How to determine a "qualified sales lead"?

A qualified prospect is a qualified sales lead and has three attributes:

1) A need - a highly-qualified prospect needs your product or service now or very soon. For example, if you sell widgets with an average lifespan of four years, a good prospect is one who owns a two-year-old widget, not a contact who bought a new one last year.

2) An adequate budget - a qualified prospect must have the budget to buy your product or service. Don't waste your time pursuing a contact who truly can't afford to buy what you're selling or a company that has used up its budget.

3) The authority to buy - a good prospect must have the authority and is prepared to take action. The simpler their decision-making process is, the better your opportunity of closing the sale.

Prospecting is the first step in the complex B2B selling process. A prospect is a qualified person or business contact that has the short-term potential to buy your product or service. A prospect should not be confused with a "sales lead."

The name of a contact in a business who might be a prospect is referred to as a potential B2B sales lead. A sales lead can also be referred to as a "suspect," showing that the contact or business is suspected of being a prospect.

Once the lead has been "qualified," it becomes a prospect. In other words, a "sales lead" is a suspect, and on the other hand a "qualified sales lead" is a prospect - and there's an enormous difference between the two.

Top 7 questions to determine qualified sales leads

There are seven main questions used to determine if the contact or business is a qualified prospect:

1) Does this contact or business need my company’s services or products?

2) Does this contact or business perceive a need or problem that may be met by my company’s product or service?

3) Does the contact or business have a real desire to fulfil this actual need or solve this problem?

4) Can this contact's desire to fulfil actual needs or solve problems be converted into a belief that my company’s product is needed?

5) Does this contact or business have the financial budget to pay?

6) Does this contact have the company authority to buy?

7) Is this potential contact's purchase large enough to be a profitable sale?

These are the questions that we ask, and you should ask them as well, during the prospect qualification process (which is the most important part of the lead generation process).