Gaining leads is important in any business. High-quality leads are prospective clients that are interested in your product or service and are ready to make a purchase.
With the introduction of new marketing trends, organizations are able to develop their skills in acquiring high-quality leads.
The main challenge lies in determining which of your leads is high-quality and are ready to purchase your product or service.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation can be defined as the method of attracting buyers and making them gain interest in your company’s products and services.
It’s a way of warming up potential clients to your business and getting them on the path to eventually making a purchase.
What is a lead?
A person who expresses curiosity in a product or service is a lead. The interest is expressed by many ways like sharing email, phone number, or a social media handle.
Leads then gets a call from a business after voluntarily sharing their contact details. This process makes it far less intrusive than cold calling.
Leads can be qualified into different types. Some of the examples are listed below.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
People who developed an interest in your team’s marketing approach but aren’t ready to receive a sales call are referred to as marketing qualified leads.
They are considered marketing qualified because the marketing triggered them to become a lead. Some examples of this are the prospects who attended a webinar, downloaded an ebook, subscribed to your blog or watched one of your videos.
To help them get to the decision stage, your company could offer things like free trials, demos, free consultations, quotes or coupons.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
If the MQL is ready to move to the decision stage, you now have a sales qualified lead.
These leads are contacts who have taken actions that expressly indicate their interest in becoming a paying customer.
If a lead is sales qualified, your sales representative already had an initial conversation with the prospect and it was deep enough for you to know that this may be an opportunity.
This may not lead to a closed deal but there is a potential. This potential would consider them qualified.
Product Qualified Lead (PQL)
Product qualified leads are contacts who already used your product. Businesses who offer a product trial with options to upgrade usually gain PQLs.
When it is time for your team to reach out, these leads already experienced a meaningful value in your product. This makes closing the deal easier because you don’t need to sell the value of the product anymore.
Service Qualified Lead
A service qualified lead is a customer who is ready for a conversation with your team about new products or services that you are offering. They already know how your product works and are looking for an upgrade.
Your team should identify these leads and keep their contact information so that you can reconnect with them easily when offering possible upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Why do you need lead generation?
Lead generation occurs after you have appealed to an audience and are ready to turn these visitors into leads for your team.
Prioritizing lead generation can ensure that your product is matched with the right customers. Your company can focus on targeting specific markets, which will save effort, money and increase sales.
Lead generation also helps you build brand awareness. When prospects express interest in your brand, you can supply them with the appropriate information that they need.
It also helps you gather important marketing data from prospects. Customer information and preferences can assist your team in customizing your product or service to suit your customers’ needs.
If a company focuses on lead quality, the chances of turning a lead into a loyal customer increases. This will also help in increasing your return on investment.
