Marketing qualified lead criteria for technology industry

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to leads they're the lifeblood of any small business but there are a couple of terms that you might have heard about which i'm going to use today's video to explain what is the difference between an nql and an sql and before you think oh my god he's going to talk through some technical jargon i don't understand not going to be that simple easy video on what the difference is between a marketing qualified lead and a sales qualified lead so that you can take the right actions in your business to get great sales results my name is james white small business sales expert simple video today the difference between an mql and an sql and how it impacts you and your company to get brilliant sales results let's have a look at the video [Music] one of the biggest mistakes so many small businesses make is they assume that every lead is the same and they're not and the actions that you take with each lead can make a big difference on whether you can convert them to become a customer or not a marketing qualified lead tends to be something like someone's downloading a guide from your website maybe you've got a lead magnet by the way there's a video on lead magnets that i'll share with you that i've created a few weeks ago on how to create lead magnets with value but it can be they've downloaded a guide or maybe the current time frame after we've had covid people have attended a webinar they're marketing qualified leads and the reason we make the marketing qualified leads is because at this moment those people are still at the top of the sales funnel they're potentially intrigued by what it is you offer but they're not in a position maybe right now where they are actually going to go and buy from you straight away whereas a sales qualified lead might be someone that has actually requested a demonstration or someone that's asked for a proposal and our goal is a small business is to turn more of those marketing leads into sales qualified leads but the key thing is to think about this if you are using lead magnets to give value to the prospects that you work with it's a key factor the important factor when it comes to small business sales that means providing guides checklists giving resources showing your expertise and knowledge to potential target customers before they even think about buying from you but in order to move an mql into an sql we've got to do a bit of work and it doesn't happen a person that's over here that's attended a webinar isn't going to buy from me as a business owner unless they've maybe had a conversation with me or one of my sales team they're not going to be in a position to become sales qualified in a real opportunity unless some other actions have happened and so many businesses take leads and think that they're going to convert all of the people that are here when in reality it doesn't happen that way so what are some of the key things you can do to help turn an mql into an sql so what's the first thing you can do to turn someone here into someone over here give value if you go to my website and by the way i've got a guide on how to convert more leads into sales you'll get access to a resource that i will give to you completely free of charge i am going to ask however for a bit of information i'm going to ask your name your company details and ideally your phone number but bear in mind we're not going to make the mistake that so many small businesses make and just get on the phone too and harass you straight away what we're going to try and do is give you value we're going to try and share other information that we think could help you as a business owner to get the results that you want that's your first goal to be able to turn an mql into an sql is to give further value so there are some really clever systems in place now so when someone signs up for one of those guides or a webinar you can automate communications and information to send to them that help add more value for who you are and what you do what i want to do is if you've downloaded my resources i want you to continue to get things that are of helpful and useful from me that make you in time think hey i'm going to pick up the phone and maybe ask james for a demonstration or for a question about what him and his company might do i want to continue to give value so your goal with mqls is to continue to give value and to continue to give information that makes that other person think you and your company are helpful supportive know your industry and market and someone they want to engage with and buy from or hopefully at least ask for further pricing on the second key point around an mql to an sql is to actually get the lead here to qualify themselves one of the things you can look to do is providing links and resources that actually encourage that person to provide further information so what you might want to do is to encourage the mql to tell us a bit more about themselves tell us about the size of company they are or who they work with and the reason that's really important in turn them into an sql is if someone's maybe attended a webinar but maybe they're looking for corporate training for 50 000 people the chances are i'm probably not the right person for them but if they're looking to provide training for maybe one to ten people in their team then i'd be perfect so the reality is the information they might provide you through the information you send them can help move someone from that stage to this stage without you having to do anything getting your prospects and the people that download resources to do other things is a great sign that they're engaging with you and your content and it's going to help show you and them that there's a potential match to work together the reality is it doesn't happen on its own if you get someone that's downloaded a guide and then just expect them to become a lead or a sales lead in time it's not going to happen you have to work like anything you have to work to do the results to get the results you want back so another simple and easy way that you can put in place some tools to help move an mql to become an sql you do something called lead scoring lead scoring is something you can set up in your company in your system or we can help you with that identifies how much time and interaction that lead has had with you and your company and your content and your resources and what it does is it says the more that they're spending on looking at your website looking at your emails clicking at your content reviewing your guides then the more chance they're getting an affinity for your company and it's going to help make them into becoming an sql it means that because they're scoring higher they're doing more you've got a higher chance of hopefully moving them to become a customer it's not always the case and you can certainly get it wrong if you miss time this or get it done in the right way but the key thing is the more they do the more value the more they're consuming from you the better a chance is of becoming a sales qualified lead but what we've then got to be able to work out is how can we also then turn those people into sales qualified leads and what are the things not to do when it comes to being able to engage with these leads and move them through your sales funnel so if you want to move these mqls into becoming sqls and leads that you can hopefully do business with here are two things not to do with mqls the first thing is this don't call them straight away you might think well that's a bit weird james you've always said you should get on the phone and talk to people and of course you should at the right time but unfortunately i've had clients that work with me i've had someone download a guide that they've automatically jumped upon and suddenly it's become too much for the other person sometimes even people have even said they didn't even download the guy because they're afraid because they were jumped on too quickly desperation is the stinky perfume and if you're too desperate when it comes to leads just as downloads or guys or these haven't done that much with you then you're going to put them off you rather than bring them to you if someone is actually doing a demonstration if you have an online service and wants a demonstration or wants information of course react quickly to that by speaking to them but don't just call straight away someone that's downloaded an ebook and expect them automatically to become a customer or if you do make sure you call them in the right way and have a general open conversation and thank them for showing interest rather than assume that they're going to become a customer and that leads me on to my second point one of the biggest mistakes people make with marketing qualified leads is they assume that people in this camp are just guaranteed to be interested in what it is they do well it's not how many times do you go on the web and download guides or pick up resources just because you need to see what's happening it doesn't mean you automatically want to buy from that company don't assume that that person is going to be gagging to work with you and so buoyed by who you are that they can't wait to spend money with you i hope it does happen in many cases it doesn't they're browsing they're looking they're seeing what's out there and our job as business owners and sales professionals is to understand that respect that and hopefully give them the value that moves them through to becoming sales qualified leads that we can do business with so if you have been given value if you have been nurturing these leads and giving them information over time then one of the key things that we can do though to how to make them into a lead is to then at the right time pick up the phone and be able to validate their situation and that they're a potentially good fit for who you are and what you do as a business by validating i mean picking up the phone and speaking to that person about what it is they're looking to achieve and whether you can solve the problem or desire they have do they actually know they've come through to the right type of company do they know a bit more about who you are and have they expressed an interest in some of the products or services you sell the first thing we've got to do is to validate that that lead is a potential lead for us and it's worth us then adding them into our pipeline and spending more time with them and how do we start to validate effectively we use tools like balance you'll see a video i'm going to put a link to the video bam one of my most successful videos around the number of questions that you can ask around the budget the authority the need and the timing in order to move that lead into a position where you think yes we can do business together and if you don't ask questions around the budget or who's making the decision or when they're making a decision you unfortunately will spend a lot of time wasting effort and energy on potential leads it will never go anywhere so if you want to know how to turn these potential leads into sales qualified leads you can do business with have a look at banff the great questions you can use when used in the right way and at the right time can help you understand the other person see if they're a good fit and hopefully get you to work together so the reality is this leads are critical in business we have to generate them and we work with lots of organizations to help you build the leads for your business that can bring new opportunities in but don't assume that every lead is the same sqls are different and there's a framework and a process to follow with each and if you get it wrong over here you can potentially lose your opportunity of working with someone here but do the right actions in the right way nurture make the people that engage with you here love you and your company and we can hopefully turn them into sales qualified leads and business that we can do work with that helps us grow do things in the right way and you're going to get great results make sure you take the right action at the right time and we're going to get you and your company achieving stellar sales success in 2022. thanks for watching the video guys i hope you've enjoyed it and if you have please like and subscribe to the channel share it with others if it's helped you understand the difference between an mql or an sql maybe tell others about it as well so we can help them and their business save time get more business in and hopefully make 2022 a brilliant year see you next saturday for another video really soon [Music] you