The SaaS Growth Blog

Lately, I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect pair of eyeglasses to fit my giant face (the technical term for “giant face” is “wide temples”). The upshot is, most eyeglasses are made for smaller heads than mine, which means that I really need to try on eyeglasses before I buy. Fortunately for big-headed gals like me, online eyeglasses stores are making at-home try-ons easy. These eyeglasses webstores are doing a terrific job of aligning their inbound marketing (the cutest pair of glasses popped up in my Facebook sidebar and I just had to click), website (sleek, modern, intuitive navigation), and freebie incentives (free shipping for at-home trials!).

Picture this: Your daughter finally brings home her new boyfriend Jimmy, and whether it’s his greasy hair or his limp-fish handshake, you don’t like him. Instantly.

Now, you don’t know Jimmy’s GPA or that he spends every weekend volunteering at the local animal shelter – in fact, there’s a lot you don’t know. But, you feel your assessment is solid (and it probably is). That’s because people make shortcuts all the time when making decisions. We use “Rules of Thumb,” gut instincts, and intuition to make decisions all day long.

Inbound marketing not only increases your leads – when done right, it also increases the quality of your leads. Ideally, your sales team should only be engaging with inbound leads who are warm and informed – and most importantly, qualified. The way we begin this process of separating the wheat from the chaff is to first hone in on what a “qualified” lead looks like for each of our clients.

What does a qualified lead look like?

Think of the leads you’ve had in the past year who were fully prepared to buy. What characteristics did they have in common? How do they find you? What social media are they on? What are their frequently-asked questions? The best answers will probably come from the men and women on the front lines: Your sales team.*