Lead generation efforts are generally focused on identifying and qualifying selling opportunities for the sales force.

If it were simply the case of finding leads where the prospect were ready to buy then why would we need either sales people or the huge costs associated with running them?

In reality, a huge proportion of sales in most businesses in the vast majority of industries rely on sales people to either nurture the prospect or lead into becoming a sale.

How do we therefore turn a lead into a sale? Normally this will involve taking the lead and arranging for a salesperson to visit to discuss further. This is the often lost art of appointment setting.

In my opinion it is amazing how little time most companies actually spend on appointment setting, training and development. Taking an enquiry or lead from initial interest to appointment requires real skill and dedication.

The following diagram indicates the 4 levels of sales lead opportunities.

As you move up the pyramid, the cost per opportunity increases and the volume of opportunities decrease. You could decide only to provide the low hanging fruit to your sales force. This strategy, however, is rarely practical and could be significantly counterproductive. In your experience, how many of your qualified prospective customers were actually waiting for you to call on them to sell your services/products?

Make an appointment!