MQLs and SQLs help sales and marketing departments decide who does what in the process of coaxing a lead into becoming a customer. If a lead is considered marketing qualified, they will be approached indirectly to further nurture the connection instead of turning them off with pushy vibes. When the lead is sales qualified, on […]
MQLs and SQLs help sales and marketing departments decide who does what in the process of coaxing a lead into becoming a customer. If a lead is considered marketing qualified, they will be approached indirectly to further nurture the connection instead of turning them off with pushy vibes. When the lead is sales qualified, on the other hand, they will be contacted directly by a salesperson. But first, it’s important to be clear on how you’re categorizing the lead.
What is the difference between MQL and SQL?
The basic difference between marketing qualified leads and sales qualified leads is that they show certain intent signals. Put simply, an intent signal indicates that a business might have some level of interest in buying your product–and an SQL demonstrates more interest than an MQL.
Why “might have”? Because some intent signals, such as firmographic data, come from companies that may not have even heard of your product. Yet they are considered potential buyers because they fit your ideal customer profile, and could at some point consider your product.
So, would you call up a senior purchasing officer based only on the fact that they are in your target industry? Probably not. Instead, you’ll want to see first that they at least know about you. And that’s where the magic of marketing funnels happens.
What comes first, MQL or SQL?
Many marketing and sales departments use a funnel framework as a way to figure out the best course of action according to the lead’s place in the funnel. The theory of the funnel is this:
The closer a lead gets to the bottom, the greater the chance they have of making a purchase, so the more accepting they will be of direct contact from a salesperson.
“Accepting” is a critical word here. Do you hate it when telemarketers call you during dinner? That’s the way a lot of corporate managers feel about unsolicited sales calls. In fact, according to a Lusha survey, when a salesperson makes a poorly targeted outreach:
- 29% of companies are put off and become reluctant to do business with the company.
- 9% of companies are actually turned off and will tell friends and colleagues that your company tends to step over the line.
These stats put the salesperson in a tough spot – you want to take advantage of a situation where people seem interested in your product, but don’t want to come off as aggressive – or worse, desperate. The solution is to gradually grow their interest by:
- Nurturing awareness and engagement via marketing activities
- Acting upon strong intent signals and conversion opportunities through sales activities
When to convert an MQL to an SQL
When it comes to setting rules for when leads are handed off from marketing to sales, there is a bit of a gray area. Let’s look at a scenario.
A lead has downloaded a product information PDF, which is part of your marketing department’s initiatives. To get that material, they provided a contact name and email address. Is it time for marketing to let sales know about this contact so that sales will send them an email about a demo? Maybe not:
- Perhaps you’ve got many competitors, and it’s logical for prospective buyers to do a lot of research before asking for a demo.
- This is the lead’s first direct engagement with you, and you think it would be a good idea to wait for another sign to confirm they are still interested after reading the material.
- Maybe they are just building their professional knowledge and have no intention of buying right now.
So, based on these hunches, you instead decide to send them a flow of personalized emails with links to more of your content, which is another marketing initiative. A month later, after they have downloaded a few more pieces of content, they click on the CTA, and the lead gets sent to sales for an immediate follow up. Boom!
This example illustrates the three resources that you’ll use to convert MQLs to SQLs:
- A set of marketing campaigns and assets that provide information and opportunities for engagement
- A means of collecting intent data from people who interact with your marketing efforts
- A lead scoring model that grades the data to determine what decides that the lead stays with marketing (to receive more content, or other further nurturing) or gets sent to the sales department
Over time, you’ll discover which kinds of MQLs end up as customers once they become SQLs, and revise your lead scoring accordingly.
How to move from an MQL to an SQL
Most of the time, your lead scoring system will tell you when to move someone up to sales qualified, so that they get contacted by sales. At other times, the lead makes a move by asking for a salesperson to get in touch, which makes them sales qualified as well. When these situations happen, converting the lead from a marketing target to a sales target depends on your inbound sales outreach techniques. These can include:
Emails
A good email can work in “cold” situations, so a “warmer” lead that has been qualified for sales should have even better conversion odds. Important considerations for an effective email outreach include:
- A subject line that is persuasive, short (44 characters or less), and reflects your value proposition
- Personalized greeting
- Email text that strikes a good balance between details and length
- A CTA that stands out visually and has a clear message
- A specific contact person (not “please call the sales team”)
Phone calls
Like emails, the right calling techniques can warm up the coldest leads – and for an SQL, even more so. Best practices for successful sales calls include:
- Researching the lead to build a customized pitch
- Finding the best time of day for a call
- Having a tried and true script
Social media
LinkedIn is a great medium for identifying individual leads that have engaged with your marketing activities. Once they leave their name through your lead generation process, it takes seconds to look them up and send them an InMail if they’re on LinkedIn. However, for multiple leads, using a sales intelligence platform saves you valuable time, especially when you need their exact contact info so you can reach out another way.
Key takeaways
- MQLs are leads that show a lower level of intent compared to SQLs.
- A lead usually starts off as an MQL and, after interacting with marketing initiatives, becomes an SQL when they are contacted by someone in the sales department.
- Moving a lead from MQL to SQL can happen through phone calls, emails, or connecting through social media.
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