We always learn new things, so when I heard that there are a number of vendors that are looking at new ways to categorize and prioritize their sales leads, I was interested in understanding further.
The method that was always the most logical to me was take a lead that was going to close the fastest and assign it the highest priority. Then, came the sorting method by size of the opportunity. The bigger the deal, the more resources may get assigned (pre-sales, executive sponsorship, etc.)
Now, I am hearing about other methods being used, like vertical markets.
The more I thought about it, especially in a down economy, this makes sense. Despite what a client may tell you about the budget approval or your sales rep about a specific deal closing imminently, according to this system of prioritization, this is not weighted to these metrics.
Instead, you can gain a vertical market proficiency that will give you repeatability in selling over and over again to that one market. This will involve an analysis on your current forecast and the closed deals (that you won and even some that may have been lost).
Focusing on one vertical market can also help identify the ones that have money according to the media or analysts and you can adjust your spending accordingly.
For example, you may find that your product or service answers a need of companies in insurance and they may have budget, whereas finance may not have any budget dollars this year.
How do you categorize or prioritize your leads?
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Until now, we have been putting our leads into a system by the expected close date. We then enter in the relevant ones in the forecast and always try to have a 300% more in the pipeline than our final number we are trying to hit for the quarter or year.