What Is A Sales Qualified Lead?

A sales qualified lead should not be confused with a marketing qualified lead – they are very different things. They can be confused because a marketing qualified lead can become a sales qualified lead quite easily.

The definition of a sales qualified lead refers to the lead’s position in the sales funnel. A sales qualified lead is typically one step before being a sale. A sales qualified lead is a potential customer that is in the market to make a decision and purchase a service or good and intends to do so quickly. These are people who are looking directly at what you have to offer and are interested in meeting for more information.

In short, a sales qualified lead (SQL) is a prospective customer that has been investigated and vetted on a list of criteria; they fulfill at least a few of the most important pieces of the criteria. Once they meet those criteria, they are ready for the next stage of the sales process as a sale qualified lead.

How To Get Sales Leads

To get a sales lead, it is important to understand the biggest difference between a marketing lead and a sales lead – the willingness to sit down for a conversation and perhaps sign on the dotted line. Finding a sales lead requires looking at different forms that were filled in, email responses, and other responses to all types of communication that can happen throughout the marketing phase, whether it was account based marketing from your team or more wide-spread marketing. We call this sales qualified lead criteria.

To get a sales lead, there are specific actions that someone needs to take to move them through the sales funnel. Some of these include:

Emailing Your Team: This is an extremely clear way to signify a sales qualified lead. The content of the email may help to signify whether or not a lead is sales qualified.

Filling Out A Form: If a visitor comes to your website and fills out a form, this is an easy way to determine whether or not they are a sales qualified lead. It can indicate someone that is further along in the process than anticipated.

Event Attendance: Attending a webinar or other informational event can be a way to signify a sales qualified lead.

But what if you don’t have any of this information? MRP has a tool, Prelytix, that allows you to qualify leads using big data gathered from around the internet. This is information about what they search for, where they go, and even who has the ability to make a decision about purchasing. This information can be used to help determine whether the leads received are sales qualified leads or marketing qualified leads.

How To Qualify A Sales Lead

To qualify a sales lead, a marketing team has to score the actions of the potential customer using sales qualified lead criteria. Sometimes, this requires a conversation with that company. The sales team member wants to understand whether or not there is actually a need for the product or services – no one wants to waste time or resources.

With MRP’s tools, we make this step easier. Your teams will get information that tells them whether or not the prospects are ready for sales discussions or whether more marketing is necessary.

From there, moving forward with the SQL process is pretty straightforward and by the books. However, when you have worked with MRP, you are able to use more effective tactics to get the company to sign with you.

Talking to someone before trying to sell a product can be helpful, especially if a salesperson wants to gather information. With MRP’s tools, salespeople know what questions to ask and what pieces of information to gather, allowing your teams to get the most out of the conversation – without adding much work (if any at all) to the process.

Get More Sales Qualified Leads – Contact MRP Today

To get more sales qualified leads than you are currently getting, you need some help. Your team needs to be able on following up on the different leads as quickly as possible, which means that this process needs to be automated. With MRP’s tools, the process becomes seamless and everyone gets to focus on the important work – bringing in more clients.

At MRP, our software and tools help you to find sales qualified leads and then reach out to them using account based marketing.

CLICK HERE for more information about how our sales qualified leads tools can help you to expand your business and improve your lead generation.