When to Purge Old Leads From Your B2B Company's Sales Pipeline

You shouldn't keep old leads in your B2B company's sales pipeline forever. Allowing old and stagnant leads to go unchecked can result in a congested sales pipeline. They will clog up your B2B company's sales pipeline while diverting time and resources away from other, higher quality leads. When should you purge old leads from your B2B company's sales pipeline exactly?

Unresponsive

Unresponsive leads should typically be purged. A lead is considered unresponsive if he or she doesn't respond to your communications. Once you've acquired a lead, you'll want to reach out to him or her as soon as possible. You can use different communication channels, such as emailing and cold calling, and you can try to contact the prospect multiple times. Regardless, if a lead is unresponsive -- and you don't believe he or she will become responsive -- you should consider purging that lead from your B2B company's sales pipeline.

Duplicates

You may come across old leads that are duplicates. Research shows that up to 30% of all leads in the B2B industry are duplicates. Duplicate leads, of course, are those that appear multiple times in your B2B company's database. They are often the result of human error. A marketer may generate a lead, and a different marketer may generate the same lead consisting of the same prospect. You should only keep a single instance of any given lead in your B2B company's database. If you discover any duplicates, purge them for a cleaner database.

Invalid or Incomplete

Some old leads may consist of invalid or incomplete information. They may contain the name of a prospect, for instance, but not his or her phone number or email address. And with only the prospect's name, you won't be able to contact the prospect to pitch your B2B company's product or service. Old leads with invalid or incomplete information such as this should be purged.

6 Months or Older

A good rule of thumb is to purge leads that are at least six months ago. If you generated a lead over six months ago and haven't yet converted him or her into a buyer, you may want to remove the lead from your B2B company's databases. Leads older than six months have little or no chance of converting. Keeping them will divert resources away from other leads without driving any sales for your B2B company. Along with unresponsive, duplicates and leads with invalid or incomplete information, you should purge leads that are six months or older.