79% marketing leads never convert to sales.
Picture this:
Your marketing team generates vast quantities of leads while operating under a set of ambiguous and vague lead qualification procedures. Thus, keeping the quality of their generated leads a mystery.
The marketing team then keeps sending these new leads to the sales team for follow-ups and conversions even though only a small percentage of those leads actually want to make a purchase.
It doesn’t matter how perfect your sales team’s tactics are or how charming their pitch is, they would not be able to sell anything to the majority of those leads. The sales team puts all their hard work in calling and corresponding with hundreds of unqualified leads, wasting their precious time and your precious money.
This will lead to an inevitable conflict between the sales team and the marketing.
All these problems could have been averted if both the teams took time out to clearly define their lead qualification parameters.
Sending all new leads into the sales funnel without qualifying them screams disaster! Qualifying is gathering all insights necessary to make better judgments and only after properly qualifying a lead can a marketer know whether the lead is worth the time and effort it will take to sell to them.
Qualified Leads
There are three levels that all leads must be funneled through before getting considered as a “sales qualified” lead.
To increase the chances of leads becoming potential paying customers and increasing the customer base, a sufficient supply of quality leads need to be generated. Access to quality leads is one of the fundamental essentials that lead to business growth.
Information Qualified Lead (IQL)
A lead that provides their contact information in return for useful information can be categorized as an Information Qualified Lead. This prospect is at the beginning of their research process and usually doesn’t know your company or the solutions you provide.
Once the IQL provides their contact, your marketing automation platform will direct them to a thank you page that holds a link to download the offer and then they receive a follow-up email with the same download link. As the days go by, the lead will receive additional information that is related to the information they initially downloaded.
These leads are cold leads and have a very low priority when it comes to sales follow-ups. The marketing team can offer the lead the opportunity to learn more about your company and how you can help solve their problem.
Many IQLs will not move onto the next stage once they get their initial information.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
If the marketing team is successful in piquing the interest of the IQL in solving the problem they were researching for and they proceed to download company product information, then congratulations you have a Marketing Qualified Lead also known as a warm lead.
The marketer can either continue marketing to this lead providing more information about your company or he could guide the MQL to the decision stage by offering things like free trials, demos, free consultations, estimates/quotes or coupons.
In order to develop a proper definition to Marketing Qualified lead, the sales and marketing teams must work in alignment. Without a clear definition and a buy-in from both sides, the MQL stage won’t work out too well for your organization. To know whether your lead is sales-ready, the marketing and sales teams need to create a proper lead scoring system. Once it is deemed as sales opportunities, marketers need to properly qualify leads for sales, by using the right lead qualification framework.
Even though the alignment of the sales and marketing team is the hardest part of the process, it is a wise investment of time that will result in better-qualified leads, shorter sales cycles, and more sales quotas met.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
The Sales Qualified Lead is also called a hot lead as the faster the sales team follows up with the lead, the higher is the closing rate. The salesperson has a conversation with the lead that helps them determine whether it is an actual opportunity, even if it is not an immediate one then at least a potential one.
This gives the sales team more power as they are now aware of a real pain and an actual fit that they can address. This makes the lead sales qualified. Content needs to help your sales team close, drive home your organizational strengths and how they can best take advantage of those strengths to solve their problems. The content can include testimonials, product demos, free trials or coupons, case studies, and product or pricing sheets.
Managing MQLs and SQLs
In order to effectively manage all marketing qualified leads and Sales Qualified Leads, it is imperative that both the sales and marketing teams are well aligned. Both the teams need to be on the same page on their definition of a qualified lead and the path the visitor must take on your website in order to move from being an MQL and SQL to the final customer. They must also agree on a proper content strategy plan that gives different types of content to customers based on the stage they are at in the buying journey.
Productive sales reps, successful customers, time to close, and good forecasting are things that you can look at in your business that are indicators of a good qualifying process.
Let’s keep in touch
Don't miss out on the latest marketing tips and techniques, delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe today ... it's free!
Let’s keep in touch
Don't miss out on the latest marketing tips and techniques, delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe today ... it's free!
Let’s keep in touch
Don't miss out on the latest marketing tips and techniques, delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe today ... it's free!
61 Comments
This is my first visit to this blog. I am thinking about starting a brand new blog in the same category. Your site gave me some ideas to work with. (Dont worry, I wont be copying you :)) You have done a fantastic job.
Thanks for appreciating our work. Good luck with your blogs.
Well, I really liked your blog, it is in my bookmarks. I think my site you will like it too.
Thanks for following us. Do let us know what you would like to hear from us.
ok thank you
You are welcome.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the subject matter and found a good number of people will consent with your blog.
Thanks for your kind words.
I have wanted to write about something like this on my webpage and this has given me an idea. Cheers.
Hope it helped.
I was more than happy to seek out this site.I wanted to thank you for this nice read!! I definitely having fun with each little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. Anyway, in my language, there usually are not a lot good source like this.
Thanks for following us. Do let us know what you would like to hear from us.
Hello 😉 Thanks, heaps for this indeed!… if anyone else has anything, it would be much appreciated. Great website Just wanted to say thanks and keep doing what you’re doing Thx & Regards!
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. We are glad you liked our content. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
I like this article a lot. I will definitely be back. Hope that I can read more insightful posts then. Will be sharing your wisdom with all of my friends!
Dear Reader, thank you for taking out time to give us the feedback. We are delighted that you like our work. We look forward to empowering you with more powerful insights.
What I wouldnt give to have a debate with you about this. You just say so many things that arrive from nowhere that Im fairly certain Id have a fair shot. Your blog is wonderful visually, I mean people wont be bored. But others who can see past the videos and the layout wont be so impressed together with your generic understanding of this topic.
Dear Reader, thank you for taking out time to give us the feedback. We are delighted that you like our work. We look forward to empowering you with more powerful insights.
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. We look forward to empower you with more powerful insights.
This definitely is the next preference. You are the perfect, theme team. I really enjoy the system, fonts along the perfect subject. Thanks for a great value design. Great job!
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. We are glad you liked our content. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
This website is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask and my seotons. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. We are glad you liked our content. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Working every day by day I’m a lot more impressed by your post. Thanks for your personal efforts in expressing the following theme.
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. We are glad you liked our content. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Hey, nice to see you there is posting again yea? I like your post a lot seriously hook me up sometime dude
Dear Reader, thank you for your valuable feedback. We look forward to serving you with more power4ful insights.
Hi, great blog post. Infos are very useful and saves me a huge amount of time which I spend on something else instead of searching posts like this Thank you
Dear Reader, thank you for taking out time to write to us. We are glad you liked our content and that we are able to add value to you. Looking forward to serving you with more powerful insights.
Very nice post and right to the point. I don’t know if this is truly the best place to ask but do you folks have any idea where to employ some professional writers? Thank you
Dear Reader, thank you for your feedback. For any queries please reach out to us at info@valasys.com
Hi, I just read texts on your website and I became interested in the topic. I like your article and I am thinking whether I could use your words in my work? Would it be probable? If yes, please contact with me. Thank you.
Hi Wędki Sklep, thank you for writing to us. We are glad you liked our content. To answer your question, if you use our work you would have to properly site our blog link otherwise it would lead to a copyright infringement issue. Stay tuned for more valuable insights.
I usually don’t commonly post on many other Blogs, however, Thank you very much keep up the amazing work. Ok, regrettably it’s time to get to school.
Dear Reader, thank you for taking out time to write to us. We are glad you liked our content and that we are able to add value to you. Looking forward to serving you with more powerful insights.
You really make it appear so easy with your presentation however I find this topic to be really one thing that I think I would by no means understand. It sort of feels too complicated and very broad for me. I’m taking a look ahead for your subsequent put-up, I will attempt to get the grasp of it!
Dear Reader, thank you for taking out time to write to us. We are glad you liked our content and that we are able to add value to you. Looking forward to serving you with more powerful insights.
What I wouldn’t give to have a debate with you about this. You just say so many things that come from nowhere that I’m pretty sure Id have a fair shot. Your blog is great visually, I mean people won’t be bored. But others who can see past the videos and the layout won’t be so impressed with your generic understanding of this topic.
Hi Kawały,
Thanks for your kind words. I am so happy to hear that you liked the visuals of our blog. We constantly endeavor to improve our blog. Please be assured that I will definitely take care of the things we are missing out on, moving forward. Have a great day ahead.
This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw. Thanks for posting this informative article. Interesting Google?
Hi Sprzęt,
Hope we are doing well. Thanks for your kind words. We must admit that we are really grateful for your kind words. We constantly endeavor to make our website a great place to learn, so that we can add value to the life of our target audience groups. Keep tuned to our blogs and let us know how they resonate with you.
This is one awesome article post. Really thank you! Much obliged.
Dear Vezza, we are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
This info is worth everyone’s attention. When can I find out more?
Dear Adelaslater, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. You can subscribe to our website at https://www.valasys.com for more powerful insights.
Everyone loves it when individuals come together and share ideas. Great website, stick with it!
Dear Raquel, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Thanks for a marvelous posting! I really enjoyed reading it, you may be a great author. I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back at some point.
I want to encourage continue your great posts, have a nice day!
Dear Ethelmenzies, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Great blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your design. Many thanks
Dear Myrnahopee, the website design has been curated by our team. We are thrilled to know you liked our work. Stay tuned for more insights.
I’m going to inform my little brother, that he should also pay a quick visit to this website on regular basis to take updates on the latest gossip.
Dear Mollieesters, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Unquestionably imagine that which you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be at the net the easiest factor to consider of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed whilst people think about worries that they just do not recognize. You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest and also outlined out the whole thing with no need for side effects, people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
Dear Geraldine, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
fantastic submit, very informative. I wonder why the other experts in this sector don’t realize this. You should continue your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a great readers base already
Dear Zapico, thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to know that you liked our work. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.
Excellent post. I will be dealing with some of these issues as well…
Dear Rosie, thank you for taking out time to write to us. We are glad you liked our content and that we are able to add value to you. Looking forward to serve you with more powerful insights.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire a designer to create your theme? Exceptional work!
Dear Shoya, thank you for taking out time to write to us. We are glad you liked our content. We have an inhouse designer for all the website development related tasks. Stay tuned for more powerful insights.