Avoid 20th Century Thinking About 21st Century Sales Leads

Sales Leads Today Are Not Old-Fashioned Sales Leads

“These are bad leads. I can tell just by looking at them.”Really? How often have you said that? Or heard other salespeople make this claim? I hate to say it, but I still hear salespeople say this like they believe it.When so much has changed in how our customers initiate their buying process, how they gather and evaluate the information that they need to make decisions and how they interact with vendors and their salespeople, it’s hard to be believe that salespeople still think that they can accurately guess the potential value of a lead just by glancing at it. When I hear this type of sales talk, I sometimes have to check my calendar to make sure it isn't still the 1990's.What constitutes a sales lead?A sales lead today is a very different creature than those in the past and it demands a different and proactive response. The Internet provides a low-cost, low-touch means for companies to deliver detailed information about their products and services to any interested party. As a result, the merely curious information seekers no longer have to reach out to a company, and consume its valuable sales time by talking to a salesperson, just to satisfy their basic curiosity about a product or service.Is someone who fills out a web form to download a white paper, eBook or other content a sales lead? No. They might become one with the right nurturing, but they aren’t one now. On the other hand, someone who fills out a web form, or sends an email, to request that they be contacted by a salesperson is a sales lead. And you’d better be prepared to follow up with them in the least time possible.A sales lead is no different than youThe easiest way to illustrate the changed nature of sales leads is to think about them in the context of your own buying behavior.Imagine that you are looking to buy or lease a new car. You go online and look at the websites of various car manufacturers. You’re in an information gathering mode. Seeing what makes and models might fit your needs. You can even price out the options you want and get an idea of the car’s price on the manufacturer's site. But, if you want to know the specific price you’d have to pay in your hometown or what special financing packages were available, you’d have to fill out a web form to request that information from a dealer in your area. This is an invitation for a salesperson to call you. Which means that you’ll only submit that form if you’re good and ready to talk to a salesperson.Now, imagine that you’re considering a purchase of a product or service for your business. You're still in the early stages of your process and not ready to talk to a salesperson. In fact, you're not really sure whether there are products available that will fit your needs. So, you go online and search. You visit various suppliers’ websites and begin to educate yourself about the products that might meet your requirements. These websites serve up a number of pop-up boxes to get you to enter your contact information, but you don’t do it. At least not yet. Because you’re just not at the stage where you need to talk to a salesperson.How are you different than your sales leads? If you won’t enter your information into a company’s web form before you’re ready to talk to one of their sales reps, why would they?A 2010 study showed that more than 90% of all B2B customers conduct some form of online research on a product or service before they engage with a sales person. This means that most potential customers have initiated their buying process prior to ever talking with a salesperson.As a result, the inbound sales leads that a company receives are from a different audience than even 10, 15 and 20 years ago. These are valid leads from people who have done their homework and are deserving of a response by sales.Effective sales lead follow-up is a core sales process that every company needs to master. It is the easiest and fastest path to find new sources of revenue in nearly every company. But, before you can define and implement this process you have to make the fundamental commitment as a company, and a sales team, to follow up. Try it.