Sales focuses on qualified leads and is not interested in those who are not.
This has given rise to the need to further synchronize the marketing and sales areas, bringing us a new trend: SMarketing (Sales + Marketing). Smarketing seeks to generate an agreement on the definition of what a Lead is, its stages, and how to treat it at each stage.
THE GAP BETWEEN MARKETING AND SALES
Sales needs to close sales.
However, 80% of the leads generated are not ready to buy.
How do I know what type of lead I have in front of me at each stage?
LEADS are classified according to their level of commercial maturity. In B2B, maturity is directly related to the need and intention to purchase . The greater the stated need and intention to purchase, the better qualified the Lead will be.
“Suspect” or suspect
It is simply a contact who completed an online form.
It is a Suspect because we do not yet have elements to qualify whether it responds to the characteristics of the Buyer Persona, and we are also not clear about its level of interest and need.
Examples of Lead Suspects are:
A contact who downloads content (ebook, papers), leaving us their first name, last name and an email address.
A contact who requests information on our website, but without detailing a specific need or the profile of their company.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL):
When a Lead Suspect is qualified by the marketing department as a potential client, it receives the “MQL” label.
In this case we are talking about a person who meets the characteristics thailand viral telegram sought in a potential client, based on criteria such as:
Purchasing decision power
Company size according to
Favorable context for the purchase or contracting of our product or service.
Examples of MQLs are:
The same contact from example 1, which we now know is a target company, and a person with decision-making power.
The contact who wrote to us via the contact form on our website, and who completed a pre-qualification form that we sent to him/her by email.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL):
When an MQL shows real interest and the current conditions are met to advance in a purchasing process, then it is qualified as SQL (Sales Qualified Lead).
The SQL is a hot lead and must, in B2B, be handled quickly by the sales team or the Inside Sales team.
Examples of SQL are:
The same contact who downloaded an ebook, went through a maturation process and is ready to buy in the short term.
The contact who wrote to us via the contact form on our website, and who then provided us with further information regarding his/her query, and we determined that he/she is ready to move forward with the purchase decision.
Pipeline Opportunity:
When a SQL advances in conversations with the sales team and enters the sales funnel (Pipeline), it is then treated as an opportunity.
Examples of Pipeline Opportunity are:
Our contact from example 1 now receives a formal economic proposal and is analyzing the purchase.
The lead in our example 2 is entered as an opportunity after receiving a formal quote.
Not ALL are LEADS
There are contacts that are sometimes considered Leads, but in my opinion they are not:
followers on a fan page or company page
subscribers to a youtube channel
Newsletter subscribers
Why aren't they? Because for something to be classified as a LEAD there has to be a specific interest in a commercial product.
What elements do I need to attract leads?
It is worth remembering that leads are people who move around in different media (computer, mobile phone, tablet) motivated by their own interests. The habitat of these people is search engines, social networks, your own website or your blog.
For a person to realize their interest we must basically have:
A hook or Lead Magnet: valuable content (or a commercial offer) that attracts the person to our form to leave us their real data.
A web page, landing page or blog post where the hook and form can be hosted.
Content published on a social network or content platform (like Slideshare) where we embed our form.
Criteria for qualifying b2b leads
Lead qualification in B2B businesses can be done in an artisanal or automated way. The greater the volume of contacts to qualify, the greater the need for automation.
Beyond making it automated or artisanal, it is necessary -first- to define the criteria with which we are going to qualify our Leads.
At the agency we operate with 3 qualification criteria:
First criterion: Does the lead fit the buyer persona profile or not?
– Contact position
– Type of business (B2B or B2C)
– Contact information: name, surname, email, phone
– Number of employees
– Target customer
Second criterion: does the Lead “know us” or not?
– Have you visited our website several times?
– Do you follow us on social media?
– Do you receive our Newsletter?
Third criterion: is the Lead “in a purchasing situation, or not?
– Do you have your need documented in an RFP or brief?
– Do you already have proposals from other companies, agencies or suppliers?
– Do you have experience implementing a solution similar to ours in the past?
– Is the project among the company’s 3 priorities?
– Do you plan to contract the service within the next 3 months? (and within the next 6 months?)
What happens to leads that are not nurtured?
Leads are “potential”.
In my experience with B2B campaigns, 70-80% of leads are not ready to buy. Their situation is: “I am looking, analyzing…comparing…”
In this situation, if you try to sell, you hit a wall. It is best to keep the conversation going with that lead until it is mature.
A lead is ready to buy when 3 characteristics are present in parallel:
The contact has a high similarity score with our lead model (the buyer persona)
The contact knows us well enough, having had several interactions with our marketing initiatives.
The company has a stated need and interest in advancing the sales process.
This is one of the biggest challenges and problems for brands. It is difficult to keep the channel open and to be able to deliver the commercial message at the right time.
This requires implementing Lead Nurturing programs (automated or artisanal) that require time and money.