In my previous post, Should You Disqualify Inbound Inquiries?, we looked at valid reasons for disqualifying inbound inquiries. Since I believe that disqualifying is healthy for an organization, I thought I’d answer the question: Why aren’t all inbound inquiries already qualified?
Qualify Inbound Inquiries
The Internet has given us the ability to find what we need online. It widens buyer and seller reach, and removes barriers between buyers and sellers. No one can deny the benefits this provides for both buyers and sellers to engage and relate. But it does bring a wider variety of inbound inquiries to sellers, for many varied reasons. And it draws people from further and more diverse places. This means that not everyone who finds and approaches you is qualified to buy your product or service at some point.
Getting hoards of website visitors or signups to your webinar does not mean 100% represent quality sales leads. The question is: Do they represent qualified inbound inquiries in your target market? Can they can be nurtured and converted into sales leads and buyers?
Let’s look at who these inbound inquiries may represent.
Analyze Your Inbound Inquiries
- The high school or college student who may be doing career research on your website. If you represent a college, school or university this student might be a great potential buyer. If you are a company offering a high end product or service, this student researching career information on your website may not be your most qualified potential buyer for quite some time, if at all.
- The VP of Sales attending your webinar on technology solutions. If this VP of Sales is looking for technology solutions to improve the productivity of his sales team, he could be a prime potential buyer for your technology company. If this VP of Sales is gathering information for his next interview with your company he will not be the highest sales qualified inbound inquiry for the company.
- A representative from a possible partner company is calling to get a few questions answered about working together. Sometimes a representative is looking to get information because your company has a product or service that could benefit his/her client. The person who is looking to work with your company or form a partnership could be a qualified inbound inquiry. On the other hand, a representative may call to see what you offer because his company may be thinking of adding a similar product line to yours. This is very likely not a qualified inbound inquiry.
Not to mention, a non qualified inquiry can certainly be a future referral source.
Ask Good Lead Qualification Questions
To sum up, disqualifying is healthy, and not all inbound inquiries are created equal. To find quality sales leads with inbound marketing, the solution is to be able to:
- engage and understand WHY an inbound inquiry has an interest in your product or service
- know if the inbound inquiry represents your optimal audience
- know if they have an urgency to resolve a pain point or pleasure achievement you can and want to solve
I hope this information helps you to better engage with your inbound inquiries and fill your pipeline with the real deal.