How to Make Sales Fight Over Your MQLs
“So what exactly goes into defining the MQL?” our new SDR asked.
Both curious.
And extremely concerned.
By the tone of his voice, I could tell there was more to the story.
I explained that our MQLs were based on the usual — FIT + INTENT — but we’re using a few tools to enrich the user data and proactively find the technographic fit, the demographic fit, role, and then grade and score accordingly.
INTENT matters a ton, and they have to be pretty engaged in our blog, website, and content to meet the score requirements.
“Wow. That’s way better than what we did at company name omitted
,” he said.
“MQLs were a completely different story at company name omitted
. We had a mass email database — like 60,000 people — and the data was only half correct.
“There were emails like info@company.com
and we used to just guess who it was. Marketing would email blast to certain segments — mostly based on industry and location, but if the recipients opened the emails or clicked on just one thing, they MQL’d. Then it would turn over to Sales as a round-robin.
“Everyone hated those MQLs. The conversion rate is like 4% into a demo. Sales close rate is like 28%. You do the math.”