What is a Marketing Qualified Lead? Is it in any way the same a Sales Qualified Lead?
According to my AI search on Google a marketing qualified lead (MQL) is “a potential customer who has been identified by the marketing team as being more likely to become a paying customer than other leads. This qualification is based on engagement with marketing efforts, such as website visits, content downloads, or webinar registrations. MQLs demonstrate a higher level of interest in a company's products or services compared to a general lead, but may not yet be ready to make a purchase.”
That last phrase is key : “may not yet ready to make a purchase.”
If the contact is a MQL that doesn’t give any clear indication that they are likely to buy. What is clear? What can we be sure about?
Well, there is a strong likelihood that are aware that there are solutions available and yours is one of them.
Does it mean that they are therefore aware they have a problem that needs fixing using your solution? No. Their interest might be very general and they are not necessarily aware of any problem that needs fixing. Or worse, they think they have a problem which is the wrong one. I’ll give you a quick example. My Dad. Intelligent, engaged. He thought he needed an Offshore Investment Bond because it would help with income tax. Now, that can be right, given the right circumstances. But in fact not only was his financial situation at the time NOT needing offshore investments, his financial position had never nor never would require this expensive option. He managed to convince himself and his financial adviser that he required one. It wasn’t until I had a row with him that he commuted it to the right product. Often, often, way more than you could possibly imagine, your well-informed, intelligent, technically-competent prospect doesn’t even know what the problem is. They might be able to tell you some symptoms. But still come to the wrong conclusion about the nature of the problem. So downloading information about your solution or attending a webinar has very little to do with the problem you could potentially help solve.
This would suggest that having MQLs are a waste of time. Why bother marketing at all?
The reason we get in a pickle is because we forget the reason for marketing. We are so driven by the idea that marketing has to produce revenue in a directly obvious way.
Well, that’s just crazy. It’s so unlikely.
How can I say that? Well, consider what happens further along the buyer’s journey. They’ve done the downloading and so on, so they are a MQL. There is a chance they will take it a stage further. They send an enquiry. What percentage of incoming enquiries become clients? 20%? More like 10%? So, at best, your highly engaged MQL will not do business 80% of the time. 80%! How many MQLs will you need to get ONE client, then? Only a small percentage of MQLs get to the point of sending an enquiry. I mean, left to their own devices, the chances of this specific contact becoming a client, even as a MQL is quickly becoming vanishingly small.
So we’re still left with why we should bother trying to create MQLs at all.
Let’s look again at what we have reasonably certain. They know who we are. They are at least vaguely aware of at least something we offer. They have got a good vibe about us to the point that they are prepared to share some information about themselves (an email address for example.)
Now, look at this from a salesperson’s perspective. Salespeople really really want to contact the right people who are in the right market and who have at least a bit of goodwill towards the company. The chance are high that the MQL fits that bill. A MQL stands ahead of a faceless mass of potential people to contact.
So a MQL is ripe for a sales attempt.
But that’s all.
So should you count MQLs in your sales funnel? According to the above analysis, absolutely not. A MQL is like meeting somebody at a networking event; they might express some interest in what we do whilst we stand there at the bar, they might even be the right kind of person we need to talk to. They might take a business card, even a flyer out of our hand. Would we count these people in our sales funnel? I hope not! They’re just ripe for a sales approach.
What is a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) then?
In the world of Sandler-trained people they only way you can count someone as an SQL is if you have had a conversation or series of conversation and you have found sufficient emotional reason to do business (Pain) sufficient budget they are able and willing to invest and you have identified sufficient decision-making power.
A SQL is so different from a MQL. And yes, you can and should include SQLs in your sales funnel.
If you want to learn how to convert MQLs in to SQLs, let’s have a conversation!