The First-Party Intent Qualification

The hardest problem in B2B marketing is working out when a lead is ready to buy. All too often, sales are only interested in speaking to leads with a defined business need and an active project. Anything else is dismissed as a time-waster. Yet, marketing has no real way of finding out whether accounts are currently in market at any given time. In many cases, even the buying group within an organisation will not know whether they're intending to purchase or merely researching potential options. It all depends on how procurement approval works within the business in question.

The safest approach is simply to wait until someone fills in a contact us form or a demo request. That's a definite buying signal, but also runs the risk of being too late. You always want to be the first person to speak to the prospective customer, as this significantly increases the chances of closing a deal. Ideally, you want to call the lead at the point they're picking up the phone. That requires looking beyond a single buying signal to see if there is an ongoing pattern of activity that is consistent with the middle stages of a buying journey.