Each activity you present to a prospect can have an element of qualification. Only the most highly qualified prospects should be routed to a company employee for personal attention—those deemed valuable enough to warrant the expenditure of human capital. While this extra qualification level may actually reduce the total quantity of leads or activity, it will increase meaningful business value and results versus time and resources expended.

Ideally, qualification criteria should be shared with your sales force for input. Once established and agreed upon by all, the potential for follow-up and associated accountability increases.

If a web site is structured properly, prospects show a higher degree of qualification as they move deeper into the web site. Each page, click, download or opt-in can be tracked; each tells you something about your prospect.

ClearGauge develops customer-centric and segmented lead generation or opt-in activities. Each activity results in prospects volunteering their contact information, or giving permission to be contacted. Examples of such options and activities can be:

• Opt-in for a Newsletter
• Opt-in for future info or details
• Opt-in to receive alerts
• Ask a question
• Request to be contacted
• Contact us
• Register for the site
• Register to download
• Register for certain content

These varying opportunities allow for prospects in different stages of the buy cycle and with different needs.

In order to validate the prospect providing information to the marketer, each activity should have a specific focus, convey a strong value proposition and provide a strong sense of value exchange.

Lead qualification activities focus on learning more about a prospect to determine their value to your business. These activities can be used as stand-alone elements, be combined with the above lead generation/opt-in activities, or funnel into more lead generation/opt-in activities at a later time.

Regardless of the method, sufficient qualification should occur before a lead gets handed off to a company representative for follow up.

ClearGauge develops the following types of stand-alone qualification:

• Needs Analysis
• Specification or Product Feature Analysis/Comparison
• Segmentation Identification Activities