B2B Sales Pipeline

It’s Friday, so what better time to rant about a subject that is near and dear to my heart – Lead Qualification.  Whether you utilize the BANT Model (which we do here at Pardot), or some other methodology, you’d better make sure that the leads your sales professionals are calling on are qualified.  I saw a recent post by ETI Sales Support, which stated the following:

“Leads without qualification have little value to salespersons whose standard of living depends on the volume of their sales. In many instances the most experienced salespersons will not follow through on unqualified leads because it doesn’t pay them. In that event the total cost of the cheap leads would be wasted.  And your actual cost per qualified lead and sale will skyrocket.”

Let that statement wash over you.  Marketing and Sales both need to Stop the Cycle – Marketing – Stop sending over junk leads because your rainmakers know what a bad lead looks like, and Sales – Stop following up on junk leads because they will inevitably bury you under a mountain of wasted effort.
So let me tell you a quick story about a Gentleman, selling his moving services to only Qualified Prospects in Atlanta, Georgia.  His name is Ron The Mover, and here’s how I met this gentleman:

During December, I was moving into a new Condo in Buckhead, however I was relegated to a walking boot as I recovered from an October Achilles tear.   In order to get a head start on packing, I dropped by the U-Haul store to pick up a large quantity of boxes.  As I struggled to load them into my car, a gentleman took me by surprise.   He approached, and asked if I needed help putting the boxes into my car (rapport building).  He then asked a follow up question related to whether I was planning on moving soon (Establishing BANT’s Need and Timeline criteria). I guess he determined that I was the decision maker on this opportunity (Assumed BANT’s Authority criteria), so he handed me a piece of paper that was torn into a square after having been moistened by his tongue to make straight edges.  This was his business card, and it simply said “Ron the Mover” and included his number.
So let’s recap.  Ron Established 3 of the 4 BANT Criteria within 60 seconds:

• “Authority” by properly assuming that I was the decision Maker on this move
• “Need” by engaging people who were doing business with U-Haul (Buying Boxes, Renting Trucks)
• “Timeline” by asking if I was moving Soon.

Great work Ron…You could teach most business people a thing or two.