I was going to start my comment with the thought that the Perfect Lead definition would change depending on what is being sold. After some reflection however, I believe the definition could apply across the board.

Expression of Need
Capacity to Buy
Motivating Factor
Impediments to Closure

Thoughts?

Recent global economic events have proven the Peter Principle to be true. There is not a company or organization that is not the perfect target. We got where we are because of a lack of foresight. Business was in the hands of those who did not know what they were doing in the long run and taking what they could when they could.
All companies have a problem! All company’s key people are looking for problem solvers to solve challenges that they, themselves, have no idea how to approach or indeed even know exist.
Determine the key challenge and need and go forward from that point.
If you know what you are doing, what your product does, how it fits into organizations, how it cuts through and gets to the root of the problem and ultimately benefit the company; you’re going to succeed.

Knowing your product and being able to talk to the right person, targeting their needs, and having confidence in being able to improve their rate of success, is the KEY> Chuck, your the right person at the right time with the right product. You will succeed.

Here is the perfect lead

Customer calls you (no cost)
Tells you he wants to buy your product (no expert needed)
Buys it on his own using his card/ wire (no processing cost)
Self delivered (no making cost)

To get there their is a whole lot of ground work. Reality - minimize all the above to close to zero - how??

The perfect lead, huh?

A prospect where, if implementation is successful, your solution becomes the de-facto standard for your adressable market.

Nirvana for me…

Taking the perspective of what the “perfect lead” means to me, perfect lead would simply be the one that is definite to close with my current suite of offerings and in turn would imply:

The lead is sure to close, will close ‘quickly’,
I shouldn’t overstretch to deliver, and I will make money on it).

The perfect lead should be define by the potential of the opportunity regardless of the result. It’s the one that has recognized his need, has the will to satisfy that need and the budget on hand to do it. Then, begin the sales process.
Do I believe I have what it takes to fullfill this customer’s need?
If So, do I know how to get my message across efficiently?
Can I create enough trust and comfort so the lead knows he can rely on me and my company, can I show my understanding of his need and my ability to deliver.
Do I ask for the order…
Do I foresee and/or efficeintly overcome objections?
The perfect Lead is not the one you close, the perfect Lead is the one that represents a real opportunity to sell. The rest is Salesmanship and is not by definition on the customer’s side.

I would rather define perfect lead-closer than to define the perfect lead. The perfect lead closer has been the subject of many of my lectures and seminars throughout my long career. The lead closer knows every lead, no matter how “perfect” represents the buyers “explicit” needs, but that there is great value and a longer-term relationship based on the buyers “implicit” or vaguely-defined needs. The perfect lead-closer knows to make the implicit explicit and thus obtain a much larger engagement and a longer term relationship.

Chuck, I know you are going to enjoy doing this, be great at it and have very satisfied following.

A perfect lead is a smart and successful salesman/woman’. A smart salesman/woman will always recognize very quickly a good opportunity, product and deal. If that person has absolutely no need for your product at that time, then they will probably know someone who does and will almost start off the sale for you.

If you have the product, that sales

The perfect Lead: You can only find out if your lead was perfect years after you closed the sale. And years after the sale is closed you can no longer call it a “lead”. Therefore, the perfect lead doesn’t exist. I would rename the perfect lead to a strong lead. I believe all leads are the “perfect opportunity”. Once a sale is finalized it is only the beginning of a partnership between you and the client. You must not only deliver the product as promised- the product should become the perfect investment. If you don’t deliver as mentioned above, the strong lead becomes a perfect disaster as it will potentially destroy new leads.
As you all know, “A satisfied customer will have little to say about your business while an irate or unfulfilled customer will let 10 friends know how your company/business screwed up.
The proof lies within the American auto industry. They had a ridiculous amount of strong leads which resulted into sales however years later they are trying to dodge a disastrous hurricane that they created. (The perfectionists at lead destruction)
And YES, a strong lead is one that can potentially bring high profit margins however I believe it goes much further than that.

The Perfect Lead, or Not “too” Perfect Lead, that is the question.

The perfect lead for me would be a invidual who has done the necessary first level research about what he wants, has a very good idea about how to acquire it, compared his needs with what’s currently available on the market and had shopped around to figured out its true value and current cost to aquire it; he is now ready to seek for a specialist in the business and either he has found me or I have found him to help him make the right decision, to confirm his thoughts and learn more about his options, to help him feel secure about his new acquisition when signing and for the long run and mostly to make his purchase the most satisfying and rewarding experience for either a personal or professional gain.

That’s it.. the rest is up to me to make this come thru and make sure he realize that I am part of the equation for his gain which will help me secure more business later, gain his trust and to get more business thru his contacts.

The perfect lead must have access to the executive who not only has budget but has the authority to use and release the budget.

I recently had lunch with a very successful VAR in Australia. He described to me, the perfect deal….

a) level playing field, all four shortlisted vendors found out about the opportunity at roughly the same time

b) his sales teams are vertically focused, they met the prospect and were able to establish credibility quickly, as they could relate to the prospect

c) listened to the prospect

d) offered sample business processes designed for the prospects vertical

e) attended the same vendor briefing as their competitors, but saw their business processes highlighted on the powerpoint, with prospects name written all over them

f) as the others were frantically filling in the RFP, they offered data conversion processes/scenarios to the prospect, as the RFP mirrored their business processes it was very easy to respond and they focused on adding more value to the ‘internal’ processes that would eventuate after selecting a vendor, again providing more vendor neutral information that any project manager either has or needs to have to be successful

g) always staying one step ahead of the competition, they focused on furthering their relationship with the CEO and CFO by researching the individuals and talking to people that knew them

h) achieved a quick order for a pilot six weeks before their close of their fiscal year, whereas the other vendors were writing ‘lost’ sales report

So its not the lead per se, but what you do with the information compared to your competition, its the art of selling.

I fully agree John, I like the way you have wrote everything.

That’s what I would call strategic selling; not only to have your sales team vertically focused but also have the strategic business development blueprint plan establish for your sales team established for that specific vertical.

Sales after all is a premeditated sport especially in the high technology and IT fields.

It has always amazed me that most companies even if they were vertically focused with a good sales ratio rarely gave any advices/strategies on how to attack their vertical market with any plan - new hired salespeople were always given a desk, phone and computer with the typical “Good Luck” without any strategic plans about what has been successful so far for them in their vertical market. They usely would have to figured it themselves which is very costly for the company.

The perfect lead; The client fully understands their needs. Fully understands the competitive marketplace that can deliver that which satisfies those needs and ultimately is firmly convinced that my firm can meet those needs and contacts me asking when my firm can deliver. But, we all know that this is as rare as hen’s teeth. Reality is such that the perfect lead doesn’t exist.

An excellent lead is one whereby the end user has an excellent grasp of the real or perceived need for a product or service within the context of his/her business or personal environment. Realistic funding has been earmarked for the acquisition of the product or service. The timeframe for acquisition is set. The “lead” contact has the power within their environment to either make a final decision or strongly influence those who ultimately sign on the dotted line. The “lead” ought not be restricted by policy to only look at a few choice vendors and is thus open to the concept that there are often multiple avenues that can lead to need fulfillment. These types of leads are rare but not unheard of.

Most leads that are generated by all forms of marketing are analogous to a knock on the door, some subtle some blatant. The end user expressing need by response to a marketing ploy may have a true need for product or service, may be “kicking the tires’, or may be justifying their existence in their corporate environment. They are often not a “decision maker”, are generally not expert in the purchase of the product or service they are seeking and are easily influenced by purported experts, target marketing and/or a good pitch.

A good salesperson can and does look at these “leads” more as an opening rather than as a lead. If he or she can determine that a true need exists or perhaps will exist and the salesperson represents a product or service that has true value. The salesperson can recognize the needs of the end-user, realize that the product he or she represents meets the needs of that consumer and is able to turn his or her offering into a sale.

The perfect lead is one where the salesperson recognizes the ability of his product or service to bring value by solving business issues for the potential client. Once this is demonstrated, the timing, budget and decision process will fall into place.

The perfect lead covers 5 Ws in detail (who, what, when, where and why), describes the pain and shows the knowledge of client about it.

Now if you have a solution, the art of salesmanship talks :).

Hmmmm. The perfect lead? Anyone, anytime, anywhere! You never know when the perfect lead is going to surface. I guess the ART is recognizing potential, being able to think on your feet and separating BS from reality.

This is what I consider a perfect lead.

1. They have a problem/need
2. They have already figured out that our product can solve that problem. (Via a sample, free trial, research, etc.)
3. They just dealt with a major issue which could have been prevented if they had my product. (lost a customer, shipped a wrong product, created a wrong proposal, missed an up-sell opportunity, etc.)

The above three criteria ensures that they are qualified, that we will not have to do a lot of consulting in making the sale, and that the sale will not drag on forever.

The perfect lead is someone who knows what they require. Has the budget and the decison making power. Has done their research and is ready to make an acquisition.

They arrive at our door step ready, willing and able to sign off

I have worked high end retail for 30 years. Anyone who ever walked in to any business is “a perfect lead” Walking in to Big Box store for a part that you need and being shrugged aside, is a killed “Perfect Lead ” . They did not know how, or were not set up to entertain your desires by listening to you.
I remember a very old tape of a motivational speaker, ( King Ringer), he stated ” A browser is a buyer that has not run into a salesman yet”
I lived by that mantra for 30 years.Everyone is a perfect lead. It’s all in how you say “hello”.

Elliott fantastic explanation and very cool mantra

This is Toru Nagai from Tokyo,Japan.
Beside “The Perfect Lead” I love reading and listening to “The story”.
When I understand and feel sympathy to enviroment, character of author, attractive commnents or message in the story, I will falling in love to the story. I love Haiku of Shiki Masaoka, and interested very much with his life and art.
http://haiku.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~shiki/sm/sm.html

I don’t think myself as a perfect sales, but I have a high rate of success when I’m convinced with the story which I’m going to tell to my customers. *What is happeneing in the market? *What is his/her problems? *What is their strength or weakness compared to conpetitors?
*What their customers, business partners, or their employee in need? *What is their solutions, what will be the path to better future?

I call the story as “Marketing Scenario”

The key to success is not to make a good sales, but share “Marketing Scenario”with customers where they can sympathize at.

I’ll conclude with uniqueness of sales work in Japan. As same as the character of politician in Japan, if you are the one with great humor and person with trust and strong attraction, you will have good relation with your customers, you should not be too logical, or strong attitude.
“Richard Wagoner type” or “Iacocca type” is most disliked with customers in Japan. I’m convinced they will make worst sales record in Japan.

Am I going to stright?

Toru san from Japan I thank you for your wisdom. Just wonderful to read the perspective from a person working the Japanese market. It shows us all that that while we are worlds away, some principals are the same