Inbound Sales Lead Generation

The MQL to SQL Conversion Process

JannelleChemko
ByJannelleChemko

If your average buyer’s journey is a long journey, and your marketing efforts are generating leads, but few of which turn into an actual sale, then understanding MQLs and SQLs are probably necessary to improve your sales funnel.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) are those individuals in the middle “consideration” stage of the buyer’s journey, where they are definitely interested, but aren’t quite ready to make a commitment just yet. Individuals classified as an MQL could have downloaded an ebook or whitepaper, or have registered for a Webinar.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) are individuals who are closer to the “decision” stage. These types of leads already been vetted and deemed ready to convert by someone in your sales organization, and are ready for a direct sales reach out or follow up.

Lead Generation Process | Umami Marketing

It’s important to properly define and differentiate between these two types of leads to make sure that your Sales and Marketing teams are in alignment. There needs to be an appropriate hand-off point where a lead is nurtured from a MQL to an SQL, so the sales team can take over and (hopefully) close the deal.

This percentage of marketing qualified leads that convert to sales qualified leads is known as the MQL to SQL conversion rate, and is a key sales metric in understanding how well your marketing team is stocking the sales pipeline with high quality leads.

Here’s how to calculate the MQL to SQL conversion rate:

# of Sales Qualified Leads / # of Marketing Qualified Leads

= MQL to SQL Conversion Rate %

So now that you know how to calculate the conversion rate, let’s talk about the actual conversion process. This can be the tough part, as you have two separate teams trying to work with a lead using two (or more) different methods. The best place to start is usually by implementing a lead scoring system, which is a process of assigning values to each lead that comes in, scoring them against specific criteria so they can be properly engaged by the marketing and sales teams as they move through the process.

In addition, there are some characteristics that are common in each type of lead as they move through the qualification and conversion process. Here’s a typical summary:

Visitor → Lead

Who are they?: Someone casually visiting your website or blog to consume content, but haven’t necessarily expressed interest in your specific products and/or services

What are they doing?: They’re interested in your content for the purposes of entertainment, education or curiosity

What do they need?: At this time, you don’t have any information other than that they want to consume free and relevant content

How can you nurture them?: Drive them towards content-related CTAs such as Newsletter Sign-ups, or landing pages that will give them high-value free content in exchange for personal contact information 

Lead → MQL

Who are they?: Someone who has submitted basic contact information in exchange for gated content

What are they doing?: They’re interested in higher-value, targeted content, such as downloadable whitepapers, ebooks, templates, checklists, etc.

What do they need?: By being willing to submit personal information in exchange for gated content means that content is highly relevant to them, and may address a pain point or specific inquiry they may have

How can you nurture them?: Using marketing automation, add them to an email workflow that will deliver additional gated content, invites to webinars, or demo sessions that are highly relevant to their expressed interest and needs.

MQL → SQL

Who are they?: Someone who has downloaded gated content or attended a webinar, and may still be visiting your website or engaging with other posted content

What are they doing?: Through engaging with gated content or attending a webinar or event, this MQL has shown interest in your products and/or services

What do they need?: This MQL has confirmed that they have a problem or issue that your products and/or services can provide a solution to

How can you nurture them?: Continue to nurture the MQL with valuable and branded content to help them further determine if your offerings are a good fit for what they need

SQL → Sales Conversion

Who are they?: Someone who your Marketing team has vetted against their pre-determined buyer personas and have deemed as “ready to convert”

What are they doing?: This SQL has inquired further about your specific products and/or services and has confirmed that they want to be contacted by your sales team

What do they need?: This SQL has identified their need(s) and are weighing your offerings in comparison to competitors. They require specific information and incentives to drive them towards a sales decision.

How can you nurture them?: Provide the SQL with individualized attention such as live demos, free trial period access, discounts, or limited time offers to help encourage their purchase decision.

As you can see throughout the stages detailed above, the most important part of the lead conversion process is delivering relevant information and support to your potential customers when they are most open to converting (from one stage to the next). As mentioned above, implementing a lead scoring process will help you to define users in each of these stages, so you are adding them to workflows and reaching out only when they need it — otherwise you run the risk of inundating them with content they are not yet ready for.

Your goal at the end of the lead qualification cycle is to maximize your MQL to SQL conversion rate, and ultimately the rate at which those SQLs convert to paying customers.  

About the Author

JannelleChemko

JannelleChemko

Numbers Ninja & Digital Dynamo
Jannelle Chemko has been working in Operations and Accounting since 2007. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English, she is now in the midst of her CGA designation.

As strange as it sounds, Jannelle is a numbers and a letters guru: in addition to extensive full-cycle accounting experience in the technology and retail industries, Jannelle is also passionate about writing. In between crunching numbers and building excel reports, she researches, creates content, and keeps up to date with digital trends.

When she’s not working to meet school and month-end deadlines, you can find Jannelle outside walking her dog, and enjoying the beautiful Vancouver air.
Follow Me On: Facebook

You may also like...

By continuing to browse or by clicking “Accept” you agree to the storing of first- and third-party cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookie policy | Privacy Policy

Privacy Preference Center

Close

Your Privacy

Umami Marketing Inc. appreciates your interest in its products and your visit to this website and respects the privacy and the integrity of any information that you provide us as a user of this Site. The protection of your privacy in the processing of your personal data is an important concern to which we pay special attention during our business processes.

Privacy Policy

Required
Personal data collected during visits to our websites are processed by us according to the legal provisions valid for the countries in which the websites are maintained. Our data protection policy is also based on the data protection policy applicable to Umami Marketing Inc. Read more

Cookie Policy

Required
Umami Marketing uses cookies and similar technologies, such as HTML5 web storage and local shared objects (all referred to as ‘cookies’ below), to record the preferences of users and optimize the design of its websites. They make navigation easier and increase the user-friendliness of a website. Read more

Essential cookies

These cookies are essential for websites and their features to work properly. Without these cookies, services such as the vehicle configurator may be disabled.

Cookies used

  • WordPress Required

Performance Cookies

These cookies collect information about how you use websites. Performance cookies help us, for example, to identify especially popular areas of our website. In this way, we can adapt the content of our websites more specifically to your needs and thereby improve what we offer you. These cookies do not collect personal data. Further details on how the information is collected and analyzed can be found in the section ‘Analysis of usage data’.

Cookies used

Third-party cookies

These cookies are installed by third parties, e.g. social networks. Their main purpose is to integrate social media content on our site, such as social plugins.

Third-party cookies