Getting leads can be a challenging, discouraging process. It may take a while to see any leads come in, so when you do finally do, you’re likely going to be really excited. However, not every lead is a quality lead that’s going to create value for your company. When you’re paying to get leads, you want them to be useful so they create value and don’t waste your time. That’s why it’s important that you take time to look through your lead list to understand more about what type of leads you’re seeing, and discern the good from the bad. This week’s Need-A-Lead is here to help you do just that!
Need-A-Lead provides high-quality lead generation campaigns to help business owners like you grow their companies. With more than 35 years of experience, we’ve developed industry-leading practices to help each of our clients develop a lead list full of qualified leads in the senior insurance market. Read this week’s Need-A-Lead blog to learn more about how to tell which leads are good and which are bad, and contact us today to learn more about our lead generation services!
What Defines a Good Lead Versus A Bad One?
When you’re paying for leads, you want every lead to be a high-quality, useful lead that you can use to bring your company value. It can be easy to get wrapped up in the idea that every lead you get is one that’s qualified and that you should follow through on. However, that’s a common misconception, so it’s important to understand the various types of bad leads that need to be thrown out.
Bad Leads
There are a variety of types of leads that you may find within your lead list that are not qualified for various reasons.
Bad leads are defined as low-qualified prospects who have a low likelihood of buying any type of product or service from your company. These types of leads typically have no real understanding of their wants and needs, nor a particular interest in what your company has to offer.
Qualities of bad leads tend to include:
- A lack of understanding about what your company has to offer them
- An inability to draw parallels between the value of your business’ offerings and their needs
- A low decision-making power
- Inadequate or unrealistic expectations about the price of a product or service
- A lack of motivation when it comes to making purchases from your company
Good Leads
Qualified, or “good” leads are leads that have true potential to do business with your company and bring value. For individuals, this includes customers who fall within your target market and are most likely to buy your product or service. For B2B, these are individuals within other companies who have the decision-making power to do business with you.
The qualities of a good lead include:
- Means to do business with you
- Decision-making power required to do business with you
- Realistic expectations as far as budget and cost of your product or service
- Motivation to do business with you
- High probability of buying what your company has to offer
Good leads will also have two key elements — fit and engagement. Fit is based on your specific buyer’s persona, including job title, industry, company revenue, geography, etc.
Using this information, your company can determine what a qualified buyer will look like when it comes to your business offerings. This should come from historical trends related to what types of individuals are engaged in your buying lifecycle.
The second element is engagement, which is the determination of a lead’s level of buying interest. This can help you better understand how close a particular lead is to the buying decision.
For instance, leads that view your website once or twice aren’t particularly engaged yet, but a lead who has requested a demo or pricing information is showing more interest.
The most important thing to remember is that within your company, everyone needs to be on the same page about what a qualified lead is. If most of the team thinks that the lead needs to be disqualified, this would not be considered a good lead.
How to Find Good Leads
So, now that we’ve discussed the differences between good leads and bad leads, let’s talk about what you can do to get more leads that are qualified and have real potential to bring your company value.
Lead Scoring
Develop a consistent scoring system that you use for every lead. Before you make a call or send an email to your leads, gather information about them, including:
- What company they are associated with and what position they hold
- How long and how often they visit and interact with your website or social media platforms
- Whether or not they fit your established buyer persona
You can choose to score leads in a way that works best for you, whether that be implementing rankings, assigning points, using terms, etc. The only must is that you keep the type of scoring consistent for every lead.
Lead Filtering
Before you even get into the nitty gritty of lead scoring, we recommend filtering leads to help separate the good from the bad. This should include assessing any information you’ve gathered ahead of time. The key is to pay attention to any information related to your industry or marketplace
If the lead has no connection to either of these things, you can likely disqualify them immediately.
Lead Nurturing
Not every bad lead needs to be disqualified right away. If you notice potential in a lead, we suggest using a tactic called “lead nurturing” to help convert that lead into one that’s qualified.
This process involved educating leads about your product or service, and the value that your company can truly provide. Oftentimes, bad leads lack sufficient information, which prohibits them from moving into the buying process. So, with a little education and persuasion, you may be able to close the deal.
However, it’s important to understand that there is a fine line between nurturing a bad lead to turn it into a good one, and completely wasting your time. If you’ve implemented nurturing tactics and haven’t seen any improvement, it’s time to move on.
Choose Need a Lead to Help You Get Qualified Leads
When it comes to lead generation, it’s important to understand that higher quantity does not mean higher quality. Our team here at Need-A-Lead has developed industry leading tactics to help you get strong, qualified leads that offer real value for your company.
We offer complete turnkey campaigns in the senior marketing industry to help you generate leads. Additionally, our pricing is competitive, and our turnaround times are highly efficient.
We’re excited to help you develop a lead list full of strong, high-quality leads in the senior market. To learn more about or services or to schedule an appointment, contact our team at Need-A-Lead today!