From recent research from Hubspot and LinkedIn it appears that 95% of questioned marketers think that the quality of leads is top priority. On the other hand only 5% is convinced that they supply the perfect leads to sales. Furthermore, it seems that only 40% of marketers don’t know what a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is. Time for a crash course lead management.
These days marketing has to be more result focused. That means passing on leads to sales of which you have almost immediate success. This sounds almost impossible and it is. Unless you use lead scoring. Lead scoring is a system in which you give the lead points based on his profile combined with online behavior. The higher the score is, the higher the chance of engagement, conversion and eventually a business deal.
All potential leads in one glance
As mentioned before a lead gets a score on the basis of his ‘digital body language’.
For instance, at profile information you can look at title/function of a lead that filled out an online form. Is he a manager or an advisor? Depending on your target group you allocate one of them more points than the other. A CEO could get more points than someone from communications for instance.
Online behavior is more difficult to measure. There are enough means, tools and methods to be able to follow prospects online. Although Google Analytics gives you a bit of insight, lead scoring is best combined with a marketing automation tool like Act-on or for instance Eloqua. By integrating the lead scoring model with this system, the prospect automatically gets points when he is visiting the webpage, follows a webinar or downloads content for instance. The tool gives you an extensive and detailed overview of the developments of a lead. This is how you can see at a glance which leads have to be called immediately, which have to be nurtured and which are outside your interest zone.
Why lead scoring?
– It is a crucial part of the lead management process
– It increases efficiency of your lead nurturing campaigns
– The quality of your leads is transparent for both marketing and sales
– It increases the conversion ratio of your marketing
Practically impossible? Not really!
Theoretically it all sounds great, but practically it is often different. As mentioned before, marketing automation is an important tool that can help you with this. It is indeed practically impossible (especially for large companies) to follow leads manually and score them. A marketing automation tool takes this task out of your hands and gives you a clear overview of hot and cold leads/prospects. The higher the score, the better the digital profile and the more relevant the lead is.
The perfect lead with marketing automation
MQLs are leads that meet the idealized picture that sales has in mind – someone whose profile scores high and who has shown a lot of engagement. This is how you filter qualified leads and how you can supply leads to sales that have a higher chance to convert. The quantity of leads that you pass on may decrease but you get more insight in and knowledge of the buyer in return. With this system your starting point should be that it is not about the quantity but the quality of leads.
Do you want to know more about marketing automation systems? Ask for a demo by contacting us.