Qualifying Lead Generation Prospects

Are you using the right qualifiers in your lead generation efforts? The questions you use to qualify your prospects will not only determine the take rate of your offer, but also the quality of the individual being passed on to the lead buyer and the ability to meet the needs of the prospect. Thus begins the balancing act between quality and quantity.

Lead buyers need to meet customer acquisition costs or they will stop buying leads, while lead generators need to meet effective ECPMs or other metrics to ensure a profitable campaign. One additional qualifying question might be the difference in the lead buyer ordering twice as many leads or stopping the campaign. One fewer qualifying question may be the difference between a profitable or money losing lead generation campaign for the lead generator.

If the lead buyer is unable to sell to people who are currently under contract for a competing product, then a qualifying question should be added to the lead generation process to filter out unqualified prospects. At the same time, the lead buyer shouldn’t be qualifying prospects using qualifying questions that aren’t required by the lead buyer.

Review the qualifying questions required by the lead buyer to make sure their needs are aligned with the lead generation effort. If a lead buyer can only close sales for individuals that own their own home – how is that criteria being determined? Is self-reported information from the consumer sufficient or is the lead seller matching consumer information against a homeowner database that may not align with what is self-reported to the lead generator? Is a self-reported credit score range adequate or is there a need to ask permission to pull a credit report? Make sure both lead sellers and buyers know how qualifying criteria will be judged and that they are using the same criteria.

Generating quality lead generation prospects needs to be a balanced effort to meet the needs of the prospect, the lead generator, and the lead buyer.