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).

B2B and B2C marketing

The differences between B2B and B2C marketing may seem obvious, but there are subtle distinctions between the two with substantial implications. B2B marketing generally entails shorter and more direct channels of distribution.

While B2C marketing is aimed at large demographic groups through mass media and retailers, the negotiation process between the buyer and seller is more personal in B2B marketing. Many B2B marketers commit only a small part of their promotional budgets to advertising, compared to B2B marketers.

Marketing to a business (B2B) trying to make a profit as opposed to an individual for personal use (B2C marketing) is similar in terms of the fundamental principles of marketing. In both B2C and B2C marketing situations:

Match the product/service strengths with the needs of a definable target market

Position and price to align the product/service with its market, often an intricate balance

Communicate and sell it in the fashion that demonstrates its value effectively to the target market.

Select the best channels for selling

These are the fundamental principles of the 4 Ps of marketing (the marketing mix) documented by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960.

Business customers fall into four categories: companies that consume products or services, government organisations, institutions and resellers.

The first category includes original equipment manufacturers, such as car manufacturers, who buy components to put in their cars, and users, which are companies that purchase products for their own consumption. The second category, government organisations, is the biggest.

In fact, the UK government is the biggest single purchaser of products and services in the country. But this category also includes state and local governments. The third category, institutions, includes schools, hospitals, care homes, churches and charities. Finally, resellers include wholesalers, brokers and industrial distributors.

A B2C sale is to an individual. That individual may be influenced by other factors, but it’s a single person that pulls out their wallet. A B2B sale is to an organisation. And with that simple difference lies a web of complications that differ because of the organisational nature of the sale and which vary widely by firmographic (“demographic” for segmenting businesses) such as business size, location, industry and sales revenue.