You might have hundreds of leads but only a handful of them convert to closed deals. So, pursuing the right leads is imperative to prioritize your resources and energy.
Moreover, you are more likely to convert prospects who fit your product or service. It also helps you close more deals by focusing on the most promising leads.
However, how do you determine the potential of your leads? How do you know which ones are more likely to convert?
A well-established lead qualification process can help you identify promising prospects. It involves many techniques, strategies, and frameworks that decide the potential of your leads.
Here is a complete guide of the lead qualification process to implement for your business.
How to Qualify Leads
The lead qualification process begins before making the first call to your prospect. It also extends to all the stages of the pipeline as a form of constant evaluation.
You can plan your outreach based on your lead qualification as it establishes the location of leads in the pipeline.
Businesses rely on data to qualify leads and establish contact. They also depend on conversations to understand if the prospect is worth pursuing.
Below are the steps to set up a sound lead qualification process:
Create Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
You must be sure of who your ideal customer is to qualify leads. It is necessary to create a buyer persona or ICP containing the attributes you are looking for. Be specific and add as many traits as necessary to make your lead qualification accurate.
Some attributes for B2B sales would be:
- Company size
- Funding and revenue
- Industry and business type
- Number of employees
You can pitch your leads against your ICP to filter the ones that don’t match your offerings.
Implement Lead Scoring
Lead scoring assigns scores to your leads based on their interests and activities. You can create a custom lead scoring system or use the ones provided with CRMs and marketing tools.
The exact scoring system will vary based on your product, industry, and how you sell. Whatever your model, the total score of your leads can help you prioritize your efforts.
Let’s say a lead gets 10 points for checking out your service page. They gain another 30 points for browsing your pricing section.
Similarly, watching a podcast on your YouTube channel gives a prospect 25 points.
The leads with top scores are worth focusing on for most conversions. Now, it is time to connect with your prospects to take the lead qualification process forward.
Establish Contact
Your ICP and lead scoring gives you a shortlist of prospects to pursue. Now you must outreach to your leads to understand where they stand.
You will have a good idea of where to start based on your ICP and lead scoring. You should use those insights to ask the right questions to qualify your prospects.
It’s great if the leads are interested in your product or match your offerings. You can take things forward by engaging in your sales process.
However, some leads may be hesitant or not ready to buy. You must again ask the right questions to determine your next steps.
Some sample questions to ask are:
- Do you plan to use any solution to achieve your business objectives?
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to buy our product?
- How much are you willing to invest?
- Can you make the final decision on this deal?
Final Qualification
You now have a good understanding of which prospects to focus on. Now, you must perform the final stage of the lead qualification process to move the right prospects to your sales cycle.
Doing research will come in handy to form your decision. You may consider factors about a prospect that determine their profitability and intent to invest.
For example, a company with recent hires and strong leadership might interest your salespersons.
However, a business with recent layoffs or insufficient funding may raise red flags.
Additionally, you can rely on frameworks to qualify your leads. Some of them are:
The BANT Framework
The BANT model lets you qualify leads based on:
- Budget – the capability to buy
- Authority – the power to make decisions
- Need – pain points your product can solve
- Timeline – when is your lead likely to buy
You can use this framework during research and outreach for lead qualification.
The CHAMP Framework
The CHAMP framework is a proven way of qualifying your leads. It lets you decide based on:
- Challenges – pain points to be resolved
- Authority – the power to make decisions
- Money – ability to buy
- Prioritization – the chances of making a purchase
The MEDDIC Model
The MEDDIC framework is suitable for high-value deals. It looks at several factors to help you qualify your leads accurately.
Moreover, you can make reliable sales forecasts based on this model. The MEDDIC framework facilitates decision-making based on:
Metrics – quantifiable gains from your solution
Economic buyer – the power to make decisions
Decision criteria – Criteria for decision-making
Decision process – how decisions are made
Identify pain – the existence of pain points
Champion– external parties to facilitate the sale
The ANUM Framework
The ANUM methodology prioritizes authority. The factors that help qualify leads are:
- Authority – the power to make decisions
- Need – the need for your solution
- Urgency – how urgent is the need for the purchase
- Money – the ability to invest
Final Thoughts
Keep our guide to the lead qualification process handy to serve as a reference whenever you’re confused. Establish and implement a robust qualification process to ensure optimal utilization of resources. You can also expect a boost in conversions and sales.
