Question: Congratulations — you just landed a job selling IT equipment to large corporations! You receive your first inbound lead, and you call the person who submitted it. You quickly realize that this person is a junior employee with no buying authority. What should you do?
- Respectfully answer their questions, then mark them as "unqualified" in your CRM and don't spend any more time on them.
- Treat them the same way you would treat your target persona because there's a good chance they're doing research for that person.
- End the call as quickly as possible because there's no reason to spend time talking to junior employees.
- Ask to talk to their supervisor and see if you can qualify that person as a lead.
Explanation
In HubSpot’s inbound sales strategy, an inbound lead should be handled based on context, interest, and possible connection to the buying process. A junior employee may be gathering information for someone involved in the purchase decision. Dismissing the person too early can block access to useful insight about the company’s goals and challenges. The helpful approach supports the connect phase by treating the conversation as a relevant buying signal.
Why the other options are incorrect
Mark as unqualified relies too heavily on authority and ignores potential influence in the buying process.
End the call conflicts with the helpful approach required for an inbound lead.
Ask for the supervisor skips over the current contact’s context and can create unnecessary friction.
Source for verification
https://academy.hubspot.com/lessons/inbound-sales-fundamentals
The answer(s) to the question is highlighted in the BOLD text above. You can also find more questions and answers related to the exams on the "HubSpot Inbound Sales Certification" page.