How Do You Qualify Leads? Secrets to Spotting Top Prospects

Kasra Dash: So how do you qualify leads? Let's say we’ve got a source of traffic and we want to improve the actual quality. What steps are you taking? Qualification of leads is very important and it differs from niche to niche. Prime example. If you’re doing debt and want to put someone into an IVA, they need a £6,000 debt level or above. If they’re below that, they don’t qualify for an IVA. It becomes a debt management plan. If someone is looking for equity release, they generally need to be over a certain age. If you’re switching pensions you need to be 55 plus. If you're below that, you can’t do it. These qualifications matter. It could be age, it could be money. It could be someone asking basic questions like budget. If a conservatory builder pays for a lead and the customer only has a £500 budget, that’s not a qualifying lead. No conservatory can be built for £500. It’s very important for lead generation companies to have qualification criteria in place. It’s also important for customers to qualify their lead generation company, especially when it’s commission based. If they only get paid on conversion, they need to ensure their clients qualify too. James Dooley: For sure. What would you do if I came to you as a lead generation company saying I need qualification of leads? What type of contact forms are you using? Kasra Dash: I’m a big fan of multisteps because you can ask a lot more questions without it looking daunting. For example, going back to pensions or pre-qualified questions. Some places in the UK give out grants. If someone is looking for solar panels and enters a certain postcode, you can check eligibility. You can ask for postcode, budget, then the standard name, email, telephone and address. A multistep form works because if all questions are on one page people get scared and don’t fill it out. This also plays into conversion rate optimisation. These questions save the sales team a lot of time because people don’t always know they need £6,000 debt for an IVA or need to be 55 plus to switch pensions. Pre-qual questions filter that early. James Dooley: For sure. Another angle is matching lead type to the right buyer. Example. If you're a mortgage broker brilliant at remortgages and you only want remortgage leads, a lead generation company shouldn’t be sending you first-time buyer enquiries. They won’t convert as well. A multistep form can ask if it's a first-time buyer or remortgage. If it’s remortgage, it routes to the broker who wants those leads. If it's first-time buyer, it routes elsewhere to a broker who specialises in that. Same logic applies to loan size, region, budget and other qualifiers. Business owners need to give clear criteria. If leads don’t fit that criteria, they shouldn’t be paying for them. Otherwise they pay for leads that don’t qualify and can’t be converted. Qualification protects both sides. Kasra Dash: Exactly. At FatRank the qualification is baked into the model. We do commission only, no win no fee lead generation. You don’t pay for the lead. You only pay if it converts. So even if a wrong lead came through, you don’t lose money. On the flip side, we qualify the businesses we work with. You must be good at converting. You must respond fast. You must have a professional email, case studies, testimonials and a solid online presence. If you’re looking for a decent lead generation company head to fatrank.com, go to the contact page, fill in the form and we’ll see if we can help you. All our leads are pre-qualified so you should get the right type of enquiries.