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Knowing how to identify high-quality leads that convert into customers with Lead Vanguard is essential for a successful business. Several factors impact your lead-to-customer conversion rate, including:
1. Sales-ready leads
During the lead generation process, marketers should be focused on converting leads into sales-ready leads. This involves identifying high-intent behaviors to determine how ready a prospect is to purchase your products. For example, a prospect may fill out a lead capture form to request more information on pricing and product features. If you can identify a prospect’s purchase intent and match it with the right resources, they will be much more likely to convert.
To identify a sales-ready lead, marketers should use marketing automation software to automatically send a follow-up email that could bring them one step closer to converting. This can be as simple as a free trial offer or a product demo. Emails that are triggered based on behavioral actions typically perform better than those triggered by contact form submissions.
When a prospect meets your defined criteria for sales readiness, they can be categorized as a sales-accepted lead (SAQL). However, the final qualification comes from the sales team. They must ensure that the lead can afford your solutions, can meet a potential timeline for implementation, and is likely to be the decision maker in their organization.
Keeping a steady flow of qualified leads is essential for all sales teams. However, many marketers focus too much on generating leads and not enough on converting them into customers. Having effective strategies in place for nurturing leads at every stage can significantly improve your lead-to-opportunity ratio, lead-to-win rate, and annual revenue.
2. Marketing-qualified leads
As the name implies, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) have a higher chance of becoming paying customers than non-MQLs. However, they are still in the early stages of the sales funnel and should be nurtured carefully to ensure they progress through the process.
While the criteria for labeling a lead MQL varies from brand to business, most of it revolves around consumer intent. For example, filling out a contact form or requesting a product demo indicates that the prospect is ready to engage with a sales representative. Additionally, downloading gated content or attending webinars are other signs of high interest.
To further determine the status of a lead, it’s important to understand their goals and pain points. For instance, do they need a solution urgently or are they just in the research phase? Understanding what specific challenges they face makes it easier for marketers to tailor their conversion process.
Other criteria that can be used to identify MQLs includes budgetary capacity, decision-making authority, and timeframes. These are all key factors that can be determined through direct consumer engagement and the use of data from past consumers.
4. Cold leads
If you’ve ever been a salesperson, you know how cold leads can suddenly become ice-cold and stop responding to your emails and phone calls. It can feel like they’ve vanished forever. While it may be easy to throw out cold prospects, quality leads deserve a chance to convert into paying customers.
To warm up cold leads, make sure to offer content that is relevant and relatable. For example, whitepapers and research data specific to their industry are excellent tools to re-engage leads who have fallen out of the funnel. This type of content shows your company cares about their problems and provides a valuable resource for them, rather than simply trying to sell them something.
Another important step to take is to understand why they decided not to purchase in the first place. This can be because of pricing, not feeling a connection with your business process, wanting to wait for new products or features that address their needs, or other factors. The more your team knows about their decision, the better they’ll be able to help them make a good one next time.
A well-organized sales pipeline can make it easy to identify quality leads and convert them into devoted, satisfied customers. By using email marketing, retargeting ads, and content that addresses their unique needs and concerns, you can ensure your prospects are on the right track to becoming clients.