What is a Sales Lead And a Prospect? How to Upgrade One to Another?

1. What is a Sales Lead and a prospect? How to upgrade one to another? The status of the Business relationships is described with two terms i.e. LEADS and PROSPECTS. Lead is the person who fits in the target market but is not ready yet to buy the product or service. If lead is interested in the product or service, there is a chance of turning them into a prospect. If they ignore the offer or say no to get in touch, they are referred to as cold leads. If they don’t respond or unable to buy just yet, they are referred to as leaders. What is the lead? Explain the types of leads? A lead could be a person or a company. It is either on the company’s purchased list or in the list who have attended a seminar or webinar related to the business offering. They occur in the initial phase of the sales process. Thus, leads do not allow you to send emails yet. Leads show interest in your products and do not provide a time to finalise the sale. You do not have a clear idea of how and why to tap these leads. Their place occurs somewhere in - between customers who are not fully converted into customers. TYPES OF LEADS OFFLINE LEADS -which are generated through the sale person physically. These leads do not occur through online medium. ONLINE LEADS - which are generated through the online medium like contact us forms, website links, sign-ups, social media platforms etc.

2. SALES QUALIFIED LEADS:After tapping a lead, we get the basic information of the lead like email address, name, age, gender etc. This information helps to categorise the leads. UNQUALIFIED LEADS -which are generated through random search. They do not have any idea about the company’s offering and what type of solutions they are looking for. You can get their basic information and there are some chances of getting them converted into a customer. MARKET QUALIFIED LEADS -have the potential of becoming a customer. They are interested to know about the company’s offering. How to get a lead? You can get an idea about business offerings through business cards. You can buy contact lists to tap customers from a third-party source. References like colleagues, friends, clients etc. play a great role in getting the leads. Google, yellow pages etc. gave huge business data to get new leads. If the pitch is placed properly, you can get great leads through cold calling and emails. Inbound marketing through Chat box, emails etc. helps in engaging customers.

3. What is a Prospect? Prospects show interest in your products or services which are not necessarily useful for them. He is a person who faces a problem around which you can create value. He will not be a prospect if they are satisfied with the value you created for them. He should fit in the target market and have the money to purchase the products. He must have the authority to take the final decision. Who are qualified to be a prospect? Who requests for newsletters. Who calls for appointments to get the information? Who sends an email enclosing various queries? Web visitors who request for eBooks How to differentiate between a lead and a prospect?  Leads are the contact who does not guarantee a sale. Prospect is more likely to convert into a customer.  Leads provide information but it is indefinite. Prospects provide definite information about them.  Leads signalise one-way communication. Prospect signalise two- way communication. Lead has a particular value in the company’s contact database. Prospects expect information to finalise the buying decision or want to build a good long term relationship.

4. Lead has to go through various levels to finally label as qualified. Prospects are labelled as soon as they make a purchase.  Leads get the information through various sources like calling, business cards etc. Prospects get the information through an interaction with the sales staff. Reference: articles/marketing-articles/what-sales-lead-prospect-how-upgrade- one-another-1774515.html https://www.sooperarticles.com/business-