There’s a sweet spot in sales. It’s when a prospect’s needs perfectly align with your offerings. But when you fail to find it, you end up chasing the wrong leads.
Let’s look at a few strategies sales professionals are employing in 2022 to achieve better lead quality.
Because the “ideal customer” differs from company to company, it doesn’t make sense to use the same scoring criteria as everyone else. For example, one company may prioritize demographic scoring, while another focuses on interest level.
A CRM with lead scoring capabilities allows you to customize your own criteria. And, it typically uses a point system to score each lead.
For instance, every time a lead engages with your business (opens an email, downloads a content offer, etc.), their score increases. But if they live outside your service area, for example, their score decreases.
Let’s fast-forward to the moment you call a prospect for the first time. Before you even pick up the phone, you can access their score in your trust CRM, review their past interactions, and gauge their interest level. With this insight, you can personalize your pitch and hit the ground running.
These stats point to a simple truth: sales and marketing are most effective when they play together. When they’re at odds, nobody wins.
To align these teams, you need to ensure they’re aiming for the same target. For instance, if you were to ask both teams, “What is a qualified lead?” would they come up with the same answer? If not, you need to first define what is — and isn’t — a qualified lead.
Eventually, you want to get to the point where your sales team can inform your marketing team on how to attract leads. After all, your sales team should have intimate knowledge of your customer’s pain points, buying habits, needs, and challenges. This is powerful information that marketing teams can use to tweak their approach.
How can you improve lead quality if you don’t know what your ideal customer looks like?
For instance, if you start calling anyone and everyone, you’ll probably come up empty-handed — or attracting the wrong leads.
With a better picture of your buyer personas, you can alter your strategy to speak directly to their needs.
If your sales pipeline is full of leads but no sales, you may have a problem with lead quality. But by powering your sales strategy with the right tech — and tweaking your approach — you can start identifying and converting the right leads.
