4 Ways to Ensure that Your Sales Leads Are Qualified

Your product or service is designed while keeping a target audience in mind, and so not everyone is designed to buy it. If you pitch it to the wrong people, you won’t be able to bring in prospects who become customers. Prospects must have the demand, i.e. the willingness to buy and the ability to pay for the product you are selling – you’re wasting your time if you’re trying to sell to people who don’t have these two things! You need to qualify your leads in order to be more productive in your sales efforts. You can turn prospects into customers by qualifying them. Here’s how you do it:

1.   Do Some Prospect Inventory

You can do this by finding what products the prospects already have or which services they already employ that are similar to yours. Get the necessary details as best as you can. If you’re a mobile phone company, ask when they bought their existing phone and what brand of smartphone it is. Is it an Android or an Apple smartphone? Find out if they have other electronic devices and that they use their phones in conjunction with or as a replacement or whether they have a landline.

2.   Finding the Appropriate Time to Sell

It’s important to be inconspicuous about this – no one likes being sold to. Find out when the prospect is willing to meet to discuss further details when they can buy your product or service if they cannot presently. It could be a budget or time issue or a key advisor or the decision-maker may not be available at the time you made the call. Ask key questions that would help you save time – but after all of your pressing, if they aren’t willing to budge, move on.

3.   Is the Lead the one to Make the Decision?

Clarify if the person you contacted is really the one who will give the final go ahead for buying. This will be important for B2B sales as you will need a person in authority to get the final deal going. It might be the department head or the CEO or the CFO of the company. B2C customers may take their parent or spouse into account while making a decision. These things are important for customer empowerment and making sales while establishing a promising relationship! Take your time…

4.   Honesty is the Best Policy

Sometimes it’s best to keep your peace. When the prospect already has something that works, let them know that. Don’t try to push your product when you know it’s not right. This may sound counter intuitive but the prospect will appreciate your honesty and may be interested in your offering if any issue with their current system arises. Give them your company’s details and try to keep in touch if you feel they could generate business for the company in the future.