How To Prioritize Your Leads Or Prospects In Sales

Every business enjoys having a sales funnel full of leads and prospects. But figuring out which of them are a great fit for the company and whom the salespeople should target initially might be truly a difficult task.

To target the right businesses and prospects using outbound sales methods, your sales team must first assess the potential markets that are relevant to them. Finding a target audience and starting out, although, is not sufficient. It’s crucial to prioritize leads by looking at the many aspects, customer personas, and purchasing patterns inside your potential market because there are so many leads/prospects out there.

When a salesperson acquires a lead through inbound prospects, a customer referral, or their own efforts through social media, they must prioritize it in relation to the other leads/prospects they are working on. Skilled salespeople examine their opportunities, aim at their markets, and categorize their leads since they have finite time and resources. So, prioritize your sales lead or prospects before starting your sales process.

Why Is It Crucial To Prioritize Your Leads Or Prospects In Sales

The obvious truth is that you want your salespeople to succeed. Give them the best opportunity to convert leads or prospects into paying customers. According to statistics by Marketing Insider Group,

“salespeople who used lead prioritized lists did 20% extra actions per lead, enabling them to increase engagement time and make more contact efforts”.

In addition, statistics indicate that 83% of businesses without a lead prioritizing method had conversion rates that were below average.

Most salespeople nowadays give lead priorities considering the time they enter in or lead source.  Salespeople frequently work on one lead or prospect before another only because it entered their sales funnel an hour before the next one, rather than using the information to guide their lead prioritization.

There is, perhaps, a more effective approach to this. Salespeople should contact prospects during the time of inbound sales depending on their level of engagement, not on the appearance of a specific lead in the pipeline The four-step process outlined below can assist your salespeople to prioritize leads so that the most promising ones are always pursued first in the sales process.

5 Step Strategy For Prioritizing Your Sales Leads Or Prospects

Start With The Current Inbound Leads

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, you might have heard this proverb. So, begin with the list of inbound leads that you have in your hand. The people who’ve already visited your webpage and have shown interest by purchasing a free trial or performing other actions are the first prospects to get in connect with.

These leads are the first to be generated since the leads have already indicated that the product would be a good fit for their company. Referrals and connections made through social media are examples of other sorts of inbound leads. Salespeople should get in touch right away if the prospect has expressly shown interest in some form.

Up-Selling To Existing Customers

Offering an upsell to your existing customers is a great tactic to think about during lead prioritization. In order to achieve a more profitable sale, a salesperson may use an upsell method to persuade a customer to purchase new products, upgrades, or other add-ons.

It’s much simpler to upsell a client who has already paid for a product from your company than to make a cold call to a brand-new prospect and start over from scratch. Trying to solve a customer’s problem is a good idea to offer an effectual upsell. If they purchase software, give them an annual subscription discount or premium assistance. By continuing to provide exceptional benefits to customers, you will make sure a deep connection and revenue growth.

Work On Lead Source

We’ve mastered the art of prioritizing based on the source of the leads. When contrasted to other lead sourcing, we’ve noticed that our happiest and most committed customers recommend us to their friends and colleagues. Referred prospects are more aware of our products and have more positive perceptions.

Additionally, because they’ve already encountered them, existing customers are better able to relate to your new prospects’ challenges and touchpoints than you do. Keep track of the sources of your customers and their satisfaction throughout time. In this manner, you can improve overall lead scoring and gain a greater comprehension of which prospects want your attention. 

Use Qualification to Prioritize Leads

Whether they are inbound or outbound, not all prospects or leads are equally represented. You might be aware from prior experience that some sectors, businesses, contacts, and concerns match you well and are simpler to pitch than others.

Because of this, every new lead that enters your sales prospecting process should be qualified. Lead qualifying is a technique used by top salespeople to plan their sales calling strategy. Here are the 3 main questions to be asked during a sales call:

• What is the prospect’s title?
• What is their business or company do?
• What are their problems and needs?

Use Fit Over Interest, FIFO Approach

A lead whose requirement and your product are a perfect fit should always take precedence over a lead who is only interested in your product or service whenever it comes to fit and interest. We usually prioritize leads those that fit the most over those who show the most interest.

Even though leads may believe what your business does is the greatest thing ever, that doesn’t mean they see you as the solution to their issues. You’ll see higher turnover rates if you sign up leads whose interests surpass fit. FIFO Approach is nothing but “first-in, first-out”.  Using it to connect to sales leads can also be quite effective. Reach out to potential leads as soon as you get their contact information.

Bottom Line

Sales is somewhat a numbers game, but you’re left with only a set number of hours in the day. This calls for you to make wise decisions regarding the prospects or leads you to devote your effort to track down. A long target prospect list is usually beneficial, however, without prioritizing, its worth substantially decreases. So, don’t let a fantastic chance slip you by because your prioritization method is flawed. 

Prioritize your leads using the above five strategies, and you’ll see an increase in your sales close rate. However, these are only a few of the most useful pieces of advice for salespeople to efficiently qualify and prioritize their sales prospects.  Focusing your efforts on prospects or leads who are more likely to purchase than those who aren’t is the key lesson to be learned from this.