With our continued focus on diminishing the divide between
sales and marketing, we thought we would take a moment to define a marketing
qualified lead.
We pulled definitions from a lot of different sites, blogs,
groups on Linkedin and here is what we found for a MQL(Marketing-Qualified
Lead):
1. Are they in the correct sector?
2. What is their size and company revenue?
3. Are they decision makers?
4. What have they
touched in your campaigns thus far—ie. White papers, tradeshows, site visits,
demo forms, webinars?
5. Do they need you—can you find their pain points?
6. Will they be able
to buy in an appropriate timeframe?
7. Do they have the
budget to afford your services?
In theory, everybody agrees that this checklist defines MQLs,
but when in practice, we think the above list has some grey areas for who is
willing to take action to answer Phase 2 and 3.
What is the most effective way to extract that information? Should marketing ask in a lead form? Should
inside sales call to qualify? Should sales reps make the call? Nobody is better
at extracting this information than sales reps, but it is unlikely that they
will, so what now? The lead falls into no man’s land, resulting in wasted
marketing efforts, missed opportunities and fewer closed deals.
Is there a middle
ground? We think technology helps to
offer a credible solution; when you know the condition of your leads and prospects,
then you have a better idea of when they are ready to buy. Company X just had
three good earning releases; looks like they have a budget to buy. Sales will feel compelled to follow up with
this kind of evidence.
Remember that static information won’t help marketers or
salespeople. Static information is only Phase
1 on the checklist. A contact list
is just that, only a list. You need
dynamic data (Phase 2 and 3) that
let’s you know the pulse of the organization you are following. And if you
can’t get sales or marketing to take ownership, then leave it to technology to
help bridge the communication gap.
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