Once this profile criteria is established, your organization will have a much clearer picture of who your hottest prospects actually are, and where to best direct your energies.

Your newly defined lead profile will also open some eyes. Chances are that you will find significant gaps when evaluating your existing leads and what you now deem as the most actionable and qualified leads. To fill these lead qualification gaps, here is how you can utilize direct marketing as an extension of your sales force.

Filling information gaps.
One of the basic assumptions behind any lead qualification effort is that prospect information exists. On the most fundamental level a company name and mailing address are known.

It is important to note that in most cases, your prospect information doesn’t need to be gathered as much as it needs to be enhanced.

To accomplish this information enhancement, a combination of multichannel communications is generally recommended including direct mail, email and search engine marketing, as well as banner and print ads.

Meeting campaign objectives.
When it comes to lead qualification, and successful direct marketing campaign accomplishes two primary objectives.

1. Begin a dialog.
   The first objective of your multichannel direct communications is to begin a dialogue with prospects. This dialogue can often preempt a sales call, and provide the sales force with a reason to make a call. The sales force should be prepared with talking points that they can reference from the direct marketing efforts. This can help accelerate the selling process by reinforcing relevant benefits of your product.
2. Inspire action.
   The second objective of your campaign is to inspire action. This involves either getting prospects to actually purchase your product or enticing them to volunteer valuable information about themselves.

Motivating with incentives.
In direct marketing, simply reaching prospects or generating awareness is never enough.

Direct marketing communications that drive lead qualification must resonate on a meaningful level and inspire prospects to take action. This includes convincing prospects to actively volunteer information about themselves and their business needs. However, there has to be a reason for any prospect to open up.

Generating action requires a give and take approach. Prospects need to feel as if they are getting something of genuine value for the information that they are volunteering. This is where an incentive serves as the critical motivator.