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.

Customer focus

Very many companies today have a customer focus, otherwise known as market orientation. These phrases imply that the company focuses ll of its activities and products on consumer demand. There is the customer-driven approach, the market-change approach and the product innovation approach.

With the consumer-driven approach, the consumer wants brcome the strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is developed until it undergoes consumer research. Each aspect of a product, including the nature of the product itself, is affected by the needs of consumers. The starting point is the consumer. The reason for this approach is that it's pointless spending R&D budget developing products that people will never buy. Looking at the past, many products were commercial failures despite being technology breakthroughs.

The formal approach to customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, Access). The SIVA system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded with a customer focus.

Using the SIVA Model generates a demand or customer-centric alternative to the traditional 4Ps model (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing.

Product → Solution
Promotion → Information
Price → Value
Place → Access

The revised four elements of the SIVA model are:

Solution: is the solution appropriate to the customer's need?

Information: is the customer aware of the solution? and do they know enough to make a buying decision?

Value: does the customer know what it will cost, the benefits and their reward?

Access: Where can the customer purchase the solution? and how easily can they buy it and get delivery?

The SIVA model was originally proposed by Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz in the press, the Marketing Management Journal of the American Marketing Association. It was then presented in Market Leader, the journal of the Marketing Society published in the UK. In essence, the model focuses on the customer and how they, the prospect view the potential transaction.