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Sales Lead

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What some marketers consider a sales ready lead, is merely a hand raiser or inquiry to others. The most critical distinction between an unqualified lead and a sales ready lead is buyer fit and intent.

There are so many ways to define a sales lead, that ironically, the word itself is often misleading. The main reason for this confusion is that many companies, sales teams and marketers have different criteria for what a lead is. Even within a single organization, sales and marketing may not agree on what a lead should be. What some marketers consider a sales ready lead, is merely a hand raiser or inquiry to others. This disconnect is at the heart of many sales and marketing alignment issues and fuels countless debates about lead quality.

It’s true that the definition of a lead is somewhat subjective and has everything to do with an organization’s lead management process. However, the most critical distinction between an unqualified lead and a sales ready lead is buyer fit and intent. Take for example, the "leads" generated at a trade show. These are often among the most diverse in terms of quality, and many aren't leads at all - at least not initially. Those folks who just stopped by the booth to grab a free pen probably aren't hot leads you want to send over to your sales team (and in fact may not even be the kind of contact or account you would ever sell to) but with a little cultivation through lead nurturing, some could turn into active buyers down the road.

At the most liberal end of the spectrum, many marketers consider a single form submission a lead. This means that anyone who converts on a PPC, website or campaign form is considered worthy of sales follow up. However, as most marketers know, the quality of the leads that come through web forms are as diverse as the marketing programs that attract them. The best practice in lead management is to start by defining what makes a sales ready lead and getting agreement from sales and marketing. Typically this definition would map to your ideal customer profile and would include specific contact level and behavioral parameters.

By way of an example, sales leads might be limited to contacts with certain titles so that if a company primarily sells to IT Managers but many Analysts and Consultants complete forms on the website to gain access to free, high value content, those titles would be excluded from the lead management process and would never be passed to sales. By reducing the number of poor quality leads being sent to the sale team, marketers can increase conversion rates, improve sales productivity and bridge the gap between sales and marketing. Other contact data that could play a role in defining the nature of a lead are company revenue, industry, company size, specific (named) account, or any other explicit data provided by the contact.

However, just because someone is the right fit for you solution, it doesn’t necessarily make them a sales lead. Take again the example of the trade show lead. Most companies don’t differentiate the casual booth visit from the serious buyer who comes to learn more about your solution. If marketing simply sends all the trade show leads to the sales team for follow up, they will likely have to kiss a lot of frogs before they find the prince. Many lead quality issues stem from this very issue. Marketing in this case has done nothing to validate the true intent of the buyer. By sending an email follow up and understanding the digital body language of those leads, marketing can present a list of more qualified leads to sales. Chances are that the truly interested will engage with your follow up while those in the market for a free pen will not.

Technology can certainly aid the process of separating sales leads from inquiries and automating the process of cultivating latent demand. Lead scoring allows marketers to assign specific scores to explicit and implicit attributes in order to automatically determine which leads should be routed to sales. Additionally, marketers that use lead nurturing to further profile the contacts that enter their databases and uncover true buying intent, are able to produce more sales ready leads and increase rep productivity by keeping them focused on leads that have the highest likelihood of converting.

Sales Lead Resources

Grande Guide To Sales Enablement
A short, readable guide about the tools available to help sales execs to find leads and close deals.

6 pages

Aberdeen Group: Lead Scoring
Explore the strategic value of sales lead scoring and prioritization in this Aberdeen Group white paper provided by Eloqua.

21 pages

It’s 10 O’Clock, Do You Know Where Your Leads Are?
Most clients start out with a lead bucket and an opportunity bucket. Marketing works with leads, sales works with opportunities. However, as you move toward an integrated marketing funnel, it is important to incorporate additional lead stages in the buying cycle.

6 Lead Scoring Trends To Watch For
For many, lead scoring is still a new concept. No doubt, there are marketers who have never heard of lead scoring. Those who do know lead scoring, and use it, understand its tremendous value in driving demand and improving lead nurturing efforts.

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