A lead is someone who has expressed interest in your business and what you offer. It is your business’ responsibility to determine if they are qualified nor someone your team wants to work with. The way you handle communication and interaction with your lead can make or break whether they become a prospect. The key is to be as helpful as possible, respect your time and value, focus on their needs and how they match or mismatch with your services, and don’t let emotions blur your vision and decision making.
It is your business’ job to make sure you attract and retain the right customers and leave unqualified leads feeling they were heard, which still converts them to a raving fan. To ensure you provide the best experience to the lead and your team, you want to create a lead process. This process should include sample scripts for inbound phone calls, email reply templates for inbound emails, a meeting outline and questionnaire to remove emotion and ask the right questions, and a list of criteria to qualify the lead. Most importantly, you want to clarify and document what course of action is done for a qualified and unqualified lead.