Many times we are hearing the words like prospects , leads , opportunity , potential customer in daily life . just i got some difference while googling , those are :
Suspects
A suspect is anyone who is in your database. He might or might not be interested your product. He need not even be a buyer but someone who can influence potential buyers. He may not meet your qualification criteria such as geography, vertical and company size.
Characteristics of a suspect could be:
- Has visited your website at least once.
- Has retweeted one or more of your tweets.
- Follows your Company Page on LinkedIn.
- Has commented on one of your blogposts.
Prospects
Prospect looks for information to solve a problem. They will part with their personal details, fill a form to download one of your whitepapers. A prospect may very well be a researcher. To weed them out it is a good idea to put in a form field which asks for the prospect’s motive with “Just researching” as one of the options.
Characteristics of a prospect could be:
- Has downloaded a whitepaper/research report.
- Has subscribed to one of your product/technical blogs.
- Clicked on your PPC ad and the ensuing landing page.
Leads
Leads are those prospects that fit your qualifying criteria. Your marketing and sales should have predefined the qualifying criteria such as geography, vertical, company size along with favorable action.
For instance a lead can be anyone from the US/Europe in the technology industry with over 250 employees and has attended your webinar. The teleprospecting team can step in at this stage to ascertain the qualification criteria, budget and authority.
Characteristics of a lead could include:
- Has registered and attended one or more of your webinars.
- Has opened and clicked on at least one of your emails.
- Has visited your website multiple times in the last one month and has visited the “Pricing”/”About Us” page.
- Has achieved a lead score of X.
Opportunity
An opportunity is a warm lead that meets a threshold score. The opportunity has an identified need, is interested in your product and has the required budget and authority. Such opportunities are handled by sales.
Characteristics of an opportunity include:
- Has viewed product videos.
- Has asked for a strategic consultation with one of your in-house experts.
- Has asked for a demo.
Treat Them Differently
Don’t mix suspects, prospects, leads and opportunities up and miff them. Know who they are. Tell them apart. Give each one targeted messages and mediums. Use this table to map your comm unication.
| Type of Customer | Aim | Content Type |
| Suspect | Impress | Infographics, blog, social media, PR |
| Prospect | Educate | Whitepapers, checklist, technical blog, PPC |
| Lead | Engage | Email, newsletter, webinars, teleprospecting |
| Opportunity | Persuade | Demo, ROI calculator, customer testimonial |
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