Today we’re talking about qualifying a sales lead, i.e. assessing the potential customer’s genuine level of interest. Remember, it’s often someone’s job to engage with lots of potential vendors, so they might seem excited even if they’re just kicking the tires.
So, here’s the 3 criteria you can use to judge a lead’s level of interest:
1. Deadline
Do they have a specific date to get started? If a potential customer is really interested in your product, they will likely have a date or timeline they’d like you to meet. If they’re not willing to be specific, or the date is more than 3 months out, it might be a low priority.
2. Integrations
Data sources, APIs, other software packages — if your customer is asking if you can connect to their existing tools, that’s a good sign they really do want to integrate your product.
3. Budget.
Has the customer shared their budget, negotiated pricing, or accepted your offer? any one of these is an indicator of more serious interest.
If you have all 3 of these criteria in place, you likely have a sale ready to close.
Best of luck out there.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
