February 27, 2024
What is a lead?
There are some common definitions but the actual definition can vary from organisation to organisation or person to person.
Let’s try and clear this up.
In some companies a lead is the same as a contact record.
But in 80% of businesses, a lead is a prospective contact or customer who has performed some marketing action to show an interest in a brand.
So a lead = interested potential contact or customer.
So, what is MQL and SQL?
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead
SQL: Sales Qualified Lead
The next element to define is “level of qualification”.
This means, how qualified is a lead in terms of:
• Profile fit - does the lead fit as the right type of customer
• Level of interest - is lead genuinely interested
• Intent to consider a purchase - how ready is the lead to buy
What does this mean, really?
MQL uses marketing activities to determine levels of qualification:
→ They could download a PDF from a lead form.
SQL uses sales activities to determine levels of qualification:
→ They could might want to talk to the sales team OR the sales team has spoken to the lead and qualified them further.
What now?
Despite all these definitions, it really comes down to what works for your organisation and your sales team.
Some sales teams are happy to follow up MQL’s straight away.
Others don’t have the capacity for this, so need leads more qualified before they speak to them.
Basically, find out what works for you, and run with it!
Share your thoughts with us here.
