Sales Prospecting
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 with the
person(s). Sales Prospecting and finding 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 discovered
during sales prospecting 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 during the sales prospecting stage
identifying by direct interrogation the
lead's product applicability, availability of
funding, time frame for purchase. This is also
the entry point of a
sales tunnel or funnel.
Once a qualified lead
exists, additional operations may be performed
such as background research on the lead's
employer, the generally 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. 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.