Leads fall into a couple of categories – cold, warm and hot!
Your hot leads – the ones that need the most attention – are the ones that have heard of you and your brand, know what you offer and are willing to hear you out. These are the ones that require the most attention and should be a salesperson’s main focus.
Then you have your warm leads – these are prospects who have opted for something you have offered through one of your Marketing Channels. For e.g. we have a very popular Business Plan Template that business owners use to chalk out their plan. We offer this template on Facebook and via email blasts, amongst other marketing. A person who downloads this Business Plan Template then becomes a warm lead.
Lastly, you have your cold leads. These are people who have never heard of you, never heard of your brand and do not know what you would be contacting them about. You would essentially be calling them out of a newspaper so to speak.
It is important to have a list of “Qualifiers” so that you are not wasting time with people who are not interested in purchasing from you. This is particularly important for your warm and cold leads. If you are following them up with a phone call, it is crucial to use qualifiers to suss out who meets the criteria of your ideal client.
- When speaking to someone on the phone, always make sure you are talking to the person who is responsible for making the decision. For example, if you are selling Solar Panels, speak to someone who looks after the building. This could be the owners of the building or the business owner. If you are selling Google AdWords, ask for the person responsible for that particular Marketing Campaign. This could be the Marketing Manager or the Business Owner. Don’t end up wasting time talking to someone who has no idea what you are selling or has no decision power.
- If you are speaking to a prospect about your product, suss out whether they need your product or service right now. If you are going to sell them something 6 months down the track, park the contact and call them back in 6 months. Only speak to a person who is interested in buying from you now.
- Affordability! Picture this… you are a real estate agent, and someone walks into your door and wants to find out more about a house on the market. You go into a full-fledged conversation with him about the house, the area, the schools but you don’t discuss price till about 40 minutes into the conversation. The price is mentioned and that’s when the prospect (so-called) turns out and leaves because he cannot afford it. You just wasted almost an hour on someone who was never going to buy from you in the first place. One of the most important qualifiers is price and affordability. If they are buying a coffee from you, different story. But if they are buying a house or looking to pay for services like contracting or landscaping, then you need to qualify them first. If they cannot afford you, move on.
- When you are meeting someone to talk about your services – make sure this person knows it’s a sales meeting and not just a coffee catch up. Make it clear that the meeting you have set up to talk to them is about the service or product they are potentially going to buy from you.
- When qualifying your leads to make sure you ask open-ended questions – Who, What, When, Where and How…
- Get to know the person a little better – check out their website, LinkedIn Profile and what business they are in. It will give you an indication as to why they would potentially need or want to buy from you.
A great way to make sure you have a qualification process in place is to create your avatar or buyer profile. Once you know who you are targeting the rest is easier. You will know where to Market your product, what questions to ask and know the difference between interest and intent.
Before selling, get to know your prospect and understand what they need and how you can help them solve a problem.
For more information on how Max My Profit can help you with your business, please contact us here