The most common terms used in sales meetings are probably “lead” and “prospect.” And often, I hear these terms being used interchangeably or incorrectly. And frankly, it drives me nuts. So, I wanted to clear that up with you today.

A lead is any person that you can confirm two things for:

1. You have their contact information. This might be as simple as name and phone number, or it might be dozens of fields in a database.

2. And two, they have expressed interest in what you sell in some way. Now, this “interest” could be as shallow as the act of downloading a specific resource on your website related to a problem you solve for customers… or as explicit as them calling you and asking about a specific product or service.

Now, as a salesperson, when you find yourself confronted with a lead, you priority is to uncover two additional pieces of information so that you know how to further categorize this person.

1. Are they qualified to buy from you. In other words, do they have the kind problems you solve, do they have the ability to spend money solving those problems, and can you physically serve them based on where they are located or what kind of business they may have. Not everyone who is interested in what you do is qualified to buy from you. And if you go all in and start selling to an unqualified person, you’re going to be wasting a LOT of time.

At this point, if you can check off all three items, you know that this person can be advanced from a lead to a prospect.

But in this same conversation you can uncover an additional key piece of information. If the prospect is qualified and interested in what you sell, you want to turn your focus to their timeline.

2. Timeline: this could be as concrete as a deadline for replacing an expiring contract, or it could be as loose as an admission that they are actively looking for solutions to the problems you solve or are hiring a service provider like you.

If you can uncover positive intent on the prospects end to make a decision around solving the problems you solve, or replacing a current vendor, or acquiring what you offer, then you can now graduate this prospect to a “deal.”

And this is where the real fun starts.

#crm #sales #salestraining #sales101 #prospecting

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