3 Ways Generative AI Will Help Marketers Connect With Customers
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Reps spend only 28% of their week actually selling, according to the State of Sales Report. What’s more, 69% of sales professionals agree their jobs are harder now. And yet, they’re under enormous pressure to hit their targets. That means sales teams need to hone in on the highest quality leads to make their numbers. That’s where lead qualification comes into play. Let’s talk about what it is and how to do it right.
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Lead qualification helps you determine whether a prospective customer is a good fit for your product(s). Two main factors determine whether a lead is qualified: 1) Your product will fulfill their needs, and 2) they can afford it. While there are other, more detailed ways to qualify a lead, you can generally disqualify them if those two factors aren’t met.
This process is often a team effort between marketing and sales. Done well, sales lead qualification helps your teams prioritize which deals to pursue so they can use their time wisely.
If qualified leads are good fits for your product and can afford it, then unqualified leads must be the opposite, right? Yes. But there are a few other ways unqualified leads are identified.
Unqualified leads are:
While lead qualification and lead scoring are related, they are not the same thing. Each has a different but complementary way of quickly identifying the best prospects to pursue.
Lead qualifying helps you quickly home in on high-value, high-potential leads so you can close more deals in less time. How? With a process that elevates potential customers based on the likelihood of closing and the value of each deal, among other factors, helping you use your time more effectively.
If you can quickly identify the best prospects, you can avoid wasting time with leads who aren’t likely to convert. That lets you spend more time on nurturing and closing deals and prevents opportunities from falling through the cracks. At the end of the day, lead qualification can make the difference between quota attainment and lagging sales.
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Because the lead qualifying process can be complex, it’s important to create as much clarity as possible. You will hear these types of leads when talking about qualifying, so let’s define them:
Based on your company’s determination, an MQL is either a lead that’s been qualified to receive marketing materials or a lead that your marketing team has nurtured to a high enough score (via lead scoring) that they’re ready to pass on to sales for further qualification.
Depending on how your company uses this term, either an SQL has been qualified, typically by marketing, and passed along to sales for follow-up or a sales rep has qualified the lead themselves and found them to be a good match for the company. Either way, when a lead becomes an SQL, sales takes over to further qualify, pursue, and nurture them toward a sale.
Most often, PQLs are prospects that have signed up for a free trial product or freemium version of your subscription or software. Whether marketing or sales follows up with them is a strategic decision for managers at your company.
According to Lauren Belling, former sales representative with BACA Systems, here’s a common approach to qualifying sales leads:
Define the most basic criteria you’ll use to qualify leads and move down that list as you assess each lead. Ideally, your early qualification checklist will include criteria that you can easily find without having to speak to anyone. These might include the type of company, location, region, industry, revenue, or number of employees. (And don’t forget your CRM can help you with this research as well as lead qualification itself.)
Once you’ve narrowed down your leads list, it’s time to make contact. You can email or cold-call prospects, but many salespeople also use LinkedIn. The best channels to use may depend on people’s habits within your target industry.
It’s helpful to use a more detailed checklist or a conversation script to evaluate customers during this step (see section below). Ask your sales manager or sales operations leader if they have one you can use as a jumping-off point. If they don’t, consider developing one from your own experience or using generative AI tools, such as Salesforce’s Agentforce, to create one for you.
Keep in mind that when leads are cold, you may find more success by starting a conversation with valuable insights the lead can connect with. For example, you can talk about things you’ve read in the news about them or ask about their challenges. Start vetting your prospects only after establishing a rapport.
At this point, you’ve assessed your lead and confirmed that it’s a worthy target. Now it’s time to continue the sales conversation and ensure you’re talking to the right person. To make a sale, you have to speak to the person in charge of purchase decisions. Find out who that person is and get their preferred contact information.
At this point, you’ve fully qualified your lead and determined that a relationship would be mutually beneficial. From here, you’ll need to schedule a follow-up with your point of contact to explain your offering in more detail. This could be a virtual demo, a lunch, or a full sales presentation. Suggest whatever makes the most sense for your situation. Be sure to ask them what they’d like to learn so you can do your best to help them.
There are several popular lead qualification frameworks out there. To pick the right one, consider the prospects you’ve worked with so far. Think about their interests, challenges, communication styles, and the process you went through to close successful deals. Based on those experiences, assess which of the below frameworks can best guide your future lead qualification efforts.
B.A.N.T. encourages you to get answers to specific questions while qualifying leads. This framework helps you get to the meat of whether there’s a good match between your company and the prospect. However, it may feel a bit aggressive and too focused on your needs rather than theirs. With that in mind, be careful in how you frame questions. Consider this framework if you generally work with leads who are already eager to work with your company.
While similar to B.A.N.T., the C.H.A.M.P. framework begins with a focus on understanding your lead’s challenges. By starting with an effort to see things from their point of view, you can build a positive, consultative relationship. That makes this framework better for warm, not hot, leads.
This one looks complicated, but that’s because it’s the answer to qualifying leads that have a complicated purchasing process. Usually, that’s large enterprises. If you find yourself selling to a lead with a complex procurement process, this may be the best framework for you. Just note that while you might not ask all of these questions, you can still get the answers as you learn more about your prospect’s organization.
The above frameworks are all efforts to learn more about each lead, ultimately helping you decide whether a lead meets important criteria before you spend your time pursuing a sales deal. No matter which framework you use, here’s a lead qualification checklist you can use to streamline the process:
Many sales are lost because of poor early qualification and failure to follow up. But when you qualify leads well, you learn what you need to know while also building relationships. By identifying the best leads to pursue and using your time to ask leads the right questions, you will close more sales and improve your company’s sales process — and bottom line.
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