Lead nurturing is the process of building trust and rapport with your prospects until they are ready to buy from you. But not every lead is worth nurturing. Some may be unqualified, uninterested, or unresponsive. How do you identify the leads that are most likely to become customers and focus your efforts on them? Here are some effective ways to qualify a lead for nurturing.
A lead scoring system is a method of assigning numerical values to your leads based on their profile, behavior, and engagement. The higher the score, the more qualified the lead is. You can use a lead scoring system to segment your leads into different categories, such as hot, warm, or cold, and tailor your nurturing campaigns accordingly. For example, you can send more personalized and frequent messages to hot leads, and more educational and general messages to cold leads.
An effective lead scoring system assigns value to each lead based on their engagement level and demographic information. It helps prioritize leads by quantifying their sales-readiness. Factors like website visits, content downloads, email interactions, and job titles contribute to the score. A higher score indicates a lead more likely to convert, thus qualifying them for nurturing. This method ensures sales efforts are focused on leads with the highest potential for conversion.
Another way to qualify a lead for nurturing is to ask them relevant and specific questions that reveal their pain points, goals, challenges, and needs. These questions can be asked through forms, surveys, emails, calls, or social media. The purpose of asking qualifying questions is to understand the lead's situation, interest, urgency, and authority. Based on their answers, you can determine if they are a good fit for your solution and how to move them along the sales funnel.
When you ask a qualifying question, no matter what their answer is, your next question should be based on it. Double and triple click 2-3 layers deep on each question. Just be genuinely curious.
A third way to qualify a lead for nurturing is to track their activity and engagement with your content, website, and marketing channels. You can use tools like Google Analytics, CRM software, or email marketing platforms to monitor how your leads interact with your brand. For example, you can track how often they visit your website, what pages they view, how long they stay, what content they download, what emails they open and click, and what social media posts they like and comment on. By tracking lead activity and engagement, you can gauge their level of interest, intent, and readiness to buy.
A fourth way to qualify a lead for nurturing is to validate their information and verify their identity. You can use tools like email verification services, phone verification services, or social media profiles to check if the lead's contact details are accurate and current. You can also use tools like LinkedIn or company websites to confirm if the lead's job title, role, and company are relevant and match your ideal customer profile. By validating lead information, you can avoid wasting time and resources on fake, invalid, or irrelevant leads.
A fifth way to qualify a lead for nurturing is to test their responsiveness and receptiveness to your messages and offers. You can use tools like email tracking, call tracking, or chatbots to measure how quickly and frequently your leads respond to your communication. You can also use tools like A/B testing, landing pages, or webinars to measure how well your leads respond to your value proposition, calls to action, and incentives. By testing lead responsiveness and receptiveness, you can identify the leads that are most engaged, interested, and motivated to buy from you.
Ask for an early investment and check for consistency. Most people think they have more to lose than gain. So, when most invest or give, they are really interested. Also, the more we invest, the more we want to participate and see our investment bring positive returns. I suggest you ask for something in the early discussions (an email, a phone number, follow your social media page, invite them to speak an event, etc). Yet, make sure you're giving something valuable in return (use reciprocity). Next, follow up with their engagements to what you offer them(your weekly social media post, weekly newsletter, your monthly online audio events, etc). Based on their level of consistency in their engagement you may qualify/classify your leads.