Sales lead

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 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.

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 trade markets, phone (call centers), database marketing and the websites. Leads from websites are often called web leads.

Telemarketing For Sales Leads

Using call centers and telemarketers to generate leads is a very productive way to find interested prospects. It is one of the few methods of generating leads where you can directly affect the number of leads by the amount of time and effort put in. The more you dial the more leads you generate. Many industries still use telemarketing to generate mortgage leads, insurance leads, sales leads, commercial leads, and many others.

Tools

There are many tools available to generate sales leads. Vendors like [http://www.implu.com implu] , Experian or Wegener DM have special query 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

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).