Which Type of Sales Leads Are Most Valuable?
For companies that are just beginning their list building in earnest, determining which types of sales leads are most valuable will help them decide how best to allocate their resources when it comes to list buying and gathering new names internally. Whether you are vetting potential list brokers, or training your employees to seek out qualified leads, understanding what makes a lead hot or cold will enable you to increase your conversion rates without going over your marketing budget. By becoming more efficient in your outreach, you can easily add new clients without increasing the size of your staff or the number of promotional mailings that you send.
Always seek out qualified leads as opposed to unqualified ones. When a lead has been qualified, it means that the contact has a confirmed interest in a service that you offer or in your company itself. If you sell mortgages for example, confirmed leads would contain the names of those who are looking for houses or hoping to refinance. The fact that they have expressed interest is not enough. The best prospects are also those who supplied their contact information without being offered an incentive. This reduces the likelihood that they were just interested in entering a drawing and confirms that they are actually in your target customer base.
Newer leads are far more likely to turn into clients than older ones. Ideally, a potential customer will be reached out to within 24 hours of expressing their interest by entering an email address or phone number. If you are gathering leads on your own, do not allow them to collect for a few days without being contacted. Instead, send some type of outreach as soon as you receive their information. For those who will be buying lists from an outside source, confirm that no names with which they supply you are more than 72 hours old. After three days, it is highly unlikely that any prospect will respond to your solicitations.
Managers who understand the qualities that good sales leads share are in a better position to ensure that their staff is using its time and resources wisely. Investing a bit more time and money into getting good leads from the outset will speed the process of converting new clients and creating new revenue streams.
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