Sales lead

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service, and represents the first stage of a sales process. The lead may have a corporation or business associated (a B2B lead) with the person(s). Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect, or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect, qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the lead's product applicability, availability of funding, and time frame for purchase. This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel, sales funnel or sales pipeline.

Once a qualified lead exists, additional operations may be performed such as background research on the lead's employer, general market of the lead, contact information beyond that provided initially or other information useful for contacting and evaluating a lead for elevation to prospect, the next sales step.

If a sales lead eventually makes a purchase, this is called conversion and a closed sale. The ratio of sales leads that convert is often referred to as the conversion rate, a way to measure the effectiveness of a sales process, sales team, or sales person.

Brand marketers also use online lead generation to generate marketing leads. Marketing leads were introduced to the online lead generation market in 2007. Till then, a large portion of the online lead generation market was focused on generating sales leads.

Sales leads are generic leads that are generated on the basis of demographic criteria such as FICO score, income, age, HHI, etc. These leads are often resold to multiple advertisers. Sales leads are typically followed up through phone calls by the sales force. They are commonly found in the mortgage, insurance and finance industries.

Marketing leads are brand-specific leads generated for a unique advertiser offer. In contrast to sales leads, marketing leads can only be sold to to a unique advertiser. Marketing leads are generated for a unique brand – Wells Fargo, Coca Cola, etc. Marketing leads are typically generated for e-newsletter lists, email databases, member loyalty programs, community sites or for vendor-specific sales efforts. Sales leads are generated for a particular industry – e.g. Finance, Mortgage, etc.

1 Lead Sources
2 Tools
3 In popular culture
4 References

[edit] Lead Sources

Leads can be generated by many different marketing campaigns or can have many different sources. You can generate leads by mailings (fax, paper, email), fairs and trademarkets, phone (call centers), database marketing and the websites. Leads from the website are often called web leads.

[edit] Tools

There are many tools available to generate sales leads. Vendors like Experian or Wegener DM have special querring tools to access their dbase. Other use chat like Instant Service or LivePerson to enter in contact with potential sales leads online. Leads generated based on online behavioral targeting and segmentation are often generated by Netmining. For a comprehensive list click here : email tools

[edit] In popular culture

Sales leads are a central part of the story of the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, about four real estate salesmen who want "the good leads" which will close more easily (result in closed sales, i.e. a financial transaction).