The Cardinal Sin When It Comes to Leads

There are many mistakes one might make when provided with a lead.

You could believe that the lead isn’t qualified simply by looking at the company’s name, the size of the company, or the person’s role within their organization, projecting your experience—and your bias—onto the lead without so much as a phone call.

You could also be too slow to respond to the lead, believing that you have higher value activities, and since most leads aren’t great, that there is no rush, even when the evidence is to the contrary.

But of all the mistakes you might make, the worst of all sins is to believe that converting what might be called a “marketing qualified lead” into a “sales qualified lead” requires that the prospect be “ready-to-buy.” To believe this is to adopt the mindset of an order-taker, making the salesperson, irrelevant at best, and unnecessary at worst (if the prospect is “ready-to-buy,” all that is necessary is a signature).

Where You Find Them

You take your prospects, dream clients, and leads where you find them. The lead that shows up may not be fully qualified (a conversation that, when done poorly, not only doesn’t create any real value for the client or preference to work with you, but likely works against those outcomes). It’s not only possible that the lead you call is not only not “ready-to-buy,” it’s almost certain.

Why wouldn’t your lead have questions? Why wouldn’t they want to explore how what you sell would benefit them? Isn’t it natural that people have concerns they need to discuss before they buy? You can’t be “here to serve your clients” and also complain that you have to do just that.

Converting a marketing qualified lead to a sales qualified lead is not a “ready-to-buy.” It’s something less than that, while also being something more than the name and email address of someone who downloaded a white paper from your website.