Introduction to Sales-Qualified Leads
“Bam! Converted”. That is what you want to hear from your sales team. It is the sound of your Sales-Qualified leads converting into a potential customer. The customer must have gone through quite an arduous process. But through your team’s hard work, dedication, and grit, they won over the client and transformed them into a potential customer.
To be converted into one of your prospects is the goal. Yet the question remains: How do we get there? The answer to that lies in your marketing and sales team working hand-in-hand to transform your Marketing-Qualified leads into Sales-Qualified leads.
Easy, right? But alas, there are many roadblocks to a lead conversion. It needs to be relevant to your specifications, and you need to be relevant to them.
Come, let’s find out how to nurture an SQL to completion. And how your sales and marketing teams need to align to achieve it.
What are SQLs?
In sales and marketing, SQLs mean Sales-Qualified leads. These are accounts or people that have shown deep interest in your product and your offers. They have, by their behavior, shown active interest in checking out whether your service/product is the right fit for them.
This behavior is thoroughly monitored by the marketing teams and sent to sales for further nurturing and eventual closure.
Why do Sales-Qualified leads matter?
Closing and transforming leads is the lifeblood of a business. But you cannot chase every lead possible. Marketing will generate 100s of MQLs. Should we chase all of them? No, but we can filter hundreds of leads and find a few that we can be sure will convert.
After all, no matter how well-funded a sales team is, they still need to work on a fixed timeline.
To make the sales team’s job accurate, MQLs need to qualify into SQL. Signifying that a lead is a worthy pursuit, and conversion will happen with the right steps. SQL matters because it increases accuracy and conversions.
How does an MQL qualify as an SQL?
Thinking of converting your Search-Qualified Leads is good. But how do you find your right fit? Every organization will have different criteria for what qualifies as a sales lead! Luckily, we have a universal metric that can be quantified: Data.
Your business will generate a lot of MQLs.
For example, imagine we go on SEMrush’s page and check their content, webinars, tools, and templates.
All a valuable MQL would do. And SEMrush’s marketing team picks us up, telling their marketing team Hey, we found this really good lead. They have ticked all of the boxes.
But it turns out we are a student getting into SEO for the first time.
According to this report in Adobe’s blog, 2019: 61% of marketers send all of their leads to sales even though only 27% of those leads qualify.
Irrelevant leads will not work for a company that needs to precisely target decision-makers in vast organizations.
That’s why sales and marketing should carefully analyze which leads will qualify. Here are a few frameworks that will help your MQLs qualify for the sales funnel.
Lead Scoring
The easiest way is to create a robust scoring method for your leads through each qualification.
For example, your MQL signs up for a newsletter = +1 point
They sign up for a webinar = +3 points
They ask for a free demo = +7 points.
And you can create an aggregate of these scores. They can be out of 20, or 30, or any n number that you decide. Creating a multidimensional system of scoring will only benefit you.
ICP Creation
Craft an ICP or Ideal Customer Profile. It is a perfect organization or person that fits all your criteria and requires your solutions. With this ideal customer in mind, you can cross-check with the strategies below!
BANT
BANT is one of the most common sales & marketing acronyms. And you can craft a winning strategy with it.
It stands for
B- Budget: does the buyer have the budget for our product?
A-Authority: Do they have the authority to make the decision?
N-Need: Are they looking to solve pain points, and are they looking at our solution to do it?
T- Timing: When do they need this solution?
MEDDIC
MEDDIC is a new tool that sales teams have started to use. As you can see, it has more dimensions. MEDDIC will help narrow down the process, not just from the buyers’ side but also from ours.
It stands for,
M- Metric: which KPIs and tangible goals are important to our buyers?
E- Economic Buyer: who will decide between buying our product? Is it our lead or someone else?
D- Decision Criteria: What are the decision criteria of our buyer when looking for a solution?
D- Decision Process: How does their decision process look? What is their timeframe and methodology to complete the purchase?
I- Identifying Pain: What are their pain points? Do we have a solution?
C- Champion: Can you identify a champion who will vouch for our product because they see its value?
NOTE
NOTE, was coined by Sean Burke. It is a buyer-centric approach to sales. Simple yet clean, this method takes a more empathetic approach to sales. And it has long been known that empathy affects buyer behavior. NOTE stands for,
N- Need: Does the buyer require our service
O- Opportunity: What opportunities can my service bring to you?
T- Team: Who will be best affected by our product/service?
E- Effect: What is the effect of us and the buyer working together?
Generating high-quality Sales-Qualified Leads that will transform into customers
We have extensively gone through the best way of choosing an SQL. But now, how do we make sure they transform into customers?
First, we will understand that once a high-quality MQL lead qualifies for sales, it needs to be engaged within 24 hours. The response has to be swift and prompt.
Once you engage with your customers, you must begin lead nurturing.
This includes, but isn’t limited to:
1. Personalized communication and content. ABM tactics are perfect for crafting personalized content for your high-quality leads and prospects.
2. Regular checkups with the lead in a way that they prefer. Whether a call, email, or otherwise.
3. Asses your lead to further understand them and adjust your behavior according to the changes in response.
The best way is to train your team to understand that SQLs will convert given time, patience, and a lot of strategic thinking on their part. If they tackle their leads with the desire to connect and communicate, they will strike gold.
Here at Coleda, we train our team similarly. Our marketing and sales teams align in finding the perfect fit for our partners. We ensure time and money aren’t wasted chasing unqualified or irrelevant leads.
Summary
Sales-Qualified leads are crucial for the business. They indicate that a lead is in the final journey of the sales funnel. After some delicate nurturing, they will transform into your customer. Through ABM tactics, strategic planning, and a robust omnichannel or multichannel marketing strategy, you will find a customer loyal to you till the end.
