MQL vs. SQL: What's the Difference?

Whether you’re in sales or marketing you are probably familiar with the terms “Marketing Qualified Lead” (MQL)  and “Sales Qualified Lead” (SQL). These two terms are important as they let marketing know which leads need to be nurtured—or given more information in hopes of driving conversions—and which leads are ready to be passed on to the sales team.  

An MQL is a lead that has interacted with your brand in some way and has the potential to become a client in the future if nurtured correctly. The engagement could come from a content download, contact us form fill, webinar attendance or elsewhere. The end goal is to move an MQL through the funnel until they want to and then speak with a sales team member, at which point they become an SQL. 

An SQL is a lead that has shown or expressed interest in becoming a customer and is ready to speak with sales. Typically, the marketing team will have the lead pre-qualified before passing it to the sales team. 

Key Identifiers of an MQL  

As a marketer, it is vital to be able to identify when a lead comes in if it is considered an MQL or an SQL, so what are some key identifiers of an MQL?  

1. It’s their first interaction: When it is the lead’s first time interacting with your brand, they are most likely in the starting stages of the buyer's journey. During this time,  they  are doing their brand research and need to be fed informational content instead of going directly to a sales associate as they are not ready to make a purchase just yet.  
2. Type of content downloaded: Another way to identify if a content download lead is an MQL is by looking at the type of content that was accessed . If the piece of content is converting with top-of-funnel content then they’re most likely still in the research phase. Here is an example: Let’s say you own a painting company and someone downloads a piece of your content titled “How To Paint a Room ”. This  would show they’re still in the early stages of researching for a potential painting project coming up. This means they should be considered an MQL and the next step is to nurture them with informational content around painting rooms as well as why your company is the best fit for this endeavor. The goal is to provide education and value while pitching your company as  the best choice to solve their problem. The hope  is then that they will move through the funnel and raise their hand to speak with sales, thus becoming a SQL.  

Key Identifiers of an SQL  

Now the ultimate goal once you have gained a new MQL is to warm that lead up to eventually wanting to speak with sales. This is where inbound marketing comes into play, and your marketing team is responsible for pushing out high-quality and relevant content to the MQL’s you have in your database. Let’s look at how you can quickly identify if a lead is an SQL: 

1. Conversion Count: A good indicator of the intent to buy is how many times the lead has converted on your site. If they are consistently  downloading content, it is a good sign they are interested in your product/service and can be pushed over to sales.  
2. Filling Out a “Contact Us” Form :  One of the easiest ways to identify a lead as a SQL is if they come in through your contact us page and request a meeting with sales directly or have specific questions regarding your product/service. This is an indicator of a high intent to purchase.  
3. Lead Demographics: In some situations, a lead can come in, and based on their job title, company size, or industry they are extremely qualified in terms of fit plus engagement so they can be considered an SQL.
4. Website Activity: Another way to convert an MQL to an SQL would be by tracking their website activity. Seeing that a lead is looking at specific service pages and case studies could indicate that they have a need for that respective service.  

How to convert MQLs to SQLs 

Now that we know some key identifiers for what MQLs and SQLs could look like, let’s talk about how to convert an MQL to a SQL. Converting MQLs to SQLs is no easy feat, and doing so requires e following the inbound methodology.  

Inbound marketing is the idea that in order to grow your business you need to provide relevant, useful and educational content to your audience so that they continue to land on your website, eventually choosing you when they are ready to make a purchase.  

So how does inbound marketing play a role in lead qualification? Easy. Once that MQL is acquired, the process begins on nurturing them throughout the buyer's journey. 

EMAIL MARKETING  

Email marketing is a commonly used strategy to nurture marketing qualified leads. It is important for the marketing team to adhere to best practices. Be sure that the lead is not not  receiving random emails that are irrelevant  to how they first came in as a lead, or where they currently are in their journey. Each message should provide "The right content, to the right person at the right time.” and feel as personalized as possible. Refrain from sending them multiple emails a day or “email blasting” them. The best way to utilize email marketing is building out a workflow that is relevant and helpful for the specific needs of the lead.  

Throughout your email campaigns, you should also focus on driving conversions. By having a great call-to-action to either book a meeting directly with sales or free consultations, you give the lead the opportunity to move to sales and become an SQL.  

In order for you to be able to send the MQL over to sales, this lead has shown an indication that they may be ready to purchase. One of the popular systems used by marketing teams to identify the intent is lead scoring. 

What is lead scoring?  

Lead scoring is the process of giving leads a numerical score based on specific criteria. For each criteria that applies, they should receive points. This helps a marketing team know which leads are of the highest quality. Scoring criteria is based on both the demographic and engagement, and can vary from company to company. Examples of criteria could be: 

1. Activity On Your Website: This is an indicator of what pages they’re visiting, how they’re pulling into the webpage through external traffic sources (daily website visits, specific landing pages, external etc.) and internal efforts. Taking a look at their site visitors behavior and what pages they visit most or what they search for in the site search is another possible scoring attribute.      
2. Job Title: The lead's job title can tell you a lot about how much impact they have on budget or final decision making. While it’s okay for your lead to have that type of authority, your sales team should make an effort to get in contact with those who have the ability to close a deal.
3. Company: Depending on your internal lead scoring process, this could mean giving bigger businesses more points or scoring higher for smaller run organizations.
4. Content Download Rate: If a lead has downloaded content at a high rate, this can signal high interest in your company's services.
5. Email Engagement: Looking at email opens and other data such as click-throughs or page views.
6. Types Of Content Downloaded: Specific content downloads can show a higher intent to purchase such as downloading a contact form, email address, pricing spreadsheet or requesting a quote.  

If you have a high volume of leads coming in, lead scoring is a great way to weed out the disqualified leads to focus on nurturing the leads with the most potential.

The Transition from MQL to SQL  

You have taken the MQL, nurtured them with great content and now they have downloaded that trigger piece of content. This signals that they now have the intent to buy, meaning it’s time to make the hand off to the sales team. In order to arm your sales team, you’ll want to make sure  they have  all the data on what content the lead downloaded or where they were most active on the site.  This will help inform your sales team about what the lead is looking for and how to approach the sale. 

3 Keys to Success for Lead Qualification  

There are many factors to consider when it comes to lead qualification. As we have discussed, you need a strong lead nurture program, great content and agreed upon qualification parameters between the marketing and sales teams. Here are 3 ways to ensure success: 

1.  Communication: The first step to succeeding in lead qualification is having a strong understanding of what a qualified lead looks like between sales and marketing. This is important, and should be the first step in your process. Sales and Marketing are working toward the same goals of bringing in revenue, so communication is key.   
2. A Great  CRM: Having a CRM that fits your needs is critical. The CRM will  help you in tracking your email campaigns, lead activity, and provide performance metrics to review quarterly. We helped our client integrate HubSpot as their CRM, read about it here.  
3. Data Analytics: Continuously tracking all MQL stats to see year-over -year growth and where there may be gaps to improve the conversions for certain statistics from MQL to SQL.  

 The discussion of MQL vs SQL will always be a topic of discussion between marketing and sales teams. What is important to remember is that both teams work together to share data and make improvements. When it comes down to it, marketing’s priority should be to focus on nurturing MQLs while sales nurture the SQLs. 

Learn More About Sales Opportunities

If you are looking to learn more about email marketing and how you can grow your MQLs into sales opportunities, contact us to speak with an email marketing expert.