fbpx

Convert your marketing qualified lead into
a sales qualified lead that becomes a full-fledged customer

How do prospects show an interest in your products and services? They download an e-book from your website, they give you a business card, or they respond to a call-to-action from your blog. A prospect that comes from sources like these makes them a marketing qualified lead (MQL).

You can generate a viable marketing qualified lead by producing engaging, relevant marketing content and regularly publishing that high-quality content. A targeted, well-crafted message delivered at the right time is essential to garnering a response, and regular publishing gives you the best opportunity to deliver that value proposition at the right time.


lead-managerlead-managerPro tip: Schedule a free demo of our lead management software to turn prospects into customers with ease!


A marketing qualified lead will perform better than a cold lead, especially when you target specific prospects with marketing collateral and digital marketing efforts. Because a marketing qualified lead results from the customer taking action, you have an expressed interest as the foundation for the next step.

How to organize your marketing qualified leads

Gather information about your leads by tracking downloads, creating automated responses for more information, or asking open-ended questions when face-to-face with a prospect. The more you know about the motivation of an inquiry, the better positioned you will be to categorize that lead later.

• Are they just curious about your product/service, or seriously interested?
• Are they competition?
• Do they have a legitimate need?
• Do they have an adequate budget?
• Can they make a timely purchase (are they ready to buy)?

Escalate a marketing qualified lead past the engagement stage into a sales qualified lead (SQL) by determining if the customer meets your sales criteria. It’s valuable to know if the prospect’s size, philosophy, climate, values, and challenges align with your ideal company/buyer profile.

According to Gleanster Research, only 25% of leads are immediate sales opportunities, so, how can you focus on the quality of your leads and market to acquire them?

How to align your marketing and sales

Marketing and sales teams need to be aligned and working together to target, target, target! Take the time up-front to vet prospects and you’ll save time qualifying leads afterward.

If you cast your net too wide with your circulation list, email campaign, advertising, or other touchpoints, you’re bound to get more leads, but not quality ones.

Marketing teams will benefit from thoroughly understanding the products and services they promote. Clear, honest messaging that focuses on benefits to the customer without overstating, will prove to be the most useful in generating workable leads.

Does your marketing:

• Invite the best responses?
• Define your product benefits or services?
• Target relevant audiences?
• Adequately represent price point or value?
• Educate the recipient?
• Highlight a problem/solution?

If your marketing isn’t adequate, the responses will fall short of producing marketing qualified leads, and will leave you struggling to sell with little potential to realize a sale.

For the best results, develop stellar marketing with sales input to draw in relevant leads.

How to close the deal

Once you’ve generated a lead and determined it is worthy, it’s time close the deal. Find out who the decision-makers are, if you foresee any rollout issues, and learn what their current spend is?

If a prospect isn’t ready to buy, you’ll want to nurture that lead, to understand what phase of the buying process they are in and respond accordingly. What is their current interest level and what steps can you take to retain that interest?

Categorize your leads by the likelihood of purchasing and timelines. Break them into 3-month segments and set meetings with the ones likely to buy soonest.

Overall, you want to make the most of your marketing efforts to avoid dead-end leads and wasted time and money. Optimize your processes and sales strategies to cultivate your marketing qualified lead into profit and sales. Put efficient systems into place to generate and follow-up on leads and a strategy for re-engaging lapsed contacts.

Research industry metrics and set goals for customer acquisition and retention. If you’re not converting, have a plan in place to identify why.


lead-managerlead-managerKeep your lead list up to date and your data organized. Schedule a free demo today! Blitz offers ideal tools for follow-up and tracking.


Do you have suggestions for ways to market in a more targeted manner, or to better qualify a marketing lead? Leave a comment below.