Sales representatives are always on the lookout for new leads. After all, generating new leads is essential to growing a business. But simply finding new potential customers isn’t enough. Sales reps need to be able to hand those leads off to the rest of their team in an effective way.
One challenge sales reps face understands the difference between marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs). MQLs are potential customers who have shown interest in your product or service through their interactions with your marketing materials. SQLs are potential customers who have been vetted by a sales rep and determined to be a good fit for your product or service.
It’s important for sales reps to understand the difference between mql vs sql so they can effectively hand off leads to their team. If a lead is passed off as a SQL when it’s really just an MQL, the sales team will likely waste time pursuing it. On the other hand, if a lead is handed off as an MQL when it should be classified as an SQL, the marketing team may not give it the attention it needs.
So how can sales reps tell whether a lead is an MQL or an SQL?
There are a few key indicators:
- The level of engagement with your marketing materials: An MQL will generally have engaged with your brand more than someone who hasn’t been marketed to at all. They may have visited your website multiple times, subscribed to your email list, or downloaded one of your e-books.
- The timing of their inquiry: An MQL is likely to reach out shortly after encountering your brand for the first time. They’re still in that initial “honeymoon” phase where they’re eager to learn more about what you have to offer. In contrast, an SQL may take longer to reach out since they’ll want to do more research before making any decisions.
- Their budget: An SQL usually has a higher budget than an MQL since they’ve already been vetted by a sales rep and determined to be serious about purchasing your product or service
MQL (marketing qualified leads) vs SQL (sales qualified leads) Difference
The main difference between MQL and SQL is who qualifies the leads. Marketing qualified leads are those that have been identified and vetted by the marketing team as good potential customers. Sales qualified leads, on the other hand, are those that have been assessed by the sales team and found to be ready to buy.
There are a few key ways in which marketing and sales teams go about qualifying their leads. For marketing teams, this process usually entails collecting data points through web forms, surveys, or other means of lead capture. Once enough data has been collected, marketers will use scoring systems or rubrics to rate the likelihood that a given lead will convert into a paying customer.
Scoring systems can get quite complex, but generally speaking, they work by assigning numeric values to different factors (such as job title, company size, budget, etc.) that indicate how likely a lead is to convert. The higher the score, the more likely it is that the lead will buy something from your business. Sales teams typically use similar criteria when determining whether or not to qualify a lead – they just tend to focus on fewer factors than marketers do.
