Are You Wasting Time and Money by Not Qualifying Leads?

Getting new leads is at the core of customer acquisition. No warm or hot prospects = no new customers.

There’s a plethora of lead generation tools available, both digital and offline. The key to success for your chosen method is to qualify your leads to ensure they fall within your target market segments.

Here’s a perfect example of what NOT to do:

Earlier this week, I received a telephone call from a representative (Ross) who was pitching—wait for it—a lead generation/prospecting company! I gave him a couple of minutes to explain what his SaaS software can do.

When I asked what the pricing was to see if it was affordable for me, he told me that he didn’t have that information. Did you get that? He’s pitching lead generation software and he can’t even qualify his own leads!

“Why would you waste time on a prospect like me if your pricing isn’t compatible for many small businesses or solopreneurs?” I asked.

“Good question,” he responded.

Imagine the cost his company is expending for representatives like him. Each telephone call to each prospect/lead takes time and labor.

Why waste time and money on leads that may not fall within your target audiences?

When B2B sales reps receive prospect lists, they can’t possibly know every detail about the businesses they’re calling. They depend on whoever created the lists based on their lead generation tools.

But, what they can do is ask 2-3 questions up front to check if these prospects qualify for their products or services.

Here are some examples for Ross that you can apply to your own needs:

1. Are you currently using lead generation software? If yes, ask which one and whether they’re satisfied with it or not. That’s when Ross can get into his product’s unique differences and offer a free trial. If no, skip to #2.
2. How are you currently capturing prospects and new leads for your business? This is where Ross can work his magic shpieling all about his product’s benefits for customers.

There’s one more step I would add. After asking how prospects are currently capturing new leads, I would suggest that Ross ask approximately how much time and/or cost they’re spending each month on acquisition.

If their responses fall within the average price of using Ross’ product, or are within a stretch of his pricing, then he can begin to demonstrate the ROI for using (or testing) his product.

Instead, Ross used the hook of a free webinar on converting leads to grab my attention. To me, his pitch sounded better suited to medium and enterprise businesses.

If someone had taken a few moments to read the “About Us” page on my company website, he’d discover that we didn’t qualify.

Do the math. Spend a minute checking prospects’ websites or several minutes (or longer) on a call pitching a product or service they don’t need or can afford.

Define your target market segments and don’t waste time on prospects that don’t qualify!