Boost Your Sales Pipeline with Qualified Leads using SQL Technology

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i just need leads shouldn't that be enough to start working on going out there and getting them well no you kind of need to know what kind of leads you're looking for and what that actually means to you if you don't do that none of your marketing efforts are actually going to be successful hey everybody i'm ian campbell i'm ceo of mission suite now before we jump into today's video do me a favor and hit the subscribe button and ring the bell so that you're notified every time that we post new videos so after about 20 years in marketing sales and business ownership i've seen a lot of campaigns i've seen some that were successful and i've seen some that really just weren't the common characteristic of the successful campaigns is that they're always hyper focused on exactly what their goals are they're not trying to get a closed deal right off the bat they're not trying to get everybody to buy at first they just want people to show enough interest to allow them to market to them moving forward hence the term marketing qualified but what really is a marketing qualified lead well that's what we're going to dive into today so let's jump into it you may remember us talking about marketing qualified leads or mqls and previous videos that we've done in the past well today we're going to give you a little bit more context to that term specifically talking about what an mql is why it's beneficial to generate them and how to collect them many marketing campaigns fail because they're directed to some random audience right there's some sales marketing teams that think that the best way to gain leads is just to get their information out to as many people as possible and hope for the best i've been there myself in the past not something i'm proud of but i've been there really this is not the best way to generate leads though right because mass emails untargeted content things like that are really just wild guesses without actual information right a name and an email address is just contact information not a lead an mql is someone who is actively looking for something like what you have or could be anyway and they're more likely to buy what you're selling than somebody else a person interested in cooking for example is going to be more likely to buy a subscription to a cooking magazine than the auto mechanic who eats out of a vending machine and just gets some random email just consider this that the mechanic has already forgotten about your cooking subscription by the time that he closed his email and is not ever really going to be a good connection or lead for you an mql is also someone who's expressed interest in what your brand offers based on marketing that they've seen now they've provided their information in some fashion in an attempt to learn more and really this is the beginning of a business relationship where someone who's expressed interest and initiated some sort of a conversation without going into a sales conversation just yet it's a time to get to know one another and to really start building trust so why bother starting with mql as well that's a good question the answer is what it's really just easier to make a meaningful connection with someone who's actually shopping for what you're selling than it is trying to force your message down someone else's throat trying to market to an unqualified lead or just a contact is like trying to drive a car blindfolded the odds of finding your way are slim to none because you can't really see where you're going and you're probably going to do a lot of damage in the meantime starting with an mql allows you to start the journey with your eyes wide open and they have the day that you've collected and let that provide some sort of a co-pilot for example to help navigate the journey also when you and this potential leader both fully engaged and mutually invested in arriving at some sort of a destination together the trip is significantly more efficient and likely to be a lot more valuable i mean this all sounds great right but how do you go about collecting these amazing marketing qualified leads well there are a lot of ways to generate mqls all of them tend to require time effort a little bit of homework some expertise and some strategy but the return on the investment always pays off in the end so let's dive in and start exploring a few strategies for actually acquiring mqls so let's start with content marketing the foundation of every good marketing campaign is built on content that gets in front of the right person content marketing is a very strategic approach to attracting customers by providing engaging relevant and valuable content that leads to a call to action for a particular audience ideally your content will compel a person to sign up in some way right give you their information and when they do now you officially have an mql someone who is interested in what you provide and willing to get more information from you and now your journey together begins your content marketing plan must include creative ways to engage your customer to reach out to you such as social media maybe it uh leads to your website right once you've brought someone to that website you can offer them gated content in some way right that's content that can only be accessed by providing an email address compelling content marketing can also include things like current customer interviews testimonials maybe case studies reading about someone else's success with you from someone who faces similar problem constitutes compelling and really persuasive content right it really makes an impact you'll also need to create strong calls to action in that content think about things like educational content that can offer a solution something that you can specifically provide right yes of course there's a need for strictly educational content and of course this has its time in its place but content that also contains one or more strong calls to action is what you want here because it's what's going to get people to engage a solid call to action will compel someone investigating your ad or your website or you know what your white paper whatever it is to click on a specific page now it should be something that will leave a memory even if a customer has left that landing page right for example a travel company may have a click box that reads get inspired for those wanting to view their special packages depending on the content and the style of your page you might include multiple calls to action something like here take a quiz unlock to unlock healthy recipes just right for you or you know an option that they can sign up for weekly menu plans delivered to your inbox as education is definitely a part of the sales process you're going to want to add value for your market for these marketing qualified leads as well these valuable tools do help to retain customers and retain these leads and keep them on your page and they're a great way to provide an experience that these leads will remember and probably return to examples of these things are things like free garden planners or interior design tools which engage the customer and fun activities that bring them closer to their goal a live chat feature on your website is another great tool that enables you to help with a problem while someone's looking at your website for example if you're a carpet and flooring company maybe they can reach out to you and you know ask for flooring questions right and so and actually help them another type of content is visuals compelling visuals should speak specifically to what you have to offer and invoke feelings of trust and positive experience most of all leave an impression about how your company can actually solve a problem now lead magnets are something that we've talked about in the past they are another great type of engagement a lead magnet is a reward for a person willing to give up their name and email address right so for example a foodie magazine right they're going to put out an article and then ask for an email address to unlock the corresponding cache of delicious recipes or sometimes even just read the rest of the article if someone provides their information it's a pretty sure bet that the person is interested in cooking effective lead magnets are always going to offer something useful something like a template a giveaway some free maybe a free consultation right they have to do what with they have to do with what you sell and give a compelling reason to provide an email address and engage in a conversation with you webinars trade shows and events are also great ways to start conversations and engage many marketing campaigns fail because they're directed to some random audience a webinar allows a marketer business owner salesperson what have you to invite other people to hear their presentation watch the video or see some other multimedia content and the people that are interested in a specific subject may see an advertisement for the webinar on facebook another social media platform or just from your email list and then decide to sign up for it right so if you're going to offer a free class in a particular aspect of painting right they provide email their email to access the webinar and then you know that you have a person interested in in painting and they might come to you to buy supplies to take additional more in-depth classes everyone who signs up for that free course is now a marketing qualified lead and of course trade shows and events are always going to attract like-minded people we've been without some face-to-face events over the past year and a half or so but this is still a really valuable way to get to know better if someone that you're connecting with is a good quality marketing qualified lead now last but not least our customer referrals customer referrals are hands down the best kind of marketing qualified leads they're looking for the service that you're offering they already had someone tell them how great their experience was working with you and it just makes it a lot easier of course you don't have to do all these things right but you should probably spend some time and find out what's going to work best for your company most of the time i see companies using a combination of some you know some combination of these things and you may have to engage in some trial and error to find your best fit but trust me that time is going to be well spent now i'm sure that plenty of you are sitting there watching and thinking to yourself well okay get to the good stuff how do i actually sell to these marketing qualified leads well if you've done your homework converting leads to customers probably won't be that difficult right and we're gonna dive into that a little bit in the next video but you're gonna need to weed out those who aren't a fit for you and you'll be able to use these marketing funnels to be able to do that right get them into your world and then find the ones that are actually the right ones for you remember the goal here isn't necessarily to sell to that mql but to move them down that funnel right convert them to a buyer down the road this is just the beginning of a journey where the destination is that sales qualified stage and so just remember don't try to sell them don't try to sell to them too quickly we've got more work to do here before we can actually close a deal this is where we start nurturing like any relationship once established it must be nurtured to survive right once they've shown interest in you now you get to start to make an offer you get to to start working that that relationship a little bit right whatever that next step is a meeting a consultation call whatever might be your job now is to get them to that next point that next point not to just sell to them this is where it gets them to sales qualified last thing to keep in mind here is that not all marketing qualified leads are the same right just as they came to in a variety of ways their needs are going to be equally as unique so again get ready for some homework right come up with some ways to determine if that lead has what it takes to actually move through your funnel right move to the next step in the process understand the metrics that actually matter to your company right size industry those types of things and you know make sure that you're benchmarking those for example if you're looking to sell a corporate training package requiring everyone to have a book your focus should be on companies of a hundred plus rather than companies with 10 employees can the company afford your training program do they have the authority to make the purchase right those are all things that you need to find out and it's only going to happen as you start to nurture that relationship of course you're going to want to be to provide helpful information to anyone who inquires but your focus is going to be on securing clients that fit your specific criteria quizzes and surveys are great ways to differentiate people differentiate those leads a quiz could include questions like what's the size of your company right so zero to ten over ten under a hundred so on and so forth right uh what's your position of the company are you the owner are you a primary decision maker are you a manager and so you can actually focus on the leads that fit your criteria for an mql by all means offer something of value some sort of uh ebook instructional video to the smaller ones to help them grow into the bigger companies because they're going to be more likely to come back to you as well this kind of back work that you're going to have to do should also include things like timing expectations and you know i've heard stories about leads turn over to sales departments that just weren't ready and those types of leads tend to fall apart turning an mql to an sql can be a delicate process right but it's it's an important one a majority of lost sales occur right here again at this point you should have established a relationship uh that in which you're a person of integrity and trust right they trust you they value you now it's just a matter of working as a team toward that goal that that you guys kind of set together to solve their problem the main thing to know about an mql is that it's just a starting place the focus now is going to be on building the relationship and offer the engaging and valuable information that they need to move them to the next step now it's also about being a valuable and trustworthy ally without trying to sell anything it's about building that quality relationship on a foundation of trust authenticity integrity and most of all value and let them get to know enough about you that they want to actually engage in a relationship hey i hope you got something out of this video if you did do me a favor give it a like give it uh give it a share give it a comment you know those types of things make sure that others can see it too right that helps us a lot with this youtube algorithm and don't forget to subscribe to our channel and ring the bells that you're notified every time we post new videos and while you're at it check out the videos on the screen and we will see you next time around cheers