Leads come in all kinds of varieties.

The leads your sales reps to salivate over, are the great ones. Great leads have the power to ignite and emblazon an otherwise smouldering salesperson. There are four basic differences between great leads and any other lead that enters the funnel.  Many more of what follows may seem basic, but you know that it is the basics that win championships. The features of a great sales lead are:

  1. Great data
  2. Fully mapped out buying process
  3. All of your qualification information collected
  4. A confirmed date and time for the initial introductory/discovery call

Great data

The first stamp of a great quality lead is great data.  It is the valid contact information that is the backbone of it.  When a sales rep gets an investor lead from his inside counterpart or her business development rep, the first piece of information that is read is who is interested.  Before you go further, though, it must be stated that the hallmark of a quality lead is a sales development rep that has been shown to be trustworthy and one with a proven track record.

Mapped out buying process

The second and important part of a great lead is a fully mapped out buying process.  Whilst there can not always be a specified budget for the product or services that you provide, if the lead has brief information on that purchasing process, that information is priceless.  To get to know what the progression is to either reallocate funds or acquire additional funds is invaluable to a sales rep. That level of described information alone is enough to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.

Qualification information collected

The third aspect of a big lead is getting all of your qualification questions answered. You can pause for a moment here, as we know that there is a big debate going on about questioning the value of BANT information.  Argue all you’d like, but here to tell you that there isn’t a sales rep alive who wants a qualified lead with that level of detail delivered to them, and it is so bold as to say whoever says they wouldn’t tell the truth.  A great sales lead covers the bases. If you get to know who makes all of the decisions and understanding the role of each of the players involved is invaluable information.   This information is what brings the picture to life here.  There’s no lead without clarity into how you can make a variation. Identifying how soon that need must be met or how soon that pain must be alleviated provides a sales rep insight into how serious the prospect is.

The confirmed date and time for further discovery

The final variant of a great sales lead is a confirmed date and time for the sales rep to start further discovery.  A good lead may have an agreement from the prospect to accept a call sometime soon from a sales rep, but the big leads have made meeting times that have been accepted and booked on their calendar.

The other leads have their essentiality, but they’re not greeted with the same reverence that a fully qualified sales lead is.

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