A client CEO once handed me a list of the top 50 banks in the US and said he wanted me to follow up right away on these “leads”! He might have included (even though he did not, in fact) individual names of senior management, phone numbers, and even email addresses, but they still wouldn’t be sales leads! This list is just what it appears to be: a list of names of people who work at banks! Sales leads these are NOT!

Oh, and by the way, this information is readily available to anyone from 100 different websites!

A sales lead is when a qualified buyer (definition to follow) expresses interest in a product or service. Nothing more, nothing less…”expresses interest”.

That means when you pitch your product or service, they say “I’m interested, tell me more”.
Or it means that when they see an ad for your product or service, they click it on-line or call a phone number from a print ad. In other words, they DO something to respond to the value proposition being offered.

None of the people on my client CEO’s bank list did anything except report to work and get listed on their companies’ org chart in order to be on this list. Some of them COULD be sales leads but only after doing SOMETHING to express that interest.

Expressions of interest can be subtle. Sometimes it’s only a matter of agreeing to download a whitepaper from a company’s website. But this SOMETHING is better than nothing.

Also, before I forget, a “qualified buyer” is someone who has enough money or influence over someone who does have enough money, to buy your product or service within a reasonable period of time.

Clear? OK, no more dumb lists of banks, please!