“Buyers will buy when they are ready to Buy”. Categorising your sales pipeline will help you better understand what stage your target market is at in the buying process.
It’s important to start with a clear definition of exactly what defines a suspect, a prospect, and a lead. The following article/blog does just that, and also outlines how to move your suspect to a sales qualified opportunity.
Suspect – Everyone in your target market
Prospect – Anyone who has taken action to solve a problem that you can assist them with
Lead – The right person with the ability to buy
Opportunity – The right person who is ready to buy
Suspects
Contrary to what most people think, suspects are not just the people who might be using your product, but they are also everyone who may consume or share your product or service, or may influence the people who do.
What do they want?
Suspects are more concerned about what you know not so concerned with what you sell. That is why blasting away a sell message to your suspects just doesn’t work. Instead, you need to share great content with them. Things like:
- Interesting articles about problems your suspects have
- Industry data and trends
- Non-Demo Videos
How to reach them
- Blogs
- White Papers
- Social Networks
- Permission Based Communication
How to measure results
- Traffic spikes/referrals
- Inbound Links
- Social Signals (Likes, Tweets, +1’s)
Prospects
A suspect becomes a prospect when they have actively supplied their personal information in exchange for more content. They are not a lead at this point, but rather, a prospect who is ready to be nurtured into a lead.
What do they want?
Prospects are looking for more detailed information about how to solve a key problem that they may have. This can come in the form of:
- Analysts Reports
- Webinars/Events
- Product &/or Service information
How to reach them
- Direct Mail
- Search Marketing
How to measure results
There really is only one way to measure prospects – CONVERSIONS. Your goal should be to collect as much information as possible on the people you don’t know (Name, Email, Title, Company etc.) and more information (behaviour, needs, urgency, etc.) on those that you do know.
Leads
A lead is a prospect that meets specific criteria (Fit, behaviour, interest, intent).
What do they want?
Leads want to know how you can help them solve their issue/problem/pain. Discuss with them the risk of not taking action and how your expertise helps mitigate it proactively. You need to make sure you are helping them advance to the next step in their buying process.
How to reach them
- Tele-prospecting call
- Webinars/Events
How to measure results
- Downloads
- Click throughs
- Attendance
Opportunities
An opportunity is a lead who is looking to solve a key problem that you can help them with in a definitive timeline.
What do they want?
Opportunities want content that helps them make the right buying decision. You are better off being the one to supply information (features, pricing, etc.) then letting the buyer receive it elsewhere, or even worse, from one of your competitors. Some great ways to share this are:
- ROI Calculators
- Pricing Sheets
- RFP Generators
How to reach them
You need to nurture your buyer all the way to a closed deal. Don’t just rely exclusively on the sales rep to deliver the content. This is one place where many companies fail. You need to create a digital buying centre where your opportunities can go to get all the information they need to make an educated buying decision.
How to measure results
SALES. If you lost the deal, find out why and work at finding a way to not lose the next one.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Great content shared at the wrong time will not deliver results. You need to understand what stage your prospects are at and share with them content that will help them move to the next stage in their buying process. In order to achieve this you need to understand how your customers buy and map your content to each stage in their buying process. This understanding of the difference between, suspect, prospect, lead, and opportunity will have significant effects on your bottom line.
