The lead stage is the start of the sales cycle. A lead is a company that has shown a level of interest in your products and services; they’re a potential customer. But we must emphasize that they’ve only shown interest. At this stage, the lead has not yet been qualified as a true opportunity.
Leads may come from trade shows, a website inquiry or word of mouth through a friend in the field.
There are three key steps in the lead stage. Take a moment to think about each step, answer the questions and reflect on what your company does well and where there’s room for improvement in each step:
Step 1: Generate leads.
Do you have systems in place to generate leads – something like a website or email campaign? Perhaps you attend trade shows? If your manufacturers help to generate leads, where do those leads originate?
Step 2: Qualify leads.
A qualified lead is someone who has shown true interest in your products or services. Importantly, not every lead falls under this “qualified” header.
To effectively manage leads – and not waste the valuable time of your sales force – it’s important to first qualify them. Establish a set of criteria that a lead must meet before it is moved on to the sales team, questions like:
- Why is the person asking about your products or services?
- How did they find out about your company and products?
- Does their company have an approved project or funds for your products or services?
Consider hiring an intern or having a single employee run leads through this vetting process. Direct him or her to make low-level phone calls and manage a spreadsheet or insert the information into the CRM system.
Step 3: Follow-up on leads.
Are follow-up procedures in place for qualified leads? Is there a system to document the information? If the lead has been qualified and turned over to the sales team, has the sales team followed up and either closed the lead or moved it to the opportunity stage? Documenting the answers to these questions is a vital part of sales management.
If the sales team is receiving qualified leads but not converting them to the opportunity stage, review your process to determine where problems are arising. It may be a lack of follow-up from your sales team or perhaps the wrong questions are being asked at the qualification stage. Whatever the reason, there’s a broken link. It’s up to you to fix that and set your company on the path to profit.
Remember, putting the responsibility on the sales team to qualify leads and then move them to the opportunity stage is not an effective strategy. Instead, use the process above to ensure quality on the front end – with qualified leads – and yield results on the back end.