Provided by the International Finance Corporation
Have you ever felt that you are investing too much time and effort in running after prospects who do not turn into customers? Learn how to focus on the best sales leads to maximize success!
First, identify your leads
Track inquiries or any reaction shown towards your service offer, and information about customers. The more information you can find out about the quality of the lead, the better you can later score it. To do so, you may for example:
- Use a contact form to collect contacts and demographic information or, in case you are selling business to business, the size of the company. Make some questions optional – the disposition of a prospect to give extra information is another sign of real purchase interest. Be aware of spam in your contact forms.
- Track online behavior as an indicator for likelihood of converting a browser to a customer. A prospect who has downloaded product offers from your website is much more likely to become a customer than a prospect who has only been reading information on your brand.
- Pay attention to level of email engagement. Email responses and open and click through rates indicate the quality of the prospect. If you are selling to companies, the email address itself may be an indicator of lead quality. Prospects with private email addresses instead of company domain email addresses should not be prioritized in that case.
- Track level of social media engagement as a sign of interest in your products. Also, try to find out more about high quality prospects by visiting their social media accounts.
Then, score your leads
Once you have started identifying your sales leads you need to track them. To avoid wasting time and effort on leads who are not converting, use a lead scoring system to monitor the quality, level of interest and the status of your sales leads.
In order to track meaningfully, define the criteria that is important for your company to measure the level of prospect quality. The best sales leads are usually the most recent ones in your target group who have shown clear intentions to make a purchase.
There is software available to effectively support your sales team. Choose one that does not only fits your company but also one that your sales team feels comfortable using. If you are not ready to invest in software, you can also set-up your own lead scoring system.
For more resources
- Segment your audience
- How to learn about your prospects’ needs
- Hone your sales presentation skills
- Develop your negotiation skills
- Write successful sales letters
- Close your sales
- How to follow up with customers
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