Sure, if you respond to them quickly and manage them effectively. And that means all the way to closure. If not, they’re simply wasted marketing dollars and lost sales opportunities. A recent study confirmed that 36% of people responding to advertising buy within six months, 55% within one year. A similar study found that 87% never hear from a salesperson. Sales leads are one of your company’s most valuable assets. Managed and measured effectively, they can be tied directly to marketing and sales efforts and, your company’s bottom-line.

Response and your sales cycle.
OK, so maybe you’re able to get the sales literature out…eventually. But then what? To beat the competition and close more sales, you’ve got to get to the prospect fast, and stay there through every stage of the sales cycle. If you want to maximize every opportunity that is available to you and your sales team, institute a formal lead management system and watch your sales climb.

Establishing your lead management system.
Lead management can vary from a simple dealer referral to a sophisticated computer-match database system complete with call-back verification, and other bells and whistles that ensure each lead is handled properly. What exactly is the database? Clearly, it’s more than a list, it’s your list of names of people collected from various sources and massaged according to your marketing criteria to net the very best prospects and/or customers for each product line. It includes cross-selling criteria from one product line to another. Regardless of the variables, the database program should be fast and accurate. The more time that elapses from the moment the lead or inquiry is received to the arrival, by phone or mail, of the first response, the fewer qualified leads and sales will result.

Incorporate a tele-qualification program.
Pursuing poorly qualified leads is expensive and time consuming. A good way to avoid profit-eating wasted time and effort is to accurately qualify your leads through telemarketing. The person responding to your inquiries and leads, especially over the telephone, must be well-trained, personable and able to handle any special problems that may arise. Most of all, he or she should be able to analyze an inquiry and direct it to the appropriate level of qualification. Be careful how much you tell inquiries about your product. Keep them interested, but don’t give away the farm on the first shot. Your goal is to establish a dialog between the inquirer and a live salesperson. Don’t cut short the dialog by giving your prospect so much information that he believes he can make a decision without the salesperson. It probably won’t be the decision you desire.

Questioning yourself.
When building sets of questions that will be asked by your qualification team ask yourself, “What do I want them to do as a result of this call?” This gives you your primary call objective. Then ask, “What information do I need from them?” This provides whatever qualifying or data-gathering questions you must ask. Finally, ask, “What do I need them to think and believe in order to take the action I desire?” The answer to this question provides the pointers you’d like to get across…without actually making the points yourself. They are ideas you want them to discover through your questions. The reasoning is that people always believe more of what they say and think than of what you say.

Lead qualification techniques that deliver big.
The most important part of the lead qualification process is questioning. Presenting without questioning, and questioning inadequately, is like buying a gift for someone you know absolutely nothing about. Your choice will likely be way off target, and result in disappointment for you and them.

Here are a collection of tips and ideas to use in your lead qualification questioning. Have a strong belief system regarding questioning. We’ve seen timid reps with the notion that people are offended by qualifying questions. Nonsense, this is business! They’re actually more offended when salespeople don’t get to the point. Project a self-assured image and tone…..one that says questioning is a necessary part of your process (it is!) in order to determine how you can help them. Let your demeanor indicate you expect an answer.

If you must ask for what really is touchy or private information, don’t apologize. “I hope you’re not thinking I’m getting too personal here. I know this is normally confidential.” Instead, preface your remarks with your justification for asking, which puts the respondent more at ease: “The reason for the next question is that it will help me identify the best recommendation for your company. ”

• Use “Assumptive Problem” open-ended questions. Instead of saying, “Do you have any problems with defects now?” say, “How are you handling defects in the manufacturing process.” If you know your industry well enough, you’re aware of problems everyone has. You’re asking them to quantify and explain the implications of the problems.
• Use “Parrot” questions. That’s the technique of repeating back what the person just said. For example, when they say, “We haven’t had much luck finding the right system to track our process,” you could parrot back, “You haven’t had much luck?” Their comment is just the tip of the iceberg. By repeating a part of their comment, you encourage them to continue.
• Use “Instructional Statements.” Don’t ask for information. Tell them to give it to you. Use phrases like, “Tell me a little about…” “Share with me…” “Fill me in on…” “Give me some idea of…” “Detail the ways that…” “Let’s go over the reasons for…”

Remember that some of your “benefits” are actually liabilities to others. Your benefits are not universal. Some people could actually say, “We don’t need that, and we don’t want to pay extra for it!” Therefore, for each benefit you have, make sure you ask a question to determine if it’s really perceived as one by your prospect. For example, if the printer you sell races through at 12 pages per minute, you might ask “For what types of jobs do you use your printer?” And depending on their response, “How much of an issue is speed?”

A workable lead qualification process.
Sales leads come in from trade shows, publication ads, direct mail and “white mail,” or unsolicited inquiries. The leads arrive at a central entry point for evaluation and qualification. For high-end products with expensive fulfillment programs, you might want to call back immediately to firmly qualify the inquiry or lead. Less costly or less complicated operations might skip this phase.

At this stage you also might distinguish between leads that originate from a magazine bingo card, an 800 number in an ad or from a toll call phone number in an ad. The quality of each type of lead differs greatly. Of the four sources white mail might be the best since it probably comes from word-of-mouth recommendation or from a press mention where no phone number is given and the inquirer had to work to find it.

After evaluation and/or verification, the lead information is entered into a computer, thus beginning the compilation of a database. Here is also where a fulfillment or information package is sent out–the same day, if possible, or the next day.

Next you provide a telephone or mail follow-up to the fulfillment package. It’s been estimated that you can double the number of qualified leads you end up with through a fulfillment follow-up step. This contact may also result in additional information for the database.

At this point the lead may be sufficiently qualified to go to a salesperson. Follow-up calls may result in database material. If follow-up calls reveal a poor prospect, the name can be removed from the database at this time.

If the prospect was not removed from the database or recycled for further follow-up, he or she must have become a customer! Now the prospect goes into a special handling mode to be contacted by a salesperson, a telemarketing team, direct mail or all three, depending on the nature of the products, the margin and other factors.

Incorporate this easy to implement system and you’ll get the highest return on your lead generation investments, an edge on your competition and a reduction in your overall cost of sales. Good luck and good selling.