The 18 Questions in using to qualify leads and increase sales
It is hardly surprising that 46% of sales reps cite lead quantity and quality as their greatest issue. While it's not a big thing to get 1,000 leads with a targeted campaign, it is quite another to produce 1,000 qualified prospects.
An individual who has provided their contact information on your website and is also likely to become a client or customer is referred to as a qualified lead.
Salespeople who do not thoroughly qualify their leads before speaking with them account for 67% of missed transactions. You cannot afford to ignore this stage because the results of not having a plan for lead qualification directly affect your sales funnel.
How can you tell whether or not a lead is qualified?
Usually, you can't judge it from the very first conversation you have with a potential client. A lead must first be qualified, which requires information gathering.
In this post, we'll outline the lead qualifying process and provide a list of 18 questions you should ask leads when you connect with them, whether it's through an email campaign survey or a discovery call.
Knowledge of lead qualification:
It's crucial to comprehend the fundamentals of the discipline and keep its advantages in mind because lead qualifying forms the basis of the sales process and defines its performance.
What is the qualification of leads?
You'll be able to divide your contacts into three groups as a result of lead qualification: hot leads, warm leads, and low-quality leads. By doing so, you can decide which leads your sales representatives should focus on the most and which ones need further nurturing from your marketing department.
The advantages of qualifying leads
Correct, figuring out lead quality aids in creating more productive communication with potential clients.
But how does lead qualifying affect the sales cycle specifically?
Better personalisation is ensured. You can personalise email campaigns and segment leads depending on their traits using the procedure.
A sales representative can prioritise leads in their pipeline and devote more time to cultivating relationships with prospects who are most likely to make purchases when they are aware of the quality of each individual lead.
Close rates rise as a result. Even eligible leads may not all have the same level of interest in purchasing. You'll be able to contact prospects with messages that resonate with them and close sales more quickly if you have a strong awareness of their goals and issues.
The finest part is lead qualifying, save your time.
At least 50% of potential customers will never be qualified to make a purchase from you. Imagine how your sales staff could utilise the time they save by not phoning prospects that aren't a suitable fit!
Qualification of leads versus Lead Scoring
Lead qualifying and lead scoring may have been used interchangeably in the past.
While not entirely absurd, there is a distinction between these two ideas.
One technique for qualifying leads is lead scoring.
Lead scoring aids in prioritising qualified leads based on their value to your business, while lead qualification's objective is to determine whether a lead should be added to your pipeline.
Lead scoring entails giving each lead's profile a "score" or "point" based on a variety of factors, including their demographics, professional background, place in the decision-making process, etc.
Frameworks for lead qualifications
Lead qualification has significant advantages.
Let's quickly review the main lead qualifying frameworks before moving on to the procedure itself.
Picking and sticking with one technique can help you analyse the data you receive as a consequence of lead qualification efforts.
BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing).
Four questions form the model's foundation:
Budget: Is a lead in a position to purchase your good or service?
Do they have the authority to make decisions?
Do you have a complete solution to their issue?
When will they be making their purchase decision?
The fact that this method was created by IBM in the 1960s indicates that it needs some modification in order to work with current sales procedures. With time, the conventional model has lost some of its appeal.
CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization).
The framework focuses the problems and difficulties faced by leads. When there is a genuine need for a product like yours, it is less significant who makes the purchasing decisions.
What difficulties have prompted your lead to turn to your brand?
Has the individual participated in the decision-making process?
Do they have money set aside for the solution?
Prioritization: How crucial is the money to their ability to address the issue?
MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion) (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion).
The MEDDIC technique was primarily created for businesses and concentrates on the intricate problem-solving procedures of each unique organisation. The framework places a focus on the decision-makers and the advantages they derive from the choice.
Metrics: How does your offering benefit the lead's business?
Economic Buyer: Who ultimately decides?
Decision-Making Criteria: What variables influence their choice?
What actions must the stakeholders follow in the decision-making process?
Plan of Identification: Why do they require your good or service?
Which of your stakeholders will act as your brand's champion?
FAINT (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing) (Funds, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing).
The strategy moves the emphasis from a lead's ability to afford to spend money on a solution to their problem to the size and cash flow of their company.
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Funds: What financial resources does the business have?
Are you speaking with the person who makes decisions?
What interests them about your solution? Do they clearly understand how your product can benefit them?
What business issues will your solution aid in resolving?
What is the timeline for the solution's implementation?
ANUM (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money).
The sequence of the elements in this framework, which is made up of elements comparable to those in BANT, is important. Instead of prioritising a prospect’s budget, the framework proposes focusing on the authority of decision-makers.
Who has the authority to make decisions? What should you do to get the trust of the important decision-makers?
Do your goods or services address their issue(s)?
When are they going to put the answer into action?
Do they have the funds available to buy the solution?
Which framework strikes you as being right for you?
There is no one best tactic. Choose one to act as a template that may be customised to meet the needs of your business.
18 essential inquiries to qualify leads:
You'll see that each lead qualifying framework involves the same factors, which are as follows:
As a result, the qualification procedure can always be divided into three levels:
Check out these 18 questions to see how they can help you qualify leads at every level.
Level of organisation:
A lead has submitted a website form. You are familiar with their name, email, and business website. It's possible that you already know how big their business is and how much money they make on average. Alternatively, you'll discover this information after looking over their website and LinkedIn page.
A discovery call hasn't been warranted yet. It's the first stage in the qualification process, which will reveal whether reaching out is even necessary.
Asking yourself the following questions can help you determine whether a lead's firm is a good fit for your company:
1. How long has the company been in business?
2. How big is their business?
3. What sector do they work in?
4. What location are they in?
Do you have any further qualifications to add to this list? Simply look at the profile of your ideal client (you have one, right?). Do your ideal potential clients meet any further criteria?
level of opportunity
The next step is to assess the opportunity. Can your business aid the lead in resolving their issue?
Is the lead interested in what you have to give them, which is even more crucial?
Even if it may seem to you that the company perfectly fits your ideal customer, this may not be clear to them.
While the organization-level qualifying aims to determine whether the lead should even be approached, it's growing more serious at the opportunity-level. You not only estimate the quality of the leads, but you also receive guidance on how to approach them in subsequent interactions.
You need to speak with the lead right now. It's time to find out what their needs, worries, and pain spots are.
The following 8 inquiries will help you qualify your leads at the opportunity level:
A competent lead ought to be struggling with some issue that is getting in the way of their success. As a result, you must initially ask the lead to outline their difficulties.
The next step is to determine what prevents them from solving the issue. Do you have a budget? Or perhaps they felt frustrated with a previous remedy they tried?
The decision-making process might take months or even years in large businesses and industries. Inquire about the organization's purchasing process timetable to determine how important the opportunity is.
level of stakeholders:
Finally, you'll want to determine if you have any power over the major players in the organisation.
You must become familiar with the priorities of the decision-makers if you want to make your offer sound appealing to them. With your contact, conduct a discovery call to gather all the relevant data. Ask the correct questions to comprehend the lead's company's decision-making process and determine who establishes the criteria for the purchase decision:
I. Do you have any say in how decisions are made?
II. Who else is a part of the decision-making process for such a purchase?
III. Have you previously spoken with any interested parties about the solution?
IV. Do they already have a desire to buy?
V. What happens during the approval process?
VI. What happens when you conclude that our product is the best fit for your business?
It implies a set of hurdles you'll need to overcome if your contact isn't a part of the decision-making process, but it doesn't necessarily mean your lead isn't a good fit. It implies that you'll need to figure out how to get in touch with a decision-maker.
It's important to note that decision-makers are rarely influenced by the problems experienced by those who would profit from purchasing a good or service. But it's crucial that they get how valuable the solution is to both their teams and the business as a whole.
Next, what?
You know the solutions. But what comes after?
How can you effectively qualify leads using the information?The prior framework you choose will be useful in this situation. Setting and prioritising criteria that your leads should or shouldn't fulfil aids in lead generation.
Consider any warning signs that might suggest a lead isn't a good fit for your company. Examine the responses you've gathered and eliminate contacts who aren't relevant.
When you have a list of leads who match your target market, are aware of their problems, and are interested in your company, go on to lead scoring.
Conclusion:
Under no circumstances do we advise skipping lead qualifying. Ideally, you have a sufficient amount of data to support the significance of the process for your company.
You only need to ask the correct questions to get trustworthy information about sales opportunities. Spend some time conversing with your leads, and you won't find yourself wasting days or weeks on leads that don't convert.
You can do lead qualifying more and more efficiently each time by having the entire process documented. Additionally, you can quickly gather, store, and use all the necessary data with the aid of contemporary CRM technology to go on to the lead nurturing stage with success.