process do you have to capture and use the results statistics?
This is a critical component. Understanding what is going on with your inquiry generation and lead management is critical to making changes or adjustments to the process, it is not driving revenue.