If you’re reading this article, you’ve most likely heard of Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads. These two terms refer to distinct stages in the sales process. Understanding the differences between them can help your business increase its sales performance. Let’s take a closer look at what sets MQLs and SQLs apart.

What is a Marketing Qualified Lead?

Marketing Qualified Leads are prospects who have shown an interest in your product or service. They may have visited your website, downloaded an ebook, signed up for a newsletter, or attended one of your webinars. At this stage, they haven’t yet expressed strong enough interest to move forward with the purchase but they are still highly interested in learning more about your offerings.

At this point, it is up to marketers to nurture these prospects and turn them into customers by providing valuable content that speaks directly to their needs. This can be done through email campaigns, landing pages, blog posts, etc. All with the goal of moving them further down the funnel towards becoming an SQL.

What is a Sales Qualified Lead?

An SQL is someone who has taken concrete steps towards making a purchase from you—they’ve gone beyond simply expressing interest in what your company offers and are now ready to talk about pricing and further details regarding their potential purchase. This could be someone who has requested a demo or asked for more information on pricing plans. At this stage, they are ready for sales representatives to reach out directly in order to close the deal.

It should be noted that not all leads will become sales qualified leads. It takes time for prospects to develop into buyers. Understanding how each lead behaves at different stages of their journey will give marketers valuable insight into how best to nurture them along that path so that more leads become SQLs.

Summary

In short, Marketing Qualified Leads are prospects that need nurturing and education in order for them to move down the funnel towards becoming SQLs; these are prospects who require extra attention before they make their final buying decision. On the other hand, an SQL is someone who has demonstrated enough interest that they are now ready to start talking specifics with sales representatives and make a purchase from your company. By understanding these two types of leads you can better plan and optimize your marketing strategy. This will convert more prospects into customers quickly and efficiently.

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Even the world’s best performing B2B websites have a 92-95% bounce rate and, because of this, top companies don’t just sit and wait for inquiries. They actively reach out when they see a potential customer who hits their lead criteria in the market.

Lead Revealer is expert in website visitor identification. We show you which businesses are engaging with your website in real time, even if the visitor hasn’t inquired. We provide you with the name of the business, details of the pages they’re viewing and accurate contact details. Pass warm MQLs into your marketing team for retargeting and hotter SQLs enable your sales team to react before the prospect moves on to your competitors! Check out our interactive video here and book your free trial.

Marketing Qualified Leads FAQs