More and more companies are simply collecting huge amounts of leads from digital channels because they have websites, but if they increase the number of leads indiscriminately, there is no denying the possibility that a lot of ``foreign'' leads will be mixed in, such as leads that are hong kong telegram phone number list not likely to lead to orders at all, but also leads from rival companies scouting the market or trying to make sales to the company.
It is very important to thoroughly analyze and evaluate the leads you collect, prioritize your approach, and clearly classify which department, such as marketing or sales, should approach leads at each stage.
In this article, we'll focus on the marketing and sales departments of B2B businesses and discuss the importance of lead qualification and how to define it.
What is Qualification?
In B2B marketing and sales, "qualification," also known as "lead qualification , " refers to the evaluation process of selecting and narrowing down potential customers (leads) to those most likely to purchase your company's products or conclude a contract.
The main purpose of customer management using lead qualification is to improve the overall conversion rate. By narrowing down and evaluating leads with a high probability of receiving orders for your company's products and services, you can smoothly transfer leads between departments, from the marketing department to the sales department to the customer success department.
Its meaning and usage
Lead qualification can be seen as part of the " demand generation " process, which describes a series of approaches that involve creating contact with new potential customers, building trust, negotiating and winning sales, and continuing to do business with them for a long time even after the order is placed.
Demand generation
If we divide this demand generation process into different digital sales departments, such as "THE MODEL," we get the diagram below.
THE MODEL Sales Collaboration Process
(Source: "THE MODEL / Yasutaka Fukuda")
Roughly speaking, the process is as follows: "Marketing," which generates and nurtures leads; "Inside Sales," which takes over the nurtured leads and further develops and selects them; "Field Sales," which prioritizes negotiations and closings with leads with a high probability of winning; and "Customer Success" (the retention part in the demand generation diagram), which handles after-sales care, upselling, and cross-selling after the order is placed.
However, does this mean that the marketing department and field sales department do not conduct qualifications? Not necessarily.
In order to efficiently pass leads to the next department, certain standards and rules are required for the evaluation of leads between departments. Therefore, unlike other processes in demand generation, qualification should be recognized as something that must be done by all departments at all times, rather than as a temporary step performed by a limited number of departments.
The importance of qualification that marketing and sales professionals need to understand
The importance of qualification in marketing and sales can be seen by looking at the "demand waterfall ," which is a more detailed analysis of the demand generation process .
The demand waterfall is a framework proposed by the American company SiriusDecisions (now Forrester ) that is specialized for B2B marketing and is used by many B2B companies around the world. Of the several types of waterfalls, this time we will use the particularly popular "Reachitected Waterfall" as an example.
We will go into more detail about the qualification process in each department later, but the general flow is that leads generated from inquiries or initial contact are evaluated and selected by each department, from marketing to inside sales to sales (field sales), and finally narrowed down to only those leads that are certified as having a high probability of winning, and then closing is carried out to win a deal.
In order to efficiently send leads to the next stage (department), it is necessary to determine in advance the detailed criteria and rules for what kind of leads each department will consider to be "qualified." If these criteria are unclear, it may cause problems between departments, such as "poor quality marketing leads" or "low sales conversion rate."
