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Sales Qualifying Questions: How Do You Know If Your Leads Are Ready?

By Bob Ruffolo

As hard as we try to prevent unqualified prospects from entering our sales process at IMPACT, it still happens — more than we'd like to admit.

There we are, ready to talk to close a deal, only to realize the person we're talking to isn't the right fit.

It's like this for many businesses. Of course we all want our sales reps to speak to only qualified leads, but that's easier said than done.

To qualify leads before they talk to our sales team, we gather as much data as we can about their activity on our site, and use the lead scoring tool in our CRM, but no tool is infallible, and unqualified prospects can still make it into our sales cycle.

This article is about how we find and filter out those leads.

If a lead has made it so far, how do you know if they are truly ready?

Below, you'll find:

A brief overview of lead scoring, including what criteria to track
Essential sales qualifying questions to ask to learn about a prospect
The answers you should be listening for in those early sales conversations

I'll provide a brief overview of lead scoring — as well as the main criteria we tell our clients to look for when lead scoring.

Then, I'll explain the questions our sales team asks to help qualify that lead without harming their relationship. After all, a person who is interested enough to speak with our sales team is probably a fan of our brand and a believer in what we do. The last thing we want to do is burn a bridge with someone who may become a customer in a few years.

Ready to ask better questions and improve your sales process? Let's dive in.

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