How to qualify leads: the key information you need

If you’re in marketing, you probably already know what a lead is and its importance to the success of a business.

However, if you don’t know or feel like you need more information about it, relax! We’ll go over the key information you need on this post.

Actually, the focus of this text isn’t exactly the lead, in fact, it is how to properly qualify leads to ensure better sales results!

Are you curious? Well then, read on.

What are qualified leads?

Even before we explain what qualified leads are, let’s review the concept of a lead. A lead basically represents potential consumers who have shown interest in a brand’s product or service.

There are several ways of identifying this interest; however, the most common one is when a person fills out a form with their basic personal information.

Have you noticed that when you download an ebook or subscribe to a newsletter they ask for your name, email, profession, and sometimes other information?  Well, this is one of the strategies for generating leads.

Once the marketing team has the contact information of a potential consumer, it concentrates all of its efforts so that the consumer advances through the sales funnel and makes a purchase.

But does everyone who in some way interacts with the brand end up becoming customers?

Not always! And this is where the concept of qualified leads comes in.

Also known as optimal leads, qualified leads are users who not only have greater buying potential, but also an interest in purchasing the product.

In other words, it’s in this type of lead that the marketing team concentrates all its efforts by developing campaigns, creating relevant content, applying marketing strategies, among other actions, because this is the potential customer with greater chances of concluding the purchase journey and generate good results and profit for the business.

Criteria to qualify leads

If you’ve gotten this far, you probably understand qualified leads better and why they are the consumers that your team should invest in most.

But after all, is there a criterion to define which users are more qualifiable for conversion? The answer is yes!

The basic idea is to distinguish them between a potential customer and a visitor.

The point is that not everyone visiting your web page is interested in buying your products. They’re usually browsing the internet and end up on your website by accident, not demonstrating any desire to close a deal.

Potential customers, on the other hand, are interested in getting to know your business better, and the products and services you offer.

An optimal lead is identified when it interacts directly with the brand’s content, demonstrating its great levels of engagement — which can be measured by means of monitoring and email marketing platforms.

In addition, qualified leads are also those who constantly comment, share and like your posts on your blog or social media.

How to qualify leads

First and foremost, you should know that only you can determine the best method to qualify leads, because you are the person who truly knows your business’ potential customer. However, we have to admit that certain strategies have been more efficient than others.

Lead scoring is an example of this. Scoring is a system that works based on consumer engagement.

What do you mean? I’ll explain!

The more users interact with your brand, through forms, comments, and likes, the greater their engagement category will be, and consequently, the higher the score.

The group with the highest score is considered ideal for the brand to contact and try to close the deal.

This system is adapted according to your needs.

For example, let’s say that your persona is someone in the administrative area. So, the leads with the best scores will not be those who took the time to answer a series of questions, but those who selected the administrative job in the “current profession” field on your survey.

In addition to reducing the cost of acquiring customers, scoring also makes marketing strategies more efficient because after adding up the scores, only optimal leads go to the final step, aiming for a higher conversion rate.

Which mistakes should be avoided in order to generate qualified leads?

Knowing how to qualify leads is key in order to increase sales and consequently, your business’ billing. However, let’s be honest, we all make mistakes, right?

Normally, the greatest mistakes in this step involve 2 main aspects:

1. Information overload
2. Ignoring different leads

Information Overload

The more information the brand has about the lead, the better the approach will be so they can advance in the sales funnel.

But imagine having to fill out huge forms every time you wish to download or follow content? You’d give up, wouldn’t you?

The same happens to your potential customers. By having to fill out many fields in a form, they will probably give up and not even get to your sales funnel.

Ignoring different leads

We’ve learned that the marketing team should focus its greatest efforts on qualified leads, right?

But this doesn’t mean that the other leads are irrelevant. They are merely at a different stage in the funnel.

In order for them to reach an interesting point for the seller, we can use the lead nurturing strategy.

What are the key methodologies for qualifying leads?

There are several methodologies used to qualify leads correctly, in order to avoid further frustrations. They sort, in order of importance, the criteria necessary to decide which consumers should be the focus of the marketing team.

Check out the main ones in sequence.

CHAMP

• Challenge — what are the needs, pains and main challenges of the potential customer?
• Authority — who authorizes the purchase of the product or service?
• Money — Does the consumer have the necessary income to close the deal?
• Urgency — what is the lead’s urgency to find a solution for their problem?

FAINT

• Funds — Does the lead have the funds to invest in your proposal or are they at least willing to come up with the funds?
• Authority — Does the lead require authorization from another person to use the funds?
• Interest — is there a more interesting way to increase the lead’s interest in your solution?
• Need — will the potential customer’s specific needs be met with the brand’s offer?
• Timing — what is the waiting period for the consumer to make the purchase?

GPTC

• Goals — what is the company’s current goal? And the lead’s? Are these goals aligned?
• Plans — what is the means to achieve the goals? How did you plan your strategies?
• Challenges — what are the main challenges currently faced?
• Timing — what is the deadline to achieve the goals? Is the expectation short or long-term?

What are you waiting for to start qualifying your leads?

Qualifying leads is an essential marketing planning action. It’s based on it that you will understand where you need to concentrate your strategies to convert website visitors into real customers.

In order to do this successfully, the marketing team should not only know your ideal consumer well, but also adopt a methodology to separate it from the other leads.

As we told you earlier, the methodology used will vary according to each business, but with the tips that we provided here, you’ll be able to think about the most suitable questions to qualify your leads.

One of the ways to obtain information from people who follow your brand or visit your website or blog is by educating them with free material that covers your area of work.

Ebooks are one of the most popular formats. After all, they are easy to develop and also add value to your potential customers.

Have ever written an ebook? If not, here is the complete information you need to get started. Be sure you check it out!