In that case, I’m with you all the way. Selling lists as “qualified leads” is a joke… and a big waste of time and money for the companies that are chasing those qualified leads. I totally agree that throwing out leads that don’t quite fit the Ideal Client profile is a mistake. Of course, it’s also a mistake to leave those leads in the database and do nothing with them. They’ve gotta be warmed and nurtured if the company holds any real hope of converting those leads over time.

Thanks for your post, Joanne. I love your stuff and find myself nodding in agreement when I read your articles.

Thanks for writing about my article. Let me clear up a misconception. I do not promote companies throwing people out of their database because they’re not qualified. What I do promote is companies carefully determining who matches their Ideal Client profile and crafting strategies to reach that audience.

What sends me over the top is companies who sell lists and market these lists as “qualified leads.” They’re not qualified. They’re just names. And salespeople spend a lot of valuable time trying to reach “names.”

Hope that helps.

So, how do smart companies drive down the cost per contact? My answer is they can do it through elegent, automated follow-up marketing. It’s like motion-sensor marketing: when a prospect takes a certain action, that action is detected, logged in the database and the customer is put into an automated communication sequence that’s tailored to the customer based on the customer’s interaction with the company.

Of course, my solution to driving down cost per additional contact is biased because this is exactly what our software does for our customers. But it’s the best way I know of to turn more trash into leads.

Example: The primary reason e-mail spam continues is its ridiculously low cost. If the average spammer had to pay even a penny for each e-mail, you’d find those lists of millions of people who “may buy someday” chopped down to eliminate those with minimal likelihood of purchasing, which is what I believe Joanne Black is saying. (Please don’t take this as equating marketing and spam).

In my opinion, the determination between “trash” and “leads” is the cost of additional contact.