No Lead Left Behind

MQL exposed! Breakin’ down the marketing qualified lead

In my last post; “WQP, MQL & SQL.. oh my!” I provided the basic rules for determining where a lead should live within your lead management framework. The area that has the least clear-cut boundaries and rules for follow-up is the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Fortunately we have a subset within this area to help further target the messaging. It’s called “buying phase”. If you have a lead nurturing program in place, you should be sending different messaging to each person based on their current phase and have rules in place that automatically move a person from one phase to the next. There are no clear-cut rules for determining buying phase but your lead scoring questions/answers should help. The following is a general summary of a person’s mindset during each phase.

• Interest: I might be interested in the product you sell but I’m not really sure yet. It’s likely that I’ve just started poking around the Internet. I want to find the product that best suits my needs but I really don’t know exactly what I need or even what’s available. Things that would help me include general information about your company, brand messaging, and general product announcements. If you have a buying guide or white paper that is generic like “How to select and buy ” that would be perfect.
• Consideration: I am considering purchasing the product that you sell but I’m probably just as likely to buy it from your competitor as I am from you. I’ve started looking more closely at the features you offer. Now is a great time to send me specific product information about the line I’ve shown interest in. If you have any tools that help me compare your product to others or an online “product configurator” that would be helpful too.
• Evaluation: I have decided that I am going to purchase the product you sell but I’m not sold on your company quite yet. I need the specifics to make my decision… things like pricing, delivery terms, options, etc. I’d also like to know the name of my local sales rep and their contact info so I can reach out to them with specific questions. If you have case studies showing how you helped people or companies that look like me you should send them now.

Is your experience different from what I’ve described above? Have other helpful things to add to a buying phase? Drop me at note at Jennifer@marketnetservices.com or comment on this post.