The Only Way to Qualify Leads is to Call Them

It amazes me how many marketing people consider a simple filling out a website form makes a prospect a qualified lead.  We’ve done numerous telemarketing campaigns for companies that generate leads from inbound marketing campaigns and then realize that the leads still have to be qualified before passing them onto the sales group.  We become part of their integrated marketing efforts.

Every day some kind of software emerges that will help you track customer behavior. This is certainly valuable for lead scoring and prioritizing qualification efforts, but too many marketers rely on that to do their heavy lifting.

When you really need to know all the answers, you must make human contact and speak to them directly. I have yet to find a better way to qualify a lead. In fact, I’ve talked with many of the major marketing automation providers and most have salespeople who follow-up on inbound leads with a phone call.

This human touch takes your organization’s relationship with prospects to the next level. Suddenly, you’re not an email or website anymore. You’re a real company with real people, and people buy from people.

Once you find out directly whether the prospect fits your universal lead definition, you have two excellent options:

• Option #1 – If they fit the ULD, send them to the sales team so it can do what it does best – work on closing the deal.

• Option #2 – If they don’t fit the ULD, nurture them until they do. (Want to learn more about nurturing?

B2B marketing isn’t about how many names you’re getting; it’s about doing everything you can to optimize your selling time by connecting Sales with the right people in the right companies. Doing this helps your salespeople sell, makes them more productive, and earns your company more revenue.

http://b2bleadblog.com/2012/05/human-touch-lead-qualification.html