Sales Lead Generation – why is qualification the most important aspect of sales lead generation?

If you’re thinking of running a ales lead generation campaign, whether it’s using your own in-house resources or outsourcing to a sales lead generation company, it’s essential that you consider the most important aspect of sales lead generation before you start: qualification.

Qualification is the core of any sales lead generation campaign. Without good qualification, you risk wasting time and resources both during and after the sales lead generation campaign.

This short article provides an overview of the qualification process essential to successful sales lead generation.

So, let’s explore what is good qualification; before you start your sales lead generation campaign, you need to decide what a good sales lead looks like. There are a number of qualification models available, usually involving an acronym, but the one we use is BANT, which means:

1) Budget

2) Authority

3) Need

4) Timescale

For those that have been in sales for sometime you’ll recognise this model for qualifying sales lead generation as similar to MAN (Money, Authority Need). We find the addition of Timescale is an essential step.

So, let’s go through these briefly within the context of a sale lead generation campaign.

1) Budget – questions to ask include, “do they have a budget in place?” or “will they be able to justify the necessary budget?” More often than not, when running a sales lead generation campaign with requires capital approval, prospects will not have a defined budget. In which case, you need to understand whether they could raise the necessary budget. This requires you to ask questions that uncover details about their business and whether it is likely that a business case could be made to justify a return-on-investment.

2) Authority – do they have the necessary authority? In business-to-business (B2B) sales lead generation this doesn’t necessarily mean the ultimate authority as often that is a board decision. But you need to ensure that you are speaking at the right level for your particular proposition. For most sales lead generation campaigns, this can be built into the data sourcing process.

3) Need – this can be a bit more subjective. We view need as an identifiable business need or driver. Essentially, you’re looking to uncover genuine need as part of the sale lead generation qualification process. Ask yourself, is this simply a nice to have rather than an essential need on the business agenda.

4) Timescale – finally, we feel this is the essential element in qualifying sales lead generation. If your prospect can answer the question, “when do you want to make a decision…?” then you have a timescale and, as they say in sales, timing is everything.

Once you’ve answered the questions above you’ll have good idea of what a perfect qualified sales lead looks like. Now, let’s see how you can use this qualification model with a sales lead generation campaign.

The reality is that not every sales lead generated will tick all the above boxes. Your sales lead generation campaign will uncover all different permutations. What you need to understand is what should be done with each one.

One way is to introduce a scoring for each sales lead. For example, you could allocate a point for each question, which would mean a top score of 4 points for a sales lead that meets the above test of budget, authority, need, timescale. In reality, that’s very simplistic and often, when we run sales lead generation campaigns, we use a weighted scoring system depending on each client’s sales process.

But, even in this simplistic qualification process, you can see that different sales lead will have a different scoring value. They key thing to understand is that not every sales lead is of equal value and the process of qualification is all about deciding which sales leads should receive the most attention and resources.

High scoring sales leads, often called the hot leads, will get more of your attention. Leads that score lower will still receive attention, but perhaps you will use a lower cost approach until you can warm up the lead.

By applying this method of qualification and scoring for your sales lead generation campaign, you will ensure that you both maximise the return and stop wasting resources chasing sales leads which are too early in the process.

David Regler is Managing Director of Maine Associates Ltd, a sales lead generation company providing new business development, sales lead generation and appointment setting services.