Identifying and Nurturing Prospects to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

No one knows better than your sales team that unqualified leads are a big waste of time. A lot of time can go into contacting a lead, but if that person is uninterested, or is unable or unwilling to make a purchase, then the time spent was wasted. Identifying qualified leads means finding those people who are interested, able, or willing to purchase what you are offering. An inbound marketing strategy can nurture your prospects, organize your contacts, and automate large parts of your content marketing to help your sales reps work more efficiently.

Use Your Team Effectively

Every sales person on your team wants to succeed. By contacting the leads that are qualified by sales, your team will spend more time selling and less time trying to push unwilling leads towards conversion.

Sales qualified leads are the contacts on your list that have the authority to push a purchase decision, the means to purchase, the business pain that your company can solve and the awareness of their problem. An inbound marketing strategy should be in place to move prospects towards a position of qualified lead, allowing a rep from your team to reach out and make the sale. Having a smarter strategic system in place to back your sales team will mean they are free to respond quickly and use their talents to help really personalize your approach to customer service.

Appeal to the Pain 

A great way to find and attract potentially qualified prospects is to address a point of pain they experience in their lives, role, industry or company. A real business pain is something that is a noticeable source of frustration for your target audience. It is often something they are actively seeking a remedy for and are already prepared to spend for a viable solution. If your content brings in leads that have a business pain your company can solve, then the nurturing work is far easier and the SQL ratio will be higher.

Create Regular Contact 

Don’t just stop with the content that draws in your new leads; blog content and webinars are examples of the kind of content that will bring in people interested in a related topic or piece of authoritative value you can offer. But, you will want to use these pieces of value to secure regular contact in the form of emails, sms messaging, and social media followers. Use great content as a draw to increase and differentiate your contacts lists. Try to identify where your leads are at in the conversion funnel, ensuring your automated marketing will best appeal to each customer and cultivate them towards conversion and loyalty.

Turning Prospects Into Opportunities 

Prospects started out as leads who already have a general idea of your product, but have yet to purchase for reasons, such as budget or priorities. Therefore, they should be identified differently because they do not need an introduction to your brand. The opportunity is already there for prospects, so it is crucial to keep them up to date with the latest ideas and developments. Connecting with prospects regularly will give you a great idea of what their major needs are and why they have delayed their purchase. Listening to their needs will help you absorb every little detail to propose the most compelling solution. Make sure to thoroughly maximize the prospect’s perception of the value of your services by representing yourself as a believed leader. This will assure that your brand will be selected when the timing is right. Also, with the help of the automated nurturing process, your relationship will remain dynamic while your sales team is reserved to close SQL business.

At the end of the day, the goal is to create the kind of content that supports your sales and customer service teams. Cultivate with a personalized and customer-centric approach to marketing with content automation strategies and segmented contact lists. Use your content to do a lot of the busywork that would waste the time of your sales team, improving your process and increasing your sales. The right inbound marketing strategy will make it possible for you to grow faster without needing to expand your team right away.