Why sales rejects the leads you buy, and what changes it.
Sales rejects a lead when the first conversation finds a buyer who is not ready, or who cannot say what they were looking for. A standard lead record cannot warn you in advance. It shows who the buyer is, the asset they received and a tier, often set by a form or a survey answer.
What a standard lead tells your team
Who the buyer is, and that they downloaded a PDF. So the first call opens with "tell me about your maintenance challenges", and discovery starts from zero.
Illustrative example.
Three reasons leads are rejected
- The tier came from a form or a survey answer, not from what the buyer did.
- The buyer was still exploring and was passed to sales as ready.
- Nobody knew what the buyer had already read, so the first call started over.
What a lead needs to show
Shown by what the buyer did on the page
- the need, in the question they chose
- what they will judge the options on
- their role
- where they are in their research
Confirmed by a person, later
- the budget
- who signs
- the date
Measure lead quality the way sales does
Count the share of leads your sales team accepted, and the cost per accepted lead, not only the cost per lead. Ask for every rejection to come back with a reason code, so the next send can fix the cause.
Send each lead where it belongs
In a LensGlass program each buyer's research carries one of four research patterns, set by what the buyer did on the page, and each pattern points to what happens next.
| Pattern | What the buyer did | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Researching the problem | They have read about the problem. Nothing on solutions yet. | Stays in nurture |
| Setting requirements | They are exploring approaches and marking what must be true for them. | The research page offers criteria and checklists |
| Comparing suppliers | They are looking at suppliers or at the proof, not yet both in earnest. | The research page offers proof and references |
| Checking the proof | They have compared suppliers and opened or challenged the proof behind the claims. | Goes to your team, with what the buyer read |
Only the last goes to sales now, so your team's time goes to the buyers who are ready.