One of the major stumbling blocks of smarketing alignment is a point of tension around lead quality and how exactly to qualify them.
The number one reason to qualify your leads early on in your marketing and sales funnel is to save time. It’s impossible to know who is going to buy from you at first touch, which is why marketing relies so heavily on lead-nurturing to determine what engages prospects.
To ensure you qualify leads and prospects quickly, you must ask questions. Keep in mind the best lead qualification model is ABH – Always Be Helping.
Start every conversation with the goal to help, not to sell.
How to Qualify Leads and Prospects
With lead qualification, always be on the lookout for how your product or service can help the prospect. Qualifying leads with the ABH model involves three lines of questioning:
- What’s the pain point?
- Why is that?
- How can we help?
We’re not saying to ask these exact questions outright, although in some cases that might be what’s needed. Instead of “What is your pain point,” you might ask “What challenges are affecting your sales or growth goals?”
By answering these questions early on, you’ll be able to identify prospects who aren’t a great fit, or find out ways you can benefit their business.
Some example questions to determine the best way to help might include:
- What are you looking for?
- What is your current strategy for [areas related to the product or service]?
- How has [challenge] impacted your company growth goals?
- What are some changes you’d like to see take place?
When asking questions, don’t be too quick to qualify the prospect as a bad fit. Sometimes, your questions guide a prospect to realize your product or service is just what they need.
With the right lead qualification strategy in place, your marketing and sales team starts to move through the funnel more quickly, and directly impacts company revenue goals.
What is your process for qualifying leads? Let us know any tips or questions you may have in the comment section below.