You hear about them all the time—sales leads, qualified leads, and prospects. Since people use these terms interchangeably, it can make talking about leads frustrating. That’s why we’ve decided to clear the air for everyone. Here are 10 facts about sales leads you need to know:
1. The Importance of Sales Leads
Sales leads help prevent you from wandering aimlessly trying to find your next customers. Leads serve as a guide to new revenue opportunities to grow your business. When you nurture your sales leads, you create an important source to getting more people into your sales funnel.
2. Sales Leads Connect You to Real People
The value sales leads offer is that they can help you sell your goods or services by connecting you with a live person or business. While this doesn’t always guarantee a sale, you save time and money by using leads with the most up-to-date email addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses.
3. Sales Leads ≠ Prospects
This is one of the most common misconceptions for sales representatives and marketers. Sales leads and prospects are not one in the same. A prospect provides you with the bare bones information you need to reach out to someone. On the other hand, a sales lead is someone or a business you have identified as a potential customer for your products and services.
4. Sales Leads ≠ Qualified Leads
It’s easy to fall into the trap that all sales leads are qualified sales leads. However, a qualified lead refers to a lead that you know for a fact is interested in your products or services. This means they’re already invested in the idea that you may have something valuable to offer.
5. But Qualified Leads Do Have a Catch
Qualified leads are expensive. So, buying a list of qualified leads can add up quickly. Additionally, those leads are often not exclusive. This means other people can buy the same leads you also purchased. The result is a competition where usually the first person to contact each qualified lead wins. However, qualified leads can generate a sizable return on investment if you have the team to act quickly.
6. Finding the Right Sales Leads Provider
There are several important factors to consider when selecting the right source for your sales leads. You are primarily looking for accuracy and reliability. Sometimes leads providers will try to sell you outdated information for a discount. This is a big no-no because you could end up spending more money when you realize your sales leads are outdated or unreliable. At Salesgenie, we source our sales leads from the most up-to-date information on over 25 million businesses and 245 million consumers.
7. Warm Leads > Cold Leads
When you warm up your leads, you can develop your own qualified leads. You can do this by contacting people whose personal information or lifestyle data matches your existing customer profiles. Additionally, you can target businesses by industry, revenue, and employee size. The result produces better lead quality comprised of those most likely to make a purchase. You have a higher likelihood of closing a sale if you have data and knowledge about your potential buyer in advance.
8. The Online Form That Generates the Most Leads
Forms to download free whitepapers and eBooks comprised 57% of online forms that produced lead to customer conversions, according a report by Ascend2™ Research-Based Marketing. The rest were webinars, 42%; surveys, 33%; demos, 31%; subscriber, 30%; free trials, 28%; and contests, 20%. The bottom line—people are interested in content and are willing to give you their information in exchange for it.
9. This Content Type Produces the Most Leads
Research reports comprised 46% of all content types that produced lead to customer conversations, according to Ascend2. The rest were video, 44%; social media, 42%; webinars, 40%; articles/blogs, 31%; case studies/white papers, 30%; and infographics, 17%.
10. The Best Social Media Platform for Lead Acquisition
It may come as a surprise, but LinkedIn® is the number one source for getting sales leads on social media. The platform for jobseekers and recruiters comprised 62% of total social media lead generation, according to Wpromote. Facebook™ followed with 37%, and Twitter™ had 34%. YouTube™ had 17%.
Whether you need sales leads or qualified leads depends on your business. But if you’re looking for an easy way to find new customers, start with Salesgenie. We’re offering a free trial, which includes unlimited sales leads, so you can grow your business today.
