Top 7 questions to determine whether sales leads are qualified

There are seven essential questions used to determine if the contact or business is a qualified prospect:

1) Does this contact or business have a need for my company’s services or products?

2) Does this contact or prospect business perceive a need or problem that may be met by my company’s product or service?

3) Does the contact or prospect business have a real desire to fulfil this actual need or solve this problem?

4) Can this contact's desire to fulfil actual needs or solve problems be converted into a belief that my company’s product or service is needed?

5) Does this contact or prospect business have the financial budget to pay?

6) Does this contact or prospect have the company authority to buy?

7) Is this potential contact's purchase large enough to make it a profitable sale?

These are the questions that you should ask, and we ask them as well, during the prospect qualification process (which is always the most important part of the lead generation process).

Five ways to determine good prospects

All prospects are not created equal; some are more likely than others to turn into sales. To avoid wasting resources, you need to weed out the poor prospects and concentrate your efforts on prospects who will yield a return on your investment of time, money and resources.

The following five steps will help you determine good prospects from bad prospects:

1) Define your target market very precisely. Break your market down by demographics ie geography, industry, company employee size etc. This will enable you to focus on the prospects that match your target audience.

2) Assess need, budget and the prospect’s buying authority. Ask basic questions that will allow you to determine whether a prospect is ready, such as:

What's the time frame for this project?
Who else is involved in making the decision?
What's the budget for this type of product or service?
How will the decision be made?
Is your company ready to buy if the right product or service is found?
If you decide that our product or service meets your needs, what will the next step be?

3) Ask for a “yes” or "no." Conventional wisdom says that as long as the prospect hasn't said "no," then the sale is still possible. However, when it comes to rating prospects, get a decision, even if it's no. It’s better to find out sooner rather than later that the chances of closing a sale are slight.

4)  Evaluate financial position. Creditworthy prospects are better than high-risk customers. Stable prospects are better than customers going through widespread changes. A company that is merging or downsizing may delay buying decisions.

5) Develop a scoring system. Rate prospects by a letter or number grade, based on the possibility of closing the sale. Concentrate on A prospects, and upgrade or downgrade the other prospects as circumstances change.