What is a quality lead?

May 14, 2016
Category: Business Tips

Leads are the fuel that drive your business. In order to grow and gain new customers you need to have quality leads that actively partake and engage in your companies offerings, and are easily integrated into your organizations sales and marketing strategy.

One might think that any lead is a quality lead – if you are raking in the leads the sales department should begin to follow-up and close some deals, sales, or contracts, right? A great sales team is quick to explain, though, that most of those leads are not at the buying stage. That is why most competitive and experienced companies score leads which is a way to categorize the good and better leads so that we know when they are ready to be considered: “Quality” lead scoring is complex and requires a lot of data and testing. However, it is essential to define “hot” or “quality” leads for the sales team. But this begs the question: what makes a quality lead?

It’s a difficult question, and is defined differently no matter who you ask. Every company will have it’s own definition based on insurmountable value factors as determined by marketing, sales, and other crucial departments. There are however, a few characteristics that most quality leads from any business can share:

• Lead has acknowledged a need or interest
• Lead is in a buying decision position
• Lead fits your business model (Fits into your funnel perfectly)
• Lead speeds up cycle time and reduces total cost

Bottom line: Quality leads are vital for an optimized marketing and sales process. No matter the mix of your inbound and outbound, lead quality in an important key to your businesses overall success.

Tweet