Begin casting the vision that your products will create. Find out as much information as you can and use it to tailor your demo or sales call perfectly to them. It can go well two different ways when trying to see the difference between suspect vs prospect.
If you are talking to a suspect and it ends in 10 minutes—success. Likewise, if you are speaking with a genuine prospect it may run up to 45 minutes. Rare, but it happens. Scheduling a call allows you to use the intel in your pitch later and gives you a point to refer back to namely the qualifying call. HubSpot did a great piece that outlines the key areas any rep will want to find out about suspect vs prospect during a qualifying call.
That said, a couple of template questions never hurt anyone that we know of. Take these and tweak them away to your needs. While these are very general, even using these tailored to your qualifying call would yield incredible data from prospects and send suspects packing without the wasted time of a full pitch. Now that you know the difference between prospect vs suspect and how to separate them—get on the phone. Get your list of qualified leads, start weeding out suspects and warming up prospects.
Want to help contribute to future articles? Have data-backed and tactical advice to share? We have over 60, monthly readers that would love to see it! Contact us and let's discuss your ideas! Grab the PDF to read later or share with others on your team! Check this article for tips on how to generate better leads! Editors Note: Want to help contribute to future articles? Monitor the conversion rates behind each article to identify best performers and clarify user intent. A lead can become an MQL because his behavior on your website clearly identified his pain point which directly affects his probability of becoming a client.
It is here where it can get complicated depending on the size of your organization and the complexity of the sales process. Organizations that have both business developers AND sales representatives usually have more stages. Having more stages only makes sense for complex, large consultative deals, where the expertise of the sales rep can only definitively qualify said prospect. It relates to what we mentioned earlier: miscommunications and discrepancies between sales and marketing creating confusion and inefficiency.
It does not make sense to multiply the stages and complexify your sales cycle. That being said the marketing team is not passively waiting for visitors to become SQLs. Its role is to set up an effective lead scoring and lead nurturing strategy. By defining the rules that affect the progression of the leads throughout the buying cycle they actively convert them from one stage to another scoring and send them relevant content to engage them nurturing.
From their point of view they are getting leads every sales rep will tell you they get bad leads , using their amazing selling skills they transform these leads, from prospects to opportunities and eventually clients. Depending on the company size, industry or country, companies have developed different terminologies, but we are describing the most common and accurate stages potential clients go through. This is one of the reasons why prospects are often overlooked.
Most sales organizations barely even mention stage 3, because as soon as a lead is qualified it becomes an opportunity. The issue might have been with the persona, not being ideal or precise enough. A suspect is a lead who will stick around in your pipeline and waste your time and energy without having the means or intention to buy the products and services you are selling. The complexity and diversity in the way these terms are used is due to the lack of communication and collaboration between marketing and sales departments.
Depending on the length of your sales cycle that rate may not be relevant so you need this alternative way of calculating the ratio:. Number of SQL in your average sales cycle ex. Yes and no. Meaning you could be missing quality opportunities in the process.
Then create a variety of relevant content to pinpoint what matters to your leads and create an efficient lead scoring system. Finally, continue to adjust your strategy as your leads and your market change.
How do some companies manage to grow so fast? They have a solid growth strategy rooted in a deep customer understanding. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can check our privacy policy here. Lead vs Prospect Sometimes they are used interchangeably, but each has its own distinct meaning that directly refers to the sales process.
The main objective, once you have a lead, is to focus on learning more about them. This could be through enticing them into some form of engagement with you two-way communication and converting them into a prospect.
The main difference between a lead and a prospect is that your lead has moved beyond one-way communication and has now engaged with you. Such two-way communication suggests that the lead has real potential to buy from your business. This is when the lead becomes a sales prospect.
A prospect, by nature of the term, is someone who has the potential to develop into becoming a customer. This is signaled by two-way communication: they respond to something you send them, such as an email, a phone call, or a good old-fashioned mail drop! A prospect is a potential client who has shown interest in your goods or services. Ideally, the prospect has some challenges that you can leverage to create value, or conversely, disqualify them if they fail to perceive the value you intend to create.
The typical journey an individual goes on to transition from being a lead to a prospect is that the lead is nurtured down the sale funnel through a communication back from the business to entice them to respond further. Should the lead choose to respond to this additional contact—such as email—then the lead becomes a prospect as they have initiated two-way communication.
The main difference in the communication methods is that while a lead is one-to-many, a prospect involves one-on-one two-way communication. Now, having defined a prospect and a lead, it should be clear that they are quite different in the sales process. Therefore, logically your marketing approach for the two cannot be the same. As a marketer, it is imperative for you to understand that a lead has not attained the status of a prospect.
Therefore, you have to skew your marketing activities to suit them. There is no blanket marketing approach for sales leads and prospects. However, generating leads in the first place is often the hardest part, no matter what lead management process you follow! For you to determine if a lead is a prospect, you have to qualify them before making contact. Do they fit specific criteria that you have pre-determined to ensure that they are right for your business?
For example, you may require individuals to be from a certain industry, or be at a company of a certain size with a minimum annual revenue before reaching out to them. Falling below these thresholds could make the effort you put in to convert them pointless as they would never be interested in buying from you. Typically, this may involve targeted and personalized emails perhaps through an email marketing campaign , a meeting, and phone calls. For prospects, you have already realized their challenge and determined that they are sales-ready.
Simply put, for the lead, you aim to determine their challenge to make them interested in buying from you. For the prospect, the goal is to close a sale. While we understand your need for persistence with your prospects and leads, you must also be aware that there is a thin line between being annoying and persistence when communicating with them. Therefore, you must determine that the person you are dealing with is the right contact—a decision maker—and then you can determine what level of persistence is required.
Persistence, when used in the right amount, can transition a lead to a prospect.
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