It’s a fact of life that not all business leads are created equal. Most businesses buying leads would very much like all the enquiries they get to be looking to make a purchase there and then.

And, obviously, I can understand that mentality. Nevertheless, enquiries come in for all stages of the purchasing process. It is your job, as a businessman, to address the needs of all prospects so that when they reach the end of the buying cycle, it is your name that is foremost in their mind.

As someone who is involved in selling leads in the business to business sector, this is one of the most difficult things to get across to clients. After all, they are paying us for leads and some of the leads we provide are from companies who are six months away from making a purchasing decision.

Companies at the beginning of their buying cycle need to be nurtured and coaxed towards the ‘right’ decision. At the earliest stages, an introductory phone call and email or literature introducing your company should be sufficient. However, as someone looking for business, you need to offer hand-holding and make yourself available as the prospect moves through the decision making stages.

Maybe your prospect has a directors meeting scheduled to discuss how to move forward. You need to be aware of such stations on the road to a purchasing decision and offer impartial advice (yes, for free) that can assist in that process. Real, practical advice and problem solving is what companies who are early on in the buying cycle need - not hard sell.

If you can keep in casual but useful contact with your prospect over the time it takes their company to come to a decision, then you will be well placed to convert that client when the time comes.

In some cases, of course, it may be your own business process that is causing a problem.

For example, we offer leads for accountants as one of our services. Inevitably, we receive a fairly high number of enquiries from brand new companies who want an accountant. Some of these have only just started trading and, so, their end of financial year is up to 12 months away.

The problem from our client accountants point of view is that this can mean they receive no income from acquiring these new companies as clients until the following year. To my mind, however, this is a flaw in the accountants’ own business. Surely, there are enough value added accountancy services (bookkeeping, paye, payroll, etc.) that the accountant can monetise these newly formed businesses quickly.

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