What is a Lead?
We might have heard of a lot of versions about Leads and you may be wondering how to create nomenclature that makes sense to your marketing and sales department for funneling and closure.
First of all, there is no universal right or wrong definition, you do not need to refer dictionary, you need a unified way of referring to frame a discussion in your company and work towards a target. As long as, your stakholder agree go for it.
How I define a Suspect, Prospect and a Lead?
I have taken the healthcare industry for the discussion.
As a healthcare organization, our marketing & sales funneling when a consumer is in suspect, prospect or Lead state is totally different than retail or insurance or compared to any other industry. Here there is empathy, deeper engagement is required say for long term care along with an understanding of medical conditions. Sometimes, a patient wants to converse with a doctor before even the first visit.
Many times I hear, lot of prospects but convertion to qualified lead is less, it is because “We wind up prospects in our pipeline that aren’t prospects”.
You must clearly define all terms with mapping factors so that any consumer can get into one of the buckets. Your marketing, engagement & sales funnel can kick start accordingly.
The factors that differentiate are
SUSPECT (Some call as Enquiry)
A suspect is anyone in your hospital vicinity, city, nearby towns who might look for your service, why not 😅 the country who could potentially become your patient/consumer at your hospital. Someone was mentioning as TAM (Targeted Addressable Market). You do not know about their need or interest. You just see them as a potential consumer for your service or product. They might not have shared their contact info or shared but not given you a clear need. Some might have a need to say in the future.
Example: Nisha is enquiring about home care nursing services for her dad who could get operated in a few months. She is enquiring about home care services. She shared contact, but the need is futuristic and unsure of the rest of the factors.
What is the marketing and engagement strategy for suspects: Market to them for continuous awareness, brand building, and offerings, etc. Do precision marketing if you have their need. Nisha can get information on home care services, particularly about post-operative nursing care using DocEngage’s service-based personalized engagement. Have a variety of content say monthly 3 to 4 times which includes specialized nurse information, recovery of other patients, how your service offering better, testimonials, etc. And have a schedule for a call in a month’s time.
The idea is push the suspect to a prospect by month on month communication & engagement. Not too with much desperation but with a smart engagement 😃
PROSPECT (Potential Lead)
A prospect is a consumer, who has shown interest to buy your product or services and has gone through a basic qualification process. They have shared their contact information and formed a level of relationships with you. Prospects that tell you exactly where they’re struggling likely want your help means needs somewhat clear. If a prospect is reluctant to expose details, it means they’re not yet confident you’ll be able to provide them value. or they are not in immediate need. Don’t make them prospects as you’re pushing them to close too soon. Make them a suspect.
A prospect will engage with you. They have manifested some indicators that they are interested to go the service pr product. You might need to evaluate their time to buy and also budgets etc. It all takes time to push suspects to prospects and to lead in the pipeline.
Example: You got an enquiry for gastric bypass surgery and the consumer is engaging, asking questions about the surgeons, cost and recovery time etc. She has not decided when but said soon. Unsure if she has a budget or not. She is engaging with us frequently. We see she is not convertible immediately but a near sale.
What is the engagement strategy for prospects: Precision Engagement. She needs to get confidence to opt for the surgery. She needs to get convinced about the quality of care, the recovery timeline & post surgery follows up etc. DocEngage’s presicion engagement and sales funneling can help you with that.
The idea is push the prospect to a lead by appropriate engagement 😃
LEAD (Qualified Lead)
Prospects go to the final level, becoming a capable lead, by showing clear need, intent, have budget and time to buy is now or very close. Leads are prospects that satisfy your criteria. They need your product or service. They have the budget to buy it and have the decision-makers “yes” for going ahead. The more urgent the need, the hotter the lead. Engagement is frequent and buying urge is high.
Example: A pregnant woman is enquiring about a delivery package. She has understood all available packages with pricing and shown interests in 2 packages and given time to meet the doctor for the initial consultation. It is lead as there is a clear need and buying time is now and the budget has been discussed.
Now the final push has to be done to let the patient come for the consultation and go for the purchasing & closure.
You can manage your marketing and sales funnel efficiently using DocEngage Lead management which is integrated with all social media channels and hospital systems.
Pls chat with us online at https://www.docengage.in/ or explore the product by our FREE TRIAL
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