For businesses wanting to maintain and grow income, new leads are precious but some are definitely more precious than others. Reviewing your lead generation strategies in light of their contribution to the bottom line certainly makes sense in the current climate.

To do that you do need to establish clear criteria for what constitutes a good lead and take a structured approach that systematically sorts the wheat from the chaff. Effective revenue generation relies on your ability to accurately identify and prioritise high-value prospects who have a need for your proposition and who (ideally) are ready to buy. In a perfect world, you want to dig deeper to flush out prospects with the highest potential life time value, if long-term profitability is your goal.

In the age of marketing automation, scoring leads based on pre-set criteria is an efficient way of qualifying prospects as they enter the funnel but not necessarily the most effective way to root out the real gems. Automation used in isolation without high-quality, granular insight and in-depth understanding risks swamping your sales team with poor fit leads that never convert. Lead qualification over the phone provides a more intelligent and strategic approach that can be carried out by sales specialists, freeing up your most valuable sales resource to focus on the closing stage.

Let’s look at the overall benefits of phone-qualified leads.

Accelerated sales cycle

A real conversation can quickly deliver an accurate and in-depth understanding of the needs, interests, motivations and buying stage of a prospective customer, establishing fit from the outset. On a live call, questions can be answered immediately, objections handled and pain points addressed quickly so your best prospects are prioritised and their journey through the pipeline accelerated.

Increased conversion

An open, dynamic two-way conversation builds layers of insight, peeling each back to reveal ever deeper layers to feed your sales process. The rapport achieved through personal contact also means your prospective customer is more likely to share valuable nuggets of information that you hadn’t even considered. When leads reach your sales team they are enhanced with valuable insight that increases their propensity to convert.

Stronger relationships

Human-to-human interaction not only provides deep insight to qualify fit, it creates the level of trust and understanding that is essential to high-value, complex, B2B sales. It allows you to network and build relationships across the wider decision-making unit, providing a human touch to distinguish your brand at a time when digital interactions are all-pervasive. 

Improved customer experience

With a solid understanding of needs, interests and challenges, you can tailor your prospects’ experience throughout their entire journey with you, nurturing long-term profitable relationships from the start. You can deliver powerful content at each stage of the buying process that reinforces your proposition and present benefits that are relevant and compelling.

Increased marketing ROI

Adding the granular insight that can be gleaned through human interaction throws light on which channels are delivering your best leads, enabling you to target your investment where it gets the best return. In addition, those insights feed relevance across all communication channels ensuring your content and messaging attracts and engages the right audience, increasing overall conversion and ROI.

Feed your pipeline with high-value, well-qualified opportunities

Whilst you can’t afford to stop marketing your brand in an economic downturn, you can ensure that you invest in the right lead generation strategies and make your marketing spend work harder for you. A structured, systematic lead qualification process, reinforced by deep insight that pinpoints good prospects early, ensures your pipeline is fed with prospects likely to buy rather than clogged with a mass of unqualified suspects.

If you want to future-proof your pipeline and ensure your sales and marketing investment delivers a return, speak to us about incorporating expert phone lead qualification into your sales and marketing strategy. Our agents are highly skilled in identifying the right prospects, understanding their needs, positioning benefits and generating high value, fully compliant, sales-ready leads. Call us today to find out more.

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