Usually it's because too much is hidden.
Not a SAS, but I once tapped an ad for redoing my shower. No prices, no way to know even approximately what it should cost.
I wanted more information, but I didn't want a phone call. I filled out the form asking for some high-level information on pricing, and that I didn't want a phone call.
Needless to say, the rep never responded to my inquiry.
But, put yourself in my situation: I don't want calls at random times of the day that are convenient to a salesman. I want to talk on the phone at a time that's convenient to ME, and only if I know the (ballpark) range of what you're selling costs. If a new shower costs $5k, and I won't be in a position to spend that for 18 months, I want to know that I should pick up the phone then, not now.
But low lead quality persists no matter what you do. It's just reality that lots and lots of people will request demos with zero buying intent. Sometimes people are just bored? Sometimes people are scamming? Sometimes people confuse you with a company that has a similar name (e.g. CSC [1] vs. CSC [2]). You'd be shocked how much traffic a SaaS company can get after some random government agency halfway across the world with a vaguely similar name appears in the local news.
It's actually a remarkable amount of work to take a list of N "high-intent" inbound leads, filter out the garbage, and get your ICPs on the phone.
[1] https://www.cscglobal.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Sciences_Corporation
No. It's. Not.
You get crap inbound because the process is frictionless.
> I wanted more information, but I didn't want a phone call. I filled out the form asking for some high-level information on pricing, and that I didn't want a phone call.
Needless to say, the rep never responded to my inquiry.
But, put yourself in my situation: I don't want calls at random times of the day that are convenient to a salesman. I want to talk on the phone at a time that's convenient to ME, and only if I know the (ballpark) range of what you're selling costs. If a new shower costs $5k, and I won't be in a position to spend that for 18 months, I want to know that I should pick up the phone then, not now.
I feel you. I really do. I've been in this position before. But until you operate a business at scale and see what absolute utter crap comes through the door, only then will you really understand what's behind the scenes.
Maybe if transparent pricing were posted, some people would choose not to submit, but it won’t stop all the crap from coming in.
You either:
1. Pay sales people to construct custom slices of services with custom prices and force them and your customers to hash it out via communication.
or
2. Commit to choose-your-own-adventure offerings where customers just check boxes and see pricing change in real time.
Option 1 retains negotiation advantage and makes more money for the company even though they pay sales people.
Option 2 removes sales people and gives up negotiation advantage, which customers would love.
Saying that, in the option 1 scenario, "crap" comes through the door because the process is frictionless is like saying a person died of suffocation instead of that they were strangled in a domestic dispute: there's a lot more going on.
Internet aside, it seems like those filter roles are much less likely to exist these days. Either you get someone who has no idea what's worth filtering, or you have to try to communicate with the expert directly and burn their time figuring out who's worth following up with.
It's not my fault I'm a "low quality lead" because you didn't put any pricing on your SaaS page and your price point is way outside what I'm willing to pay.
> Treat your customers as shit etc.
They aren't your customers unless they start paying you. That's the point.
Websites that put a cart online with a checkout process manage to get "customers" just fine. If you think you want to give everyone a custom quote then don't complain when people ask for one.
