You should know that not everybody who shows initial interest in your construction services and products is ready to avail themselves right there and then. In several cases, people visiting your construction website are just researching or getting some details. Sometimes, they are just ready to invest.
Determining who is your website visitor and who are the potential leads is a critical part of your sales strategy. However, many businesses tend to disregard lead qualifications during the sales process. Are you overlooking the qualification stage of your leads too? If you never truly understood everything about qualified leads, this blog is for you.
Identifying Unqualified vs. Qualified Leads
In order for this to effectively work, both your sales and marketing teams have to be on the same page when it comes to the criteria on what qualifies as a real-time lead.
Here are some common signs that you are dealing with
Unqualified Leads:
- They are often unsure of what your company exactly has to offer.
- They are not nurtured enough to close the sales cycle.
- They lack awareness of what they are truly looking for as a solution to their problems.
- Your service offerings and products are out of their budget.
- · When they never can make a purchasing decision.
While it is possible to convert unqualified leads into future clients, it can be a laborious and time-consuming process that will not necessarily fit your existing sales processes and lead generation. It can also result in hard work with little to no results.
A Qualified Lead is a lot easier to determine because:
- They have conducted educational research to understand their issue better and perceive your products and services as a viable solution.
- They have completed and are already finalizing the nature campaign cycle of your construction business.
- Their budget is defined clearly and they have found your service offerings to fit within their initial budget.
- They are in total control of their budget and have the authority to make purchasing decisions.
Clients that come from qualified leads usually have low churn rates because they agree and close by their terms. However, within your list of qualified leads, you will still discover that some are better than others.
The Different Types of Qualified Leads that You Should Know
Now that you have removed all unqualified contacts from your list, it is time to pare down the lead list even further. Here are three types of leads you are about to see in the marketing funnel.
1. Information Qualified Leads (IQL)
These leads are at the start of the buyer’s journey. At this phase, your company must offer helpful details about a topic relevant to a person’s specific query in exchange for his data such as name, location, email address, etc. This particular type of marketing lead is also called a cold lead.
2. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
Someone has indicated considerable interest in your service offerings based on construction marketing efforts. These leads are placed in the middle of the sales funnel because of their continuing interest in your company. They can be anything from opting into a newsletter subscription, submitting contact details via an online form, sharing blog content, downloading marketing materials and resources, or repeatedly viewing your construction website.
3. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
These leads are at the bottom of the funnel. They are the most valuable leads in your business because these people are in the position to purchase your service offerings. They also indicated their budget details and expressed a strong desire to speak within the sales team. There is a heightened level of interest since they can be requesting a formal quote or demo and saying their purchasing time frame and the intent to buy.
How Can You Qualify and Entice Upcoming Leads?
Let us focus more on SQL since they are the most important leads for your construction business. We will show you how to qualify leads in the SQL process. We will break down the process step by step and introduce strategies and a framework that can help you better assess your leads and sales.
1. Building an ICP
Before even getting started qualifying the leads, it is crucial to know what qualities you are looking for in the potential buyers. An excellent way to do this is to determine what your ideal client looks like:
Think of your ICP as someone who can benefit the most from your service offerings, solutions and products. You should better understand all the data you gathered because they can help you figure out what leads are worth moving forward in the sales cycle.
2. Lead scoring
A lead model or a scoring system is mainly a prioritization tool that can help you classify if a lead is truly qualified and when to reach out to this lead.
A lead scoring model assigns various value points to many different actions like opening emails or visiting a certain webpage of yours. The buildup of these points helps you determine what stage of the sales cycle a lead is in, allowing you better choose a fitting moment to reach out.
Let’s assume you already built your ICP and your lead scoring model. Focus next on the three main steps to qualify a particular lead.
- Research: The information you must look for during the initial lead qualification research relates to your lead. Gather as much information as you can since there is more to learn about the lead before qualifying it.
- Outreach: Even if your sales representatives are good, some information cannot be found instantly by them. Therefore, in this stage of the lead qualification process, you aim to gather more specific info about the lead relating to its present situation, needs, pain points, and plans for the future.
3. Qualification
Armed with lead qualification strategies and frameworks, lead scoring tactics, and determining questions will help you identify if the lead is likely to convert. You already have all the information to remember which leads are worth qualifying as prospects as you move through the sales cycle.
Even if the lead is not ready to be qualified at this point, never discount it right away. Situations, priorities, and timelines change. And rather than throwing unqualified leads out the doors, always keep an eye out for any changes in the situation that may signify a new ability to purchase, like acquisitions and funding rounds.
4. Nurture and follow up
As more leads decide to get your services, continue to engage them beyond your first provided offer. Doing the opposite will lead your leads to lose interest and forget about you eventually. We suggest you create a series of auto-responders designed to guide your leads in the middle of your funnel or the consideration stage. As long as you provide valuable blog content, your prospects will be happier to continue engaging with you.
5. Share compelling content
You cannot just wait for leads to get into your sales funnel. You must take a proactive approach to accumulate more leads by regularly posting your top-of-the-funnel content on the social media platforms and groups where your leads spend their time. Again, do this regularly and provide as much value to your prospects as possible.
Determine what topics you choose to write about. Explore different niches if you can, all relating to construction. Brainstorm with your team and practice the art of blog topic ideation. It is one of the most effective ways to get great ideas for your content.
6. Leverage your Successful Clients
Begin connecting with your most successful leads. Personally interview them and figure out what kind of success they have achieved with the help of your services and products. You may choose to develop case studies based on the results, and share such studies with leads in the comparison and evaluation stage.
7. Refine your funnel
Go back and evaluate every stage of your funnel, like the buyer’s journey. Further, analyze your data to classify which content and events will most likely convert your leads into clients. Review all activities throughout the entire funnel, look for items corresponding with the higher close rates and modify your conversion path to steer target prospects along the same journey to success.
8. Refine your CTAs
The prospects within your funnel want to resolve an issue, and it is up to you to reach out and communicate how you can help them find the best solutions for their situation. Ever familiar with CTAs or calls to action? These are the only way to encourage your prospects to proceed, turning them into a lead.
ConstructionMarketing.io Can Help!
The best thing you can do for the lead generation efforts of your construction business is to partner with an agency. A digital marketing agency like ConstructionMarketing.io specializes in connecting your clients with your target leads. And it is a whole new game to capture leads for your construction business. We craft the best lead generation campaigns and are equipped with the right tools. We ensure to make the process becomes more effective and streamlined.
Ever ready to streamline your lead generation funnel? Contact us today and learn more about our services. Our digital marketing services range from SEO marketing, Web development, Social Media Marketing, Google My Business, to Custom Blog Articles. Your marketing and lead generation goals are our top priority!