sales lead generation<\/a>\u00a0and follow-up on prospective clients is key to building a profitable small business.<\/p>\nWhether you’re a solo-entrepreneur\/consultant or have a staff to help you generate revenue, how can make the most of each and every sales lead that comes your way?<\/strong><\/p>\nDeveloping a simple process — a “sales lead qualification process” — is essential.<\/p>\n
A qualification process helps you systematically evaluate every new client business opportunity, and prioritize how you handle each one.<\/p>\n
Specifically,\u00a0this process helps you to:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- identify the potential clients that are the best fit for your service.<\/strong>\u00a0 These are the businesses that have a pain or problem that you have the experience and credentials to solve, and ones that match the criteria of your “ideal client profile” and target market. There’s nothing worse than investing lots of effort on proposing a solution for a prospect, only to later realize that it isn’t a good fit for you (or them).<\/li>\n
- saves time and money in following-up with prospects.<\/strong>\u00a0 You can avoid allocating limited resources following-up with tire-kickers, people that don’t have the funds to pay you, or don’t have the authority to make a buying decision.<\/li>\n
- understand what you know, don’t know, and need to know<\/strong> in order to adequately follow-up with the prospect, increasing your probability to gain them as a new client.<\/li>\n
- determine who are the key players<\/strong> (influencers and decision makers) to make the deal happen.<\/li>\n
- understand where the prospect is in the buying process.<\/strong>\u00a0 Have they just started doing research?\u00a0 Have they identified other options (like your competitors)?\u00a0 Are they ready to buy now, or do they need more nurturing before they can commit?<\/li>\n
- identify the strengths and weaknesses of your service<\/strong> (which can help you be more competitive in your marketplace).<\/li>\n
- track and measure<\/strong> — overtime — the best approaches for each type of sales lead you get.\u00a0 A key to profitable growth is to duplicate a process that has worked in the past to convert prospects into paying\u00a0clients.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n