Consider the source of the sales lead and use that information to help prioritize your list of leads. A contact that was made at a trade show is more of a promising lead than a company that was pulled at random from a phone book. When processing new leads always find out what the source of the leads are so that the potentially hot prospects can be put at the top of a sales professional's list.

Enter each lead into a customer management software program that will help to keep the leads organized, and allow each person that contacts the leads to make notes on their conversations.

Begin to categorize prospects based on how they respond to initial calls from sales representatives. This can be done using the customer management software. Prospects that indicate a need to buy within the next six months gain priority over all other leads. Other qualifiers that can be used include customers who show some interest and have requested further information, customers who may have a need in the next 12 to 18 months and have requested a representative stay in touch with them and prospects that indicate little or no interest in your company's offering.

Research the hottest leads to see if there is any information on their company in the industry magazines, on the Internet or in the local or national newspapers. Information about upcoming projects for prospective customers can reveal a great deal about how hot a prospect really is.

Stay in contact with the hottest leads, and make detailed notes on your progress in the customer management software. Any prospect that continually puts off making a decision should be moved down the priority list and replaced with a new hot prospect.