Salesforce.com released interesting data on the quality of leads and how fast they convert to deals. The data shows that leads coming from referrals have the shortest sales cycle and the highest percentage to close. Social media referrals/leads came in 2nd. Surprisingly, leads coming from tradeshow events and marketing and advertising were low on the scale in terms of converting to actual clients.
The reason being a referral and social media work so well is that the relationship begins on Trust. A cold call, website, or even tradeshow lead does not begin on Trust. Trust must first be established before the customer is willing to truly engage.

Reducing Objections Through Building Trust

Howard Stevens writes in the book Achieve Sales Excellence that there are 4 key criteria buyers use when deciding to make a buying decision and the percentage weight given in that buying decision. Those are:

1) Sales Rep's Competence - the ability to build trust and add value - 39% of the decision

2) Total Solution offered - products, services, bundled solutions, etc. - 22% of the decision

3) Total Quality - company and product/service reputation of quality - 21% of the buying decision

4) Price - what the customer will pay - 18% of the decision