That looks like a good lead, let's follow it

Letterhead deception…By and large SMEs having web presence or participating in various trade fairs in India and abroad are likely to receive international inquiries related to their products. It is also seen that most of themdetermine the importance of the inquiries by the style of the corporate letterhead on which they received the query or the flash being run on the websites of the prospective buyer. Four-colour shiny graphics receive utmost attention. Plainly designed stationery was literally thrown out. Even the seniority of the personnel sending query through the mail gets priority in terms of promptness as well as quality of the response. It is further to be noted here that we are still talking about the leads on virtual or hardcopy and nothing in person.

You can imagine the professional consequences of this willingness to be impressed by snappy presentations at the expense of substance as well as the opportunity cost of becoming too involved with such queries at the cost of other serious and important issues. Little did they know that most large, sophisticated and extremely busy companies typically communicate on whatever piece of paper they have at that moment.They generally use no more than about 10 words. It is further to be added that particularly on the internet practically the lead does not have a face. Another important point to remember is that on the internet everyone is a suspect requiring to be qualified as a prospect first. This qualification requires a minimum touch base on phone or other communication forums like skype etc. Nowadays you may also check the authenticity of the lead by asking their social network profile on linkedin, facebook twitter etc.

Falling into your competitor’s trap…  It has also been noticed that at times your competitor is intruding into your system as a prospect and gaining all relevant information about your specifications, prices terms etc. If you react alike to all the incoming mails with impressive designing or senior designations then you are just falling prey to their trap.

A few tips…So here are few tips on how to ensure that you are really working on an authentic lead than just any other email.

1. Ask for all contact coordinates before giving any information about your offering to the suspect.
2. Ask someone in your office to make a call to the contact number provided.
3. Visit the website mentioned in the coordinates. At times the website address is given in the email id e.g info@suruchiconsultants.com has www.suruchiconsultants.com as the website URL.
4. Ask for the complete details of requirements before quoting as at times the full quote may not be required and could be limited to a small clarification.
5. If the prospective buyer is available in the nearby proximity then try meeting him once before rendering any other further information.
6. Often smart purchase executives send queries to all potential suppliers, so don’t treat leads as the final one.

The ultimate objective is to establish the authenticity of the lead in one way or the other before investing your valuable time in making the offers with complete details.