How to Qualify Sales Leads Automatically with Text Messaging

Last updated: February 25, 2022

Time practically stops when a lead doesn’t show for their appointment.

The frustration builds while you scroll through email or social media. You may get a hint of anxiety about the meeting invite, but your appointment scheduling software is working properly.

You close out the window after the obligatory 5-10 minutes, annoyed about the wasted time. Even more so if you reviewed the potential customer’s website or LinkedIn profile or built a list of tailored questions.

Unqualified sales leads waste time and pummel morale but are seen as a necessary hazard. Companies don’t have the cash to hire enough people (or can’t find the right people) to properly vet every lead.

Plus, your business might not have high enough margins to warrant many sales development representatives.

But you can overcome both obstacles on your way to filling your sales reps’ schedules with confirmed appointments for qualified leads. Let’s find out how.

How to Qualify a Sales Lead using Text Messaging

1. Require a Phone Number and Your Threshold Detail(s)

Don’t worry about adding the cell phone number request to your lead form. It’s a fair trade for asking someone to block time on their calendar.

But what’s your lead qualification threshold?

This could be as simple as providing a valid cell phone number to verify it’s a real human. In which case, the above means you’re done.

Other companies may need more details before devoting a paid resource’s time.

The key to a successful lead qualification program is to get enough buy-in from the lead to justify the time invested. The requirement of that justification scales with the particulars of your business like capacity, deal size, close rate, etc.

If there isn’t a point for you meeting with certain types of prospects (e.g. those with a budget under $5,000), gather that info with a drop-down menu on your form and keep your sales team focused on meetings that will bring in revenue.

2. Add Your Contacts to Sakari or Other Integrated CRMs

Step 2 isn’t complicated: Ensure the contacts’ information makes it into Sakari or whatever customer relationship management (CRM) system you are using. Many tools these days automate this step.

There are too many scenarios to cover here, but here’s a link to the how-to article for uploading bulk contacts to Sakari: https://support.sakari.io/hc/en-us/articles/360038871612-Bulk-Importing-Uploading-and-Editing-Contacts-in-Sakari

3. Schedule Appointment Confirmation Texts

Again, this step will be highly specific to your setup. If you have HubSpot and the Sakari integration, you can use a workflow based on the known appointment as our co-founder explains here.

Or you can use the schedule function within the Sakari platform to send out bulk text messages for appointment reminders once a day to the next day’s slate of meeting participants using this how-to post on scheduling texts.

There’s little stopping you from shedding the frustration of no-shows and wasted time. Combine the above with a smart SMS sales funnel to start seeing employee morale that will only be matched by your ever-raising close rate. Fill your sales team’s calendars with qualified leads and confirmed appointments by starting a 14-day free trial (No credit card required).