The 8 Worst Sales Leads You Can Possibly Get

Leads. They’re either a salesperson’s lifeline, or the bane of their existence. Many salespeople don’t even get leads and are expected to prospect independently, but those that do know how dependent they are on a lead’s quality.

If your sales career depends on leads to survive, then you know the struggle of a bad lead all too well. Here are the eight worst sales leads you can possibly get:

1. The recycled lead

This lead is the one that keeps popping up even though you’ve already called them a thousand times, and everyone in the office has called it too. Don’t worry, even if you mark it as “not interested” it will be back in front of you in no time.

2. The lead who isn’t even in the market 

This lead is awful because the person who you’re calling has absolutely no use for your services. A lead for a mortgage for someone who doesn’t own or want to own a house, a lead for advertising for someone who doesn’t own a business etc. It’s a complete waste of time.

3. The unreachable lead

You can call this lead, e-mail them, show up to their house, show up to their job but you will never get in contact with them, ever. This lead is literally impossible to reach. The unreachable lead.  If anything can help you reach this lead, it’s Spiro, the AI-powered sales automation CRM that reminds you who to call, and when.

4. The incomplete lead

This lead stinks because the most important stuff is missing. Everything that’s filled out looks promising and you get your hopes up until you realize that there’s no contact information at all. It’s depressing.

5. The angry lead

This is the lead who picks up the phone or meets with you and proceeds to tear you a new one. The reason why this lead is so bad is because not only are you unlikely to get their business, they will also put you in a bad mood.

6. The fake lead

This lead is the worst, because it’s just someone messing with you. You’re excited because you get a new lead and want to make a sale, and then you look at the name and it’s “Harry Chest” who you can reach at 617-000-0000, or by e-mail at fake@fake.com.

7. The “accidental” lead

This type of lead is bad because the people who filled it out claim that they did it by accident. This could be because it was part of an email capture campaign that wasn’t clear on where the information was going, but it’s an uphill climb to get them to listen to you, although the best salespeople may be able to get something out of it.

8. The imaginary lead

These are by far the most confusing sales leads you can get, because the person who filled it out swears up and down that they did no such thing, and demands to know how you got their contact information. Many of them are faking and actually did fill it out but refuse to acknowledge it, while others might just have a very short memory.

We hope you don’t get too many of these worst sales leads this quarter!