What is a good B2B Sales Lead?
Posted by Robert Hennessey on Mon, Jun 13, 2011
Would you know a good b2b sales lead if you received one?
A name, email address, mailing address or telephone number are not sales leads!
I am not talking about someone that sent in a contact form or even so called warm leads. Neither of these are real sales leads either.
With all the hype today about sales lead generation sometimes it gets very confusing to know the defining characteristics of a high quality b2b sales lead.
Typical sales leads are simple name captures, from online forms, direct mail responses or bingo cards from trade ads. Generally, people leave off critical contact information or write, “don’t call me send literature.”
Characteristics of Typical Sales Leads contain:
- A lukewarm interest in your products/services
- Simple name captures often missing or leaving off critical contact information
- Many say, "don't call me, or just send literature" when contacted
A real b2b sales lead is someone who contacted you and wants to meet with you! It's that pretty simple.
Paramount is the fact that high quality B2B sales leads voluntarily relinquish their complete contact information, have pre-qualified interest in a particular firm’s product or service before any contact is attempted. Further differentiating real b2b sales leads is that by comparison to pseudo leads they contain beyond mere contact data, critical sales information with insights into the potential customers’ reasons for contacting you.
B2B sales leads obtained voluntarily and contain accurate and complete contact information combined with specific information about the reason and nature of the contact are of superior quality sales leads for immediate sales follow-up. Anything of less quality belongs in your lead nurturing efforts, but it definitely is not a sales lead.
By Comparison, High Quality B2B Sales Leads contain:
- Pre-qualified, leads that voluntarily relinquish their contact information
- Sales leads that contain complete & accurate contact data
- Helpful sales insights into the customers' reason for wanting to be contacted
- Prospects interested in your company & asking to meet with you before you contact them
To qualify as a high quality sales lead, each lead must meet all five of the objective characteristics outlined below.
5 Key Characteristics of High Quality B2B Sales Leads
Takeaway
Do not be fooled by what some people peddle as sales leads. Most of the time typical sales leads are not leads but incomplete contact information with a dubious understanding of real sales intent. Real sales leads are hard to come by but easy to identify if you know the 5 key characteristics of high quality B2B sales leads.
