Types of leads: How to have a steady sales pipeline

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Apr 12 2022

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Zig Ziglar, an author, salesman, and motivational speaker, once stated, “You are out of business if you don’t have a prospect.”

Lead Generation is the need of the hour for every organization, regardless of its size. However, this seems like an arduous task. As a Business Leader, you are tired of hearing the deficiencies in your lead generation process. In order to “stay in business” as Zig Ziglar said, you can opt for lead generation.

Learn More: 6 B2B Sales Pipeline Stages Every Sales Team Must Use for Sales Pipeline Management

What are the different types of B2B leads?

There are multiple criteria and approaches to a lead categorization process. However, the types of leads remain the same. Some of the categories are;

Prospect- Hey there! I see you!

You find a prospect by examining your target population and their behavior. Does the behavior indicate an inclination to your product? Have they been suffering from a challenge that you could solve with your product? These contacts are invested in your product/service and are looking for something beyond one-way communication or mailers.

Soft leads

Soft leads are leads that provide their contact information. But even though they’ve registered on your website, there’s no reason to believe they will buy your product/service any time soon.

Marketing qualified lead (MQL)

Any person who is your prospect is an MQL in the future. They are leads who are deliberately drawn in and voluntarily submit contact data or do multiple visits to your site.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A sales qualified lead is someone determined to buy your product. They are put in the buying cycle after being qualified and vetted by the sales team.

Conversion- The proposal

You set up a meeting with the prospective customer. Your sales executive will walk in with a sales pitch which will lead to detailed negotiation and charting out a sales closing deal

How is Clodura different from its competitors?

Compared to others, Clodura has some specific characteristics that give them a higher position among online AI lead generation tools. These features make Clodura an ideal solution for a steady sales pipeline.

1.A different approach to lead generation

Clodura targets salespeople making them the prospect thus ensuring that you meet and talk to the actual decision-makers.

Consider that the prospect, a salesperson, registers on the website and has requested a product demo. Then he/she becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead. MQL responds to your marketing efforts because they are interested in your product. Nurturing the MQL becomes pertinent for any firm to have a steady revenue pipeline.

If an MQL is identified by the marketing department, but sales do not accept it, then this cannot be considered a lead. However, once Clodura’s Sales team accepts this, it becomes a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

There are many criteria through which a prospect is qualified as an SQL. A prospect connects with Clodura’s team and shows interest in the product. Clodura will further discuss the 4 main pillars, i.e. budget, authority, need, and time. Once validated, then the salesperson becomes an SQL.

2.Quality of lead Quality of lead is of utmost importance when it comes to conversion. As Clodura is always looking at your Total Addressable Market, they provide you leads faster than others, giving you the first-mover advantage. Due to dynamic IP addresses, it is difficult to pinpoint who is searching. Clodura provides you information about the person who is searching from the firm and an overall view of the company, its challenges, and strengths under one roof.

3.The attention toward buying Intent signals

Clodura solves three major problems when it comes to generating leads:

  1. Who is looking for your product/service?
  2. Who is the right decision-maker?
  3. How should you reach out to them?

Clodura tackles these with sales intelligence. These deliver you actionable insights at the right time and identify the accurate leads from your Total Addressable Market. How do they do this? Through tracking three necessary buying intent signals;

  1. Clodura thoroughly searches the internet for all valid interests that might come your way. They track and seek out any interest expressed towards you.
  2. They check on potential indicators that could prompt a company to invest in product development. They contain funding and acquisition information because that is an indicator that the founders will invest in product development.
  3. They provide you with hiring information from various sources which can be tricky as you need filtered hiring data. You cannot ensure the quality of a lead just by getting the succession planning or hiring requirements of a company. It is actionable only if the company intends to build a team that consists of the scope for your product.

Conclusion

Converge your leads together to create a systematic sales pipeline so that you can avoid any complaints by the employee about the sales pipeline drying up. Any indications of this are also a reminder to exert your lead generation process. For an overall view on lead generation, check out our blog, Lead Generation: A Complete Guide to Generating B2B Leads.

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