Suspects May Benefit from Your Product But Aren't Ready
To Spend Money
A suspect's organization meets your target size,
industry and location. They casually peruse
various forms of content in a deductive or inductive fashion and perform solo
research until willing to speak with you.
If you publish high-quality, relevant content, they will remember your company
when they're ready to become your prospect.
Establish mindshare by asking if you can provide educational information
to help with their research. Marketing,
contact center and sales reps who conduct preliminary research about the contact
and their company will build credibility, earn the right to proceed and set the
stage for lead nurturing.
Suspect Sources
1. Inquiries received from various lead sources.
2. Marketing and contact center reps approach members
of a targeted list.
3. Field sales reps approach contacts from targeted accounts.
Prospects Recognize
A Problem or Opportunity and Need for Change
Prospects will describe their situation, how
critical the issue is, and how soon they need to solve it. They have an appropriate role as a decision
team member. Prospects will consistently
engage with you and respond to CTAs such as downloads and click-thru’s and will
return your calls and emails. They may
even follow you on social media. They
provide information in exchange for your ideas and reciprocate by reviewing and
commenting on them. They reveal their buying process. If it’s a meaningful request to talk to
others, they will introduce you. By sharing
private information about themselves and their business they show confidence in
your early relationship and a real interest in discussing how you can add
value. They opt in to receive timely,
relevant and concise content. This will
enhance your credibility. Drip market educational
content for early stage prospects and promotional content for later stage
prospects. Some prospects will need to
be recycled to the suspect stage.
A Marketing
Qualified Lead Must Pass Important Tests
An MQL has expressed a well-informed interest in
your product or service, a sense of urgency, a budget that meets your
expectations and helps you to understand how they will evaluate the results of
solving their problem or opportunity. If
they describe their needs for quality, timeliness and their perception of value,
you will have insight that you can pass along to the sales team that will help
them to co-author a win/win proposal.
Some MQLs need to be recycled to the prospect stage.
A sales-ready lead
is interested in participating in a sales interview
with a sales
rep. It's now time for
the sales rep to convert
this SQL to a sales opportunity
in their Sales Funnel. Some SQLs need to
be recycled to the marketing funnel.
