How to qualify a lead

A definition of Lead Qualification.

In our last post we introduced Lead Hacking.
We outlined Step One: Lead identification.

In this post we will discuss:

What is lead qualification
Example qualification criteria
Sample leadscore metrics

Once you’ve read this, you should be able to define your own lead qualification criteria.

In this post, we dive into lead hacking with a short look into Lead Qualification.

In plain language: qualifying a lead means taking steps (gathering information) in order to decide when to contact a lead.

There is a system at work in terms of deciding when a lead moves, for example, from receiving automated marketing, to receiving a phone call or personal email.

Once you have identified the lead (via company, interest expressed, contact form submitted, etc), the next step is to qualify the lead for the next step in your workflow.

There are a number of ways to qualify a lead. This depends on factors such as your target market, workflow, and the nature of your product. Unless you have a very low number of leads, you’ll want to automate this in some way, by establishing your qualification criteria.

Here are some potential qualification factors:

Has your product been tested/installed?
Is the lead a “real” company, ie do they have a budget
Are they in the correct industry or sector
How many employees does your lead have
Are they located in the correct region
Is there sufficient contact info to start talking – email, phone, website, company name
Has a contact person been identified
Has engagement with your product or service been measured (logins, clicks, installs, etc)
Freshness, how recently have they engaged

Start by deciding the three pieces of information that you like to know about a potential lead. These criteria should tell you if it’s worthwhile to contact this lead. That is qualification in a nutshell.

What to talk about (engagement) will be covered in our next post.

Conclusion: the point is to get a total picture of what you know about a lead, and use your understanding to decide whether or not to pursue the lead.