If you’re looking for a lead qualification tool to help you generate more qualified leads, then this post is for you.
We’re going to cover the three best lead qualification tools.
But first, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Using the wrong tool or doing things incorrectly can potentially devastate your conversion rate, kill your funnel, and drive up your cost-per-acquisition.
For that reason, you don’t want to use just any lead qualification tool. You want to choose one that does its job without obliterating conversions.
And that’s what we’ll be focusing on in this post — the three best lead qualification tools that will not only help you generate highly qualified leads but that will also increase conversions.
Let’s jump right in!
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The Cost of Using the Wrong Lead Qualification Tool
Qualifying a lead can be immensely helpful for greeting better leads.
And better leads typically result in higher close rates, more revenue, and happier clients.
But, using a lead qualification tool often comes at a cost if it’s used ineffectively. Or, if you use the wrong tool, conversion rates could drop, faster than a bitcoin dump.
As a result, there’s an underlying fear among many marketers when looking at potential lead qualification tools. And it’s completely understandable.
After all, seeing a dramatic drop in conversions might defeat the purpose of using one of these tools in the first place.
Rather than providing you with a huge list of platforms and overwhelming you with suggestions, we’re strictly covering the top three that, in our opinion, are the best of the best with an emphasis on converting.
So if you were wondering why this isn’t a massive list of 20 or more lead qualifications tools, that’s why.
In addition, the recommendations below are categorized into three groups:
- Lead qualification forms
- Lead qualification chatbots
- Lead qualification and routing software
On that note, let’s dive into the heart of this post.
1. GetLeadForms: The Best Forms for Lead Qualification
If you’re looking to do a better job of qualifying your leads with your forms then GetLeadForm is for you.
GetLeadForms is a user-friendly tool that allows you to easily build multi-step forms for your website with zero coding.
If you want to create professional multi-step forms without getting bogged down with the technical side of things, GetLeadForms is an excellent solution.
We’re also a little biased because we built it (because all of the other form tools out there fall short when it comes to lead qualification).
One of the key features is a comprehensive list of pre-built templates for a wide variety of industries that can be fully customized for your specific demographic.
How to qualify a lead using GetLeadForms
To show you just how easy GetLeadForms makes it to qualify a lead, here’s an example of a template for the roofing industry.
First, a visitor starts off by narrowing down what type of quote they’re looking for.
Then they provide their ZIP code…
Contact info…
Inquiry details…
And so on. You can grab this exact template here.
This allows you to efficiently gather key information, send prospects down the right paths based on their responses, filter out unqualified leads, and ask specific questions to the qualified leads, segmenting them every step of the way.
Note that GetLeadForms works best for service businesses such as roofing and plumbing, legal, and B2B SaaS, and you can pick the exact template that matches your industry.
When it comes to lead qualification with GetLeadForms, there are two notable features that stand out, which other form tools do not offer.
Drop-Off Mode
Let’s say someone arrives on your site, fills out part of your form, but doesn’t finish it.
Instead, they drop off and leave your site.
With many other tools, this would mean you’ve lost the lead forever.
But with drop-off mode with GetLeadForms, you can still collect vital information like email addresses and phone numbers to enable lead nurturing even if the entire form isn’t completed.
Further, you can leverage built-in analytics to see where leads are dropping off so you can optimize your forms to turn more clicks into leads.
OTP Phone Verification
In another post, we mentioned that roughly a quarter of all leads processed are invalid. And about 30% of invalid leads are because of an incorrect or fake phone number.
It’s a serious problem and one that can quickly take a toll on your lead quality, resulting in calling a ton of bad phone numbers.
Fortunately, one-time-password (OTP) phone verification is a simple solution to verify the phone number for a lead and only requires a few basic steps.
First, a visitor enters their phone number when filling out a form.
Then, a four-digit PIN code is sent to that phone number, which they can then enter into the lead form to verify it.
Once the PIN has been verified, the prospect can move on with the rest of the process.
This is one of the best ways to efficiently qualify leads without creating unnecessary friction.
Not only does it prevent incorrect or fake phone numbers, it also protects against spam and ensures a high level of lead intent to filter out unqualified leads.
After all, if someone goes through with verifying their phone number, it likely means they have a strong level of interest in your business.
When it comes to price, GetLeadForms is extremely affordable compared to many other options. You can create a fully customized multi-step form without shelling out big money to a developer or spending top dollar like with many other tools.
A basic Starter plan is only $47 a month. In many cases, even getting one or two leads will pay for an entire year of GetLeadForms.
You can find full pricing info here.
Finally, this is a white-labeled lead qualification tool.
So if you’re part of an agency, you can fully white-label it for rebranding with no issues.
When you put it all together, this makes GetLeadForms the best form lead qualification tool pound for pound.
Ready to build high-converting lead qualifications forms? Grab your free trial here.
2. Drift: Best Chatbot for Lead Qualification
Drift is an incredibly robust platform that allows businesses to qualify and connect with leads through multiple mediums such as chat, email, and video.
It has a ton of features, but one of the most notable is the custom chatbot software you can use to accelerate lead qualification by facilitating the right conversation at the right time in the buyer’s journey.
Prospects are prompted to speak with a chatbot when visiting your website and receive specific messages based on their engagements, which kills two birds with one stone.
First, it helps qualify leads so you can identify those with strong buying intent and those that still need nurturing.
The ones who need nurturing can be sent appropriate content to move them further down the funnel.
However, those with strong buying intent can be passed off to a sales rep.
Here’s an example.
A prospect explores a product, checks out pricing information, and gets prompted to schedule a conversation.
The prospect then connects with an account manager who can provide assistance and strike while the iron is hot.
Or, a chatbot can pre-qualify prospects and offer to schedule a meeting with no hassle.
This is a win-win because prospects can conveniently find a time slot that fits their schedule and sales reps get leads served up on a silver platter.
As you might imagine, this can have a big impact on conversions, which is why we wanted to include Drift in this sales lead qualification list.
The only issue with Drift is that it can be quite expensive.
Currently, the most affordable option costs $2,500 a month, which adds up to a staggering $30,000 a year. That’s pretty expensive, right?
So while Drift is an excellent product that hits all the marks on the lead qualification checklist, it’s simply not realistic for many smaller businesses with limited budgets. We have found that Drift is usually best for enterprise SaaS businesses. If you have the budget and are looking for effective chatbot software, then Drift is the best option on the market, hands down.
3. Chili Piper: Best Lead Qualification and Routing Software
Our next example isn’t quite a form tool and it’s not a chatbot, it’s advanced scheduling and routing software.
Let us start by saying Chili Piper is far less expensive than Drift and is more in line with GetLeadForms in terms of price point.
If you felt a little sticker shock at the cost of Drift, you’ll be relieved to know Chili Piper is much more affordable and offers plans with lead qualification features for as low as $20 — just keep in mind that it’s also a little different than both tools.
When it comes to specific sales lead qualification solutions, there are two you’ll be interested in.
One is Form Concierge, which in their own words, “does the hard work for you — instantly qualify, route, and book meetings for your sales team from your existing form.”
Here’s how it works.
First, you connect Chili Piper with your web form and calendar.
Next, after setting up customized routing rules, Chili Piper will automatically qualify leads based on those rules and send them to the appropriate sales rep who’s available.
This means two things.
One is that leads have to meet the right criteria to be handed off to a sales rep. Otherwise, they can be nurtured to ensure your team is only following up with leads with a strong intent to purchase.
The other is that it reduces a lot of friction with scheduling.
For example, the initial rep Chili Piper was going to assign a lead to was sick or on vacation, the software would automatically assign the lead to a different rep that had availability.
In turn, this helps keep things flowing so you can capitalize on leads while they’re hot without overwhelming your team.
Besides that, Chili Piper offers a CRM auto-sync feature that will automatically place contact information and meeting records into your CRM, which is a nice touch.
The other Chili Piper solution of interest is called Distro.
There’s some overlap with Form Concierge in that it qualifies and routes leads to appropriate reps.
But rather than grabbing leads from forms, it focuses on webinar and content leads.
So if a large percentage of your leads are generated through webinars and content, Distro is certainly a solution worth considering.
One last thing worth noting about Chili Piper is that it offers a ton of integrations, including Gravity Forms, Leadpages, and HubSpot just to name a few.
This means the chances are good that it will sync with the existing platform you’re using.
And as we mentioned before, Chili Piper is an affordable lead qualification tool and easily scalable, which makes it great for many smaller businesses that are growing.
However, it should be noted that Chili Piper only lets you connect to existing web forms you’ve already created and it looks best suited for B2B revenue and demand generation teams.
So if you’re looking for a tool that allows you to conveniently build multi-step web forms, Chili Piper won’t be the best solution.
And it definitely might not be the best solution if you’re generating service-based leads like: plumbing, mortgage, or personal injury leads.
In that case, you’d likely be better off with GetLeadForms, which offers built-in lead generation forms.
Closing Thoughts: Choosing the Right Lead Qualification Tool
Lead qualification tools can be immensely helpful in improving the quality of your inbound leads to ensure your sales team or your clients are devoting your time, energy, and resources to the right leads.
But as we mentioned earlier, there’s a fear among many marketers that picking the wrong tool or incorrectly using a tool can wreck your conversion rates.
That’s why for this list we specifically focused on tools that allow you to effectively qualify leads without adversely impacting conversions.
We also intentionally kept it super simple, only discussing the top three lead qualification tools that are the best of the best, rather than overwhelming you with a ton of choices.
To recap, GetLeadForms is a fantastic form lead qualification tool that’s ideal if you want to painlessly build multi-step forms without having to deal with coding.
Drift is good if you want a highly robust platform that lets you qualify leads and initiate outreach through several mediums. But given its high cost, it’s not usually feasible for most smaller businesses with minimal budgets.
And Chili Piper is good if you have an existing form and want to route leads to the right reps while streamlining scheduling or want to send reps leads from webinars and other forms of content. It’s best for B2B demand generation teams.
Here are some additional resources to help:
- Build high-converting lead qualifications forms. Start your free trial today.
- Check out our multi-step form templates
- See 14 examples of high-converting lead gen forms
