What makes quslified lead? There are two primary criteria that make a lead QUALIFIED: 1) The ability to buy, and 2) the WILLINGNESS to buy. Ability has to do with targeting; can the person you are selling to actually say “Yes” to what you’re selling? A pool salesman is an idiot if he attempts to prospect apartment owners or people with no backyard. Marketers selling dog food ought to be smarter than targeting homes that have no indication they own a pet. In B2B sales, this may be in the form of selling to underlings (employees) who only have the authority to say “No” or attempting to sell to someone who truly doesn’t have the financial capability to pay for your services (like an MSP targeting companies with one to two employees, hoping to land a $3,000 per month managed services deal).MANY people violate this critical rule and sloppily invest in ads, promotions, lists and other marketing to target people who they DON’T want as prospects and who would never develop into a paying customer. It’s enormously wasteful and expensive.But the next criteria is where many make the biggest misstep. Willingness to buy is not a static state. The guy who throws out the furniture and is dumpster diving for it the following week, when his wife throws him out of the house and files for divorce – now he’s gone from totally uninterested to ready to buy, desperately in need of having to furnish his new apartment due to a change in circumstances. Other prospects’ needs evolve over time and involve a “ripening” period, when they are getting ready to buy.Most marketers and salespeople are too quick to dismiss a lead as “not qualified” simply because they aren’t ready to buy right now. This is where follow-up becomes crucial to lead development and moving a prospect from mild curiosity to “buyer in heat.” Where do you think the term “working leads” came from?Joe Girard still holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of “World’s Greatest Salesman.” Joe sold 13,001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership between 1963 and 1978, long before there was the Internet, social media, e-mail and marketing automation. How did he do it? By keeping a massive but organized filing system of three-by-five cards with his clients’ names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and birthdays. Joe simply made sure to follow up by phone on those people who came in and by sending handwritten postcards, thank-you notes and birthday cards. Simple. But how many people actually take the time to make sure they follow up?