Everywhere you go, you spot the word “leads”
But have you ever really stopped and asked yourself: “What are leads?”
It may seem like a very basic concept, but the truth is it’s a small word that covers a large base.
What is lead?
Essentially, a lead is anyone who has expressed interest in your business or fits into your buyer persona‘s description, and that can eventually become a client.
The first definition seems simple enough, but leads are packed with many details that you need to take into consideration before you consider everyone a qualified lead.
There are many factors that will determine if a particular lead is qualified or not for your business. However, the best and most important method to establish who your qualified leads are going to be is to define your ICP and get a clear idea of who you are going to target or which leads are worth nurturing.
Lead vs potential client
Though both these terms tend to get confused very often, there is a slight distinction.
Both terms essentially mean “a person who may become a client”, however, there are some differences.
For starters, leads and potential clients don’t stand in the same stage of the buyer journey. Leads are TOFU, whereas potential clients are MOFU or BOFU.
Leads | Potential clients |
---|---|
Have barely engaged | There has been more engagement |
Basic to no awareness of the brand | They are aware of your brand |
Require more nurturing | Nurturing process is underway or there is a clear need for your product |
General interest | Specific interest |
Need to be qualified | Have been qualified (+ likely to convert) |
- Leads
Leads have typically shown some level of interest, but haven’t truly engaged with the business in any way.
Whether your leads are inbound or outbound, it is likely that they still haven’t been qualified and lead nurturing or cold outreach strategies are only in the first stages.
Though leads may have expressed interest, you still don’t know on what level they need your business or how you could solve their pain point.
Leads need to go through a thorough qualification process.
- Potential Client (or Prospect)
Typically, potential clients will have already gone through the lead qualification process. Meaning you have more insights into their needs, current situation, pain points, etc.
With potential clients, it’s likely that your outreach strategy is proving to be successful and increasing their interest in your business, nonetheless, there still is some more nurturing required.
Sales teams tend to focus more on potential clients since they are further down the sales funnel and are closer to closing a deal.
Types of leads
Leads can be classified into several different categories, depending on their stage of the funnel, or where they came from, or their qualifications.
We’re going to break leads down into the three main classifications.
Inbound vs outbound leads
This refers to “how they became leads”.
In other words, did I find them or did they come to me?
Inbound leads are the ones that come to you.
They have discovered your business themselves and express interest in your product or service, typically through organic channels, such as blog posts, podcasts, social media, webinars, etc.
The benefit of inbound leads is that they tend to have higher conversion rates as opposed to outbound leads because they have a need for your product or service.
Inbound leads are self-initiated, which makes them more qualified and easier to move down the sales pipeline.
Outbound leads are the leads you find and attract toward your business.
They require a higher outbound effort, where sales teams reach out to them to initiate contact even if they have never expressed prior interest.
Some methods include cold calling or cold email, but we’ll get into that later on.
The benefit of outbound leads is that you target a wider audience who have already fit into specific criteria depending on your ICP.
On the other hand, nurturing leads and moving them down the sales pipeline can take longer and require more effort.
Hot, warm, and cold leads
This classification will depend on the funnel stage.
As you can see in the image above, the sales funnel has 3 stages, and each of these stages will hold one type of lead.
- Cold leads
These leads can be found on the top of the funnel.
They are considered cold because they haven’t expressed any interest in your product or service and they may not have even heard about you.
But this does not mean that they are not qualified or that they will never convert.
It is your job here to reach them, establish a relationship based on trust, educate them about your product or service, show a need for it, and move them further down the sales pipeline.
- Warm leads
These leads stand in the middle of the funnel.
Warm leads are leads that may not have engaged much, but they still have expressed a certain amount of interest, for example, they signed up for your newsletter or attended a webinar.
In your warm outreach strategy, you won’t have to spend too much time introducing yourself, which will make the first contact less forced.
- Hot leads
They stand at the bottom of the funnel.
Hot leads are ready to buy. They are completely qualified, they know who you are, and they have expressed interest.
Hot leads are the most likely to convert.
Marketing-qualified leads, sales-qualified leads, and product-qualified leads
- MQLs
Marketing qualified leads have shown interest in your business, although they are not excessively invested.
In other words, they haven’t reached out to you, although they may have filled out a form to download a resource you’ve provided.
Once they have been nurtured by a marketing team, they can move on to sales teams.
- SQLs
Sales qualified leads have already gone through a qualification process successfully, meaning sales teams consider they are qualified leads.
These leads may have signed up for a personalized demo or a chat with your team.
- PQLs
Product-qualified leads prove to be ready to buy with actions such as frequent usage.
Usually, they’ve already signed up for a free trial or are on the free plan and are exploring the benefits the paid plans can bring them.
Where to find leads
You know what leads are, but knowing where to start looking can be a tough job.
Once you have set up your ICP, you know what you’re looking for, so you know where to start.
We’re going to share our 3 favorite lead-channels with you.
Databases are great ways to find what you’re looking for.
You can add filters that match your ICP and then you’ll have a list of leads ready for you to reach out to them.
Now, when you choose your lead database, make sure you’re getting one that has a wide variety of contacts and they have verified and up-to-date information.
Check out lemlist’s people database for example:
With lemlist, you now get a separate database for Companies, with +63M company’s data available to you.
This will allow you to define even more your lead search as it will make it easier to reach decision-makers.
LinkedIn currently has over 1 billion users. With numbers like these, you can imagine the amount of leads that are out there waiting for you.
You can use LinkedIn or Sales Navigator’s filters to build your list of leads.
The issue here is that contact information isn’t always available, and if it is, extracting them manually one by one can be extremely time-consuming.
However, you can use Chrome extensions, such as lemlist’s, to scrap data from LinkedIn.
- Email Finders and Verifiers
Email Finders will help you gather contact information for your leads.
You can either use different tools to verify the data or used an Email Finder and Verifier, all in one.
You can try lemlist’s out for free.
With lemlist, you can now find phone numbers too!
Lead management
Only 20% of your leads will convert to clients, therefore it’s in your best interest to set up a successful and mindful strategy to make sure you’re not wasting valuable time and money on those leads who will never convert.
Although, don’t get discouraged or throw them out completely, because those leads may not be ready for you at the specific moment, but somewhere along the line, you may be able to re-engage lost leads.
Managing your leads is a multi-step process:
But let’s go over every process involving your leads. ⬇️
Lead generation
Lead generation consists of attracting new leads and potential clients to your business.
The goal of lead generation is to build a list of qualified leads that will continue to move down the sales funnel until they convert into clients.
There are 2 main approaches to lead generation: Inbound lead generation and outbound lead generation.
- Inbound lead generation
As we mentioned earlier, inbound leads are leads that come to you. However, this does not mean that you should simply sit back and wait for them to find you.
To set up your inbound lead generation strategy you should focus on producing value-driven content. This can be done through your blog, webinars, and a solid SEO strategy.
Another more dynamic method is your LinkedIn strategy. By setting up a consistent and valuable LinkedIn strategy you will attract leads in a more relaxed environment that allows them to contact you directly from on the platform.
Here’s how to go about it!
- Outbound lead generation
This process is more hands-on for your business, as it will be up to you to build your list of leads, qualify, and nurture them.
Outbound lead generation begins by defining your ICP, finding their contact information with databases, LinkedIn, or email finders, and then reaching out to them via cold emailing, cold calling, LinkedIn prospecting, etc.
With lemlist, you can set up multichannel campaigns to make the most out of your outbound lead generation:
Lead capture
Lead capture is the process in which you collect leads’ information by using forms. The aim is to gather a contact base with accurate information that includes names, emails, phone numbers, and company names in order to set up a successful lead-nurturing strategy.
Typically, in order to gather this information, it will be exchanged for a valuable resource such as newsletters, ebooks, exclusive discounts, free trials, webinars, etc.
The key is to establish yourself as an industry expert so that leads can learn more about your business without you being invasive.
lead capture forms can be included in static pages, landing pages, popups, chatbots, and other similar formats.
By investing in lead capture software you will be able to automate the data collection process and gain details insights into your leads’ behavior.
Lead enrichment
Once you find your leads and have their contact information, you’ll want to go through a lead enrichment process.
In this process, you will be enhancing and completing the information you currently have on your leads. This may include adding information such as job title, company size, industry, location, etc.
By enriching your leads you will be able to:
- Better qualify your leads
- Segment your leads effectively
- Improve personalization in your outreach efforts
- Keep your list of leads up to date
With lemlist, you can automatically enrich your leads when you add them to your lists.
Lead tracking
Lead tracking consists of keeping records of your interactions with leads as they move through the sales funnel.
Although your leads may not be ready to buy when you reach out for the first time, it’s important to monitor their buyer behavior in order to choose the best approach when nurturing them.
Lead tracking will provide information and insights into your leads’ behavior and engagement toward your business.
By incorporating this process, you will be able to:
- Prioritize leads
- Personalize outreach
- Optimize strategies
- Increase conversion rates
Lead qualification
Contacting every lead with the same strategy and investing the same amount of time and resources in them is not an effective strategy.
But how do you know what leads are valuable and what leads are worth your resources?
By implementing a lead qualification strategy, you’ll be able to effectively categorize your leads are qualified or unqualified leads.
With this process, you’ll be assessing if leads meet specific criteria such as budget, decision-making authority, their need for your product or service, and their interest.
To carry out your lead qualification process you can use different frameworks such as BANT, CHAMP, MEDDIC, or FAINT.
Lead qualification offers a qualitative approach to sales. To make your qualification much more comprehensive, we recommend combining your lead qualification process with a lead scoring process for a more quantitative approach.
With this process, you gran numerical value to your leads to give you a better idea of where they stand.
Once you have categorized and qualified your leads, you can go into lead segmentation. Where you will decide on a personalized and tailored approach to each lead and secure higher conversion rates.
Lead distribution
Just like not all leads are qualified for your business, not all teams or salespeople can offer the same approach.
This is why, with a lead distribution process you ensure that every lead goes to the perfect department, team, or salesperson.
This process will ensure that the right strategy is used and that no leads will fall through the cracks due to a lack of knowledge on your business’s end.
Lead nurturing
At this point, you have your list of leads, they have been enriched, qualified, and assigned to the appropriate teams and salespeople.
Here comes the best part.
Lead nurturing essentially consists of building relationships with your leads based on trust and value.
The aim is to create an outreach strategy that will guide your leads through the sales funnel by addressing their pain points, offering your solutions, providing valuable resources, and ultimately closing the deal!
Lead nurturing involves a carefully planned out sequence of emails, calls, and/or LinkedIn messages and follow-ups to keep your leads engaged and informed every step of the way.
An effective lead nurturing strategy needs one important thing: Personalization!
It is vital that your leads receive messages tailored to them specifically. Though this is extremely time-consuming when done manually, you can always invest in cold email software that will help you automate the entire process.
Try out the lemlist cold email generator and see the results for yourself.
With lemlist, you can create highly personalized multichannel campaigns using AI in a few simple steps and ensure that you effectively move your leads through the sales funnel.
With AI variables, you can include personalized icebreakers, P.S. lines, and other features.
Lead conversion
The final stage!
At this point, you’ve guided your leads all the way down the sales funnel until they have become paying customers.
Lead conversion is the product of all of your previously mentioned efforts.
Probably around 10-15% of your leads will reach conversion.
For this reason, once leads become clients, don’t cease your nurturing, and continue to send valuable resources to make sure they don’t churn.
Key takeaways
Essentially, leads are people who have the potential to become clients. Whether they meet your criteria or they have expressed interest in your business.
Although leads are not clients yet, they are still the base of your business.
Without a carefully built lead list, your business will never reach the right people.
Final tips to find leads:
→ Take the time to define your target audience
→ Provide enough social proof and resources so your leads trust you and recommend you to other peers
→ Use personalized approaches when dealing with your leads
→ Nurture your leads every step of the way
→ Invest in tools such as lemlist to increase your conversion rates