What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (Or MQL)?
Is your company struggling to fill its sales funnel? It’s easy for sales teams to feel like they are solely responsible for prospecting efforts, but that’s not exactly true. Yes, sales reps spend a lot of time prospecting, but a marketing team is just as capable of finding leads. In fact, they’re often responsible for their own unique goal in this field; generating marketing qualified leads (MQLs).
In this article, you’ll learn how marketing qualified leads are generated, what their specific criteria are, and how to qualify them before sending them over to sales. That’s right combining the efforts of your marketing and sales teams results in more qualified leads flowing down your funnel!
What exactly is a marketing qualified lead?
An MQL is an individual that has expressed interest in a company’s products by interacting with marketing materials and has the potential to become a paying customer or subscriber. Essentially, they’ve taken steps that suggest they are interested in making a purchase but haven’t handed over their payment information quite yet.
Typically, marketing teams will track and qualify MQLs based on the following interactions:
- Signing up for a newsletter.
- Downloading an eBook or free template from a company’s website.
- Clicking through on paid ads (such as Meta or Google ads).
- Registering for online webinars or events hosted by their company.
- Filling out online forms to register for more product information.
- Submitting a contact form inquiry.
- Adding items to their cart or saving items to their wish list (this is specific for ecommerce).
- Interacting with chatbots on a company’s website.
These are some of the most common examples, but this isn’t an exhaustive list. Each company has their own unique marketing tactics so it’s important to recognize and understand what your specific marketing team is doing to generate MQLs. It’s essential for marketing teams to track these actions to see how prospects are interacting with their campaigns and understand what’s driving them to enter your sales funnel.
Remember, MQLs have already taken the first step towards converting by showing interest in a product; it’s up to your teams to qualify them and secure a final purchase.
Marketing qualified lead vs. sales qualified lead
There are different types of leads that filter through a company’s sales funnel and you need to understand the difference between them. If you hear sales teams talking about MQLs and sales-qualified leads (SQLs), they’re talking about two very different types of leads.
An MQL has interacted with marketing materials and shown interest in your product, but they’ve yet to make an actual purchase. Yes, they’re interested in what you’re offering, but to what extent? That’s to be determined.
An SQL on the other hand is a lead who has shown interest in a company’s product and is considering making a purchase but hasn’t made a final decision yet. The sales team knows they’re an ideal customer, and an SQL is likely willing to speak to a member of the sales team to get more information about the product before making a final decision on whether to purchase it.
If you want to think of the differences with regards to a sales funnel, MQLs would be at the top of the funnel, whereas SQLs are at the bottom of the funnel.
MQLs eventually become SQLs when the sales team has had a chance to determine their level of interest in your product or service. SQLs aren’t guaranteed to convert into paying customers, but they’re one step closer to making a purchase.
There’s also a stage between MQL and SQL that you may hear sales teams use: sales accepted leads (SAL). This term refers to MQLs that have been accepted by sales and are vetted further before officially becoming SQLs.
5 steps for qualifying marketing leads
It’s essential to vet your MQLs before passing them on to your sales team. If you send every single person who interacts with a social media post down your funnel, you’d be wasting a lot of time and resources.
Here are five steps you should take to properly qualify your marketing leads:
1. Establish a working relationship between marketing and sales teams
When you’re looking for leads, everyone should be on the same page. Understand exactly what sales reps look for in leads, and how you can qualify marketing leads before passing them over. Communication is important, so circle back as needed to update expectations, goals, and key characteristics for MQLs.
2. Create an ideal customer profile
Write out a one-pager that details exactly what an ideal customer looks like. Answer the following questions:
- Where do they live? This is important if your product only serves certain geographical areas.
- What type of company do they work for? If your product is best suited for B2B companies, don’t send B2C leads down the funnel.
- What size of company do they work for? If your product works for companies of all sizes this isn’t as critical, but if you specialize in assisting companies of a certain size, try to find out where your lead sits.
- What are their goals? Try to find out what exactly the lead is trying to achieve, and whether you can help them.
3. Understand the customer journey you’re creating and focus on strengths
Pay attention to how leads interact with your marketing materials. How are they finding your website or social media channels? What are they clicking on the most, and where do they drop off? Once you know what’s working, home in on it and adjust the level of investment in other areas as needed to reach realistic goals.
4. Establish a process for passing MQLs over to the sales team
Once you’ve qualified a marketing lead, how exactly do you pass them over to the sales team? There should be a formal process in place to follow. Communicate with your sales team to adjust this process as needed so the transition is always smooth.
5. Communicate and make updates as needed
Prospecting and lead qualification isn’t a one-and-done, set-in-stone process. Things move and change quickly, and you need to be able to adapt. If a strategy that worked last year isn’t as successful anymore, be ready to pivot. Your marketing and sales teams should always be talking to each other and brainstorming new ways to find and qualify leads.
3 examples of criteria for a marketing-qualified lead
Always do your research to qualify leads before passing them on. Here’s a list of criteria you should consider when looking at MQLs and determining if they’d be a good match for your sales team:
1. Demographics
Refer to your ideal customer profile to see if each MQL is a good match. Does your company offer products or services in their area? Is their company big enough (or small enough) to effectively use your product? Do they work in an industry your product was designed for, or integrates with?
Sure, they interacted with your marketing materials and seemed interested, but that doesn’t mean they’re a good fit. Always fall back on your ideal customer profile and do your research to ensure they’re a good match.
2. BANT framework
BANT is an acronym that stands for budget, authority, need, and timeline. To qualify your lead, determine what their budget is (can they afford your product), who has the authority to make a purchase (does this individual need purchase approval from a higher-up?), does the prospect have a business need your product can help with (or solve), and what is their timeline for making a purchase.
It may be difficult for a marketing team to use this framework, but depending on what information you’re able to collect, you might be able to answer some key points and qualify the lead enough to pass it on to their sales team.
3. Types of engagement
It’s important to pay attention to how leads are engaging with your marketing materials. Not everyone who clicks on an ad should immediately be considered an MQL. Some engagement happens out of pure curiosity, sometimes it’s genuine interest, and other times it may be an accidental misclick.
Look for repeat site visitors, those who consistently open newsletters, or people who willingly give you their contact information. You should try to qualify these leads since they’re more likely to convert as they travel further down your sales funnel.
If certain types of engagement are consistently resulting in successful MQLs, focus more effort and resources on those channels. If paid ads are working but newsletters aren’t, it’s worth reviewing your goals and making smart adjustments.
Time to fill your sales funnel!
Now that you understand exactly what an MQL is, it’s time to brainstorm lead-generation ideas and fill up your sales funnel. Get creative with your online campaigns, invest in quality content, and watch your engagement grow.
And remember, your marketing and sales teams need to be in sync and work together – not against each other – for the company to succeed overall.