How to rank your leads list

Let's say you'd like to kick off an outbound sales and marketing campaign targeting a new vertical.

We'll use residential plumbers as our example.

By now, it's likely you already know there are approximately 125,000 plumbing businesses in the US (Source: IBISWorld)

Now you need a list of plumbing businesses to go outbound to.

Finding a list of plumbing businesses is pretty straightforward.

List brokers, freelancers on Fiverr, and many others will gladly sell you a list (no options are great, imho).

Once you get your list, you'll want to rank the plumbing businesses that are most likely to:

1. be suffering from the pain your product solves

2. benefit from your product

3. afford your product

What is the best way to do that?

You guessed it! Talk to your current plumbing customers.

Once you have a profile of an ideal plumbing business customer, prioritize your list so you only go outbound to them (and forget the rest).

But before you do...you'll need an ideal seller to start reaching out.

More on this tomorrow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn't just having a list of businesses in a target vertical enough to launch outbound?

Because not all leads on that list are equally likely to convert. A list of 125,000 plumbing businesses, for example, still needs to be ranked and prioritized before outreach begins.

What three factors should be used to prioritize leads within a new vertical?

Whether they're likely suffering from the pain the product solves, whether they'd benefit from the product, and whether they can actually afford it, all three combining to reveal the best-fit leads worth prioritizing.

Why isn't buying a list from brokers or freelancers described as a great option?

Because purchased lists tend to be broad and unfiltered, lacking the specific qualification needed to identify which leads actually fit the ideal profile within the target vertical.

What's the best way to actually figure out which leads to prioritize?

Talking to current customers within that same vertical, using their profile to build a picture of the ideal customer, then prioritizing the broader lead list against that same profile.

What comes next after prioritizing the lead list based on this ideal customer profile?

Finding an ideal seller to actually start reaching out, a next step in the outbound process planned for the following day's continuation of this topic.