Understanding processes correctly is vital to the success of sales in particular. This fact becomes obvious when you analyze the sales process. The entry points for any pipeline are leads – “unprocessed” contacts with contact details on prospective customers. Every lead can potentially result in an opportunity. We have experienced a fundamental change in leads in recent times with the Internet.

Businesses often had a difficult time in the past getting hold of sales leads. A lot of money was invested to do so. A good example is the practice of participating in international trade shows, where businesses invested a great deal of time and money. Those days now belong to the past.

Many businesses nowadays no longer have any difficulty generating leads. The key is to separate the wheat from the chaff among the myriad leads. Leads therefore have to be correctly evaluated for the sales organization. This is the basis for enabling sales to make a successful “entry” and shape the sales process. Prerequisites for customers and for businesses ultimately differ with respect to interest, budget, strategic perspective, and much more depending on the type of lead involved. All of this has tangible economic consequences.

The question arising for the company is three-fold: How much time should sales invest in leads? How expensive and arduous is the entire sales process? And how long does that process last? The rule of thumb is that the less time it takes to lead customers through the sales process, the better.