Without leads, there are no sales. Generating leads is mandatory for every company, but in terms of leads, quantity does not replace quality (although sales reps often disagree on the matter 😉). Lead qualification should be done right from the start.
A large number of leads is of no use if there are no potential customers among them. Sales should spend time on most potential customers instead of calling every lead.
Concentrate on leads that have a demand for your product or service, and have the time and budget for your solution.
But how do you know if you're wasting your time or if closing the deal is just one phone call away?
This is where you need lead scoring. Lead scoring saves your most valuable resource: Time. It also helps you make more sales.
This guide explains why the quality of leads matters and how lead qualification is done. Of course, you will also get the best tips to implement it in practice.
(🤔 Remind me, what a lead is and why do you need them for success?)
Lead scoring, or lead qualification, is a way of ranking your company's potential customers based on how likely they are to buy your products or services.
Using equal resources on all leads will waste time and money on customers who, despite your best efforts, will not buy anything from you.
Lead scoring guarantees you can target your sales and marketing resources as efficiently as possible. Lead qualification, therefore, saves money and time (which is known to be money 💸).
In short: Just by evaluating the quality of the lead, you can focus your resources on the customers and activities that bring you the best results.
Next, let's get down to the scoring.
Generating leads is the first thing that must be done correctly before getting into the scoring process. Lead scoring on the website, tied to lead generation, is the next natural step.
Leads generated from different sources are examined within the framework of the qualification process (We'll look at five examples a little further on 👇). Each lead receives points according to the defined framework. Leads that exceed the agreed point limit are qualified, i.e. transferred to the sales team. Leads below the limit are disqualified.
However, rejecting does not mean throwing it in the trash. Disqualified leads have their own process, which will be explained in more detail a bit further on.
In many cases, after the initial qualification, the next step is contacting the lead. This contact is usually a call from the sales team. However, lead scoring should be automated in different ways, and the first way is lead scoring on the website.
Let's take demographic data as an example.
Collect demographic information (whenever possible) on your lead generation forms. For example, if you only sell your products or services in a certain area, it makes sense to ask for a postal code in addition to other contact information on the forms.
Once you know the zip code of your leads, you can use it for lead scoring. Leads that do not fall into the area where you operate can be rejected directly, or they receive lower points than leads in your own postcode area.
The same can be applied to other data as well. If your target group is families living in a detached house, a single person living in an apartment building would receive a lower score.
Lead scoring on websites
A lead's behavior on your website can reveal a lot about their interest in your services.
Examine your leads who eventually became customers: how many offers did they download? How many forms did they fill? Which pages, or how many pages, did they visit.
This behavior helps you score the lead. You can give higher scores to leads who visited pages (such as pricing pages) or filled out forms that might indicate a purchase (such as a product demo).
For example, in HubSpot's CRM system, lead scoring is easy according to the criteria of your choice. You can define positive criteria for which the lead gets points (like clicking open more than two marketing emails). Similarly, you can set negative criteria for which points are deducted (e.g. unsubscribing from your email list).
As mentioned earlier, the quality of a lead is ultimately decided after the first contact from the sales team. But lead qualification continues at different stages of the sales pipeline, even if the lead is preliminarily approved.
After the initial qualification, it's all about finding the Sales Qualified Leads (SQL). These are leads that are qualified for a contact from the sales team.
When contacting the lead, ask questions that allow you to assess the need for your company's services and the readiness and willingness to buy.
You want to determine:
Based on the answers received, you can either continue the sales process (qualified lead) or drop it for now (disqualified lead).
If you find out that the time is not right, there is no problem to solve, the person is not in a decision-making position, or the budget is insufficient, do not waste your time. Your efforts should be focused on better leads, although the time for disqualified leads may come later.
Disqualified leads don't need to be forgotten. There is a process for disqualified leads that you should follow.
Disqualified leads can be actively contacted and monitored for purchase signals. For example, lead scoring may lead to disqualification because the time to buy is not right. However, scoring may be different, for example, six months from now. It is highly advisable to monitor the situation.
It makes more sense to think of qualified and disqualified leads instead of good and bad leads: Disqualified leads can become qualified leads in the future.
Lead scoring is done with the help of a framework. These frameworks are varied, but they share common factors. These common factors form different "rule sets" used for lead scoring.
As mentioned, lead scoring on your website is the first thing you should do, and it helps you get a preliminary qualification or disqualification. After that, lead qualification continues using the following techniques.
The techniques are named after clever abbreviations, so a person who is well-versed in English can learn them by heart 👩🏻🎓. The words refer to questions that should be answered in one way or another, and they proceed in order of priority.
Developed by IBM, BANT is a common lead scoring technique. The abbreviation BANT consists of the following words:
There is also an alternative version of BANT, ANUM, where the highest priority is determining whether your contact is in a decision-making position. Timeline and budget are secondary to this priority.
CHAMP is like ANUM in many ways, but challenges get the highest priority. There is no point in continuing the conversation if there is no need for your product or service.
MEDDIC aims to define all aspects of the target company's purchasing process. This is a tool for you if your company sells a product that requires a change of organizational behavior, or the average selling price of your service is high.
FAINT acknowledges that purchase decisions are often unplanned. This model focuses on leads who can buy regardless of budget.
This monster of an abbreviation is a model developed by HubSpot. It aims to reveal your potential customer's strategic goals, business model, and how your product fits into the company's operations more broadly.
GPCTBA/C&I = Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority/Negative Consequences, and Positive Implications.
In general, lead qualification, or lead scoring, can be done using any of the methods mentioned above. To be successful, however, you need an efficient process that fits your organization's needs.
Marketing automation and lead scoring on your website are crucial so that lead scoring can be done efficiently and on a large scale.
Get free help and advice from us 👉 by booking an appointment to our SuccessGuide
Without leads, there are no sales. Lead generation is a must for every business, but not all leads are created equal. Quantity does not replace quality, but time should be spent on as many potential customers as possible.
Lead qualification (lead scoring) is a way of ranking your company's potential customers based on how likely they are to buy from you.
Lead qualification enables you to allocate your sales and marketing resources as effectively as possible. Lead scoring saves money and time.
You should start the process by implementing lead scoring on your website wherever you generate leads. Next, contact the qualified lead and ask questions that will help you assess the need for your company's services, as well as their readiness and willingness to buy.
Ignore the wrong kinds of leads, but follow up on them in the future.
🤝 You don't have to go it alone. Get started with lead scoring by booking a free meeting with our SuccessGuide