How To Recognize When You Have a Sales Opportunity and When Does It Become Clear That It Is Not A Lead?

What is a sales opportunity, and when does it become clear that it isn't a lead?

There is no one definition of the word. Nevertheless, given the concept of an opportunity affects your sales process, qualification potential, and marketing alignment (if you can't agree on what an "opportunity" is), a few prevalent misunderstandings need to be corrected. In this article, I discuss the first-stage opportunity following its conversion from a lead.

Sales Opportunity

A qualified prospect who is highly likely to become a customer is referred to as a sales opportunity. A pain point for your product or service and an interest in it should be present. According to salespeople, the option should be a good match for the sold product.

A "sales opportunity" occurs when you're working with a qualified prospect who has a good chance of becoming a customer, even if it's your first day on the job. So what does "qualified" mean, and how do you know that a deal isn't just imagined? Yet, only 10 to 15% of B2B sales opportunities result in an agreement.

This might seem like a minor detail, but your company's definition of "sales opportunity" greatly influences forecasting accuracy. Each rep will move leads through the CRM sales stages at varying speeds if each understands what it means to be an opportunity.

You'll need to define inevitable sales process stages to guarantee deals are classified correctly if your sales team is so inconsistent throughout the selling. Since they don't recognize the worth of precise forecasting and believe that seeming to have more possibilities in the pipeline is preferable, salespeople may be taking shortcuts in the sales procedure.

Lead vs. Opportunity

A lead is someone at the top of the funnel who has not yet been qualified. For example, they may have obtained a white paper or an ebook, or a salesperson may have contacted them over the phone. A prospective client with a high likelihood of closing is referred to as an opportunity.

The definition of a lead is first on the agenda. An inbound top-of-the-funnel question, such as a white paper or eBook download, is a typical B2B "marketing-generated lead." An outbound asset, such as a person identified by an SDR and encouraged to learn more or schedule a call, is a "sales-generated lead."

However, a "sales opportunity" goes beyond a "lead," as the saying goes. Many believe that a lead becomes an opportunity when you qualify based on BANT criteria — Budget, Authority, Needs, and Timeline. Yet, as one might deduce from the title of this piece, I don't believe that's the case. When you're simply deciding whether or not you have enough there to transform the lead into an opportunity, it should not be essential to know the prospect's budget, schedule, or authority right away.

If the prospect tells you she has a budget and a 30-day timeline to buy your product, you have yourself an excellent late-stage opportunity with maybe an 80% chance of closing.

What will BANT do if it does not receive the first-stage opportunity? I believe that all sales opportunities should have three characteristics at their most basic level. Begin with these, and then add your company's criteria on top.

Lead vs. Prospect

A top-of-the-funnel, qualified contact is referred to as a lead. Leads have generally shown interest in your item or service. Still, they have not been tested to see if they match the ideal customer profile or would benefit from using it. A contact who has been evaluated as a good customer and is interested in buying is known as a prospect.

How to convert a lead into a possible customer

A lead and a prospect are sometimes confused. Prospects are qualified contacts who have been placed into the sales process, whereas leads are unqualified contacts.

To decide if your firm's products or services are the most acceptable options to their problem, guide them through the sales selection process. Prospect qualification has three stages:

• Organization-Level Qualification — Verify that the lead matches the characteristics of your company's buyer persona during this first stage. If selling B2B, consider demographics such as region, business, and size.
• Opportunity-Level Qualification —Determine if the candidate can put your firm's solution into practice and whether they would benefit from utilizing your item in the qualification procedure.
• Stakeholder-Level Qualification — Confirm if they have the authority to make a final buying decision after you've determined that the lead fits your ideal customer persona and would benefit from using your product. Otherwise, you'll need to figure out who the proper stakeholder is to move through the sales process.

See how leads, prospects, and opportunities are passed along via this graphic.

So, how do you convert leads and prospects into opportunities? Look for them if you want to.

Every sales opportunity must have these qualities.

1. Pain

Before they can be turned into a chance, I believe we can all agree that a leader must have some form of suffering (AKA need). If a person doesn't feel any discomfort, there's a low chance of making a sale.

On the other hand, the salesperson is responsible for uncovering that suffering. Even if a person does not explicitly communicate the hell they are experiencing to you; it does not mean there isn't any. To succeed in sales, a salesperson must build the right qualification abilities to expose and remove pain from prospects by posing carefully prepared queries. Both incoming and outgoing leads are affected by this. That's fantastic that a potential customer downloaded an eBook from your website, but it might mean they want to learn more. The rep must still qualify for pain before turning the lead into an opportunity.

2. Interest

I will check for interest next. For example, does knowing about the issue mean someone is interested in resolving it? Ask them how long they've had the issue. Why would they want to solve it now if it's been around for 20 years? They've been dealing with the problem for a long time and haven't noticed anything. The desire to figure it out seems to be waning. The most severe ailment will get handled first; executives must choose and select their fights.

3. Fit

Assume you have a candidate with an urgent need and the ambition to address it. There's just one problem. Your product is intended for corporations with 100 or more employees, and they own a three-person firm. Is this person a sales prospect?

No, since they don't suit your product. The salesperson shouldn't sell your product to them since they might want to buy it. It's a recipe for an unhappy customer because the product and the prospect's situations aren't well aligned. On the other hand, dissatisfied consumers often vent their rage on internet review sites.

What you don't need to qualify for a sales opportunity is

Only three traits are required for salespeople to convert a lead into an opportunity in their CRM. BANT qualification might be a little messy for sales reps. Where's the money going to come from? What about the chronology? Is it the authors or the publishers? You don't just have a chance — you practically have a deal! If you can establish B, A, N, and T on your first call, you won't just have an opportunity. In comparison to a first-stage chance, the prospect is much more advanced.

A chance, not a guarantee, is defined as the ability to sell a client. A BANT-qualified prospect is essentially a sure thing. A prospect with pain, an drive to alleviate it, and a fit is what an opportunity is. A salesperson may detect the budget, timeline, and authority of the opportunity to further qualify (or dismiss) it throughout the sales process.

The sales managers and leaders who use these three criteria to improve leads will be comparing apples to apples in reporting. Place similarly well-defined standards for the other phases of your sales process once you've established the milestones a lead must achieve to be considered an opportunity. The foundations of an effective sales process are defined exit criteria, which ensure consistency and reproducibility.

Gain?valuable?insights?into your?sales?funnel?and see how you can improve the quality of?leads?coming in from?social?media, email marketing campaigns, and other sources.

WebSys ?can help you generate more?quality?leads, make better decisions and improve your conversion rate into sales. Email us: [email protected]