First, let’s talk about the LEAD stage. This is when a prospect has been IDENTIFIED as someone who would make a great client or partner for your company. You do not know this person, or the company per se but you have examined their business and you believe that they could benefit from your product or services.
Its important to spend some time on developing your leads and not simply slap together a list of names from some list that you have acquired or imported to Salesforce. The more you scrutinize the leads you assemble the better your pipeline will perform overall. If you have parameters that targets need to meet in order to qualify as a client, spend the time and look for those qualities now, before naming a company a lead.
KNOW why that lead is a good fit. Are they in the right industry for your product or service? Are they the right size of company? And do they seem to be demonstrating the qualities and activities that you would normally see from a company that would be interested in what you have to say.
Are they an inquiry or a cold call? When you ACT, be sure to attribute your source from the beginning so that you know how to find more GEMS just like it, if that is indeed what you have found.