Sales Qualified Leads are like low-hanging fruits in the B2B environment.
These are promising prospects nurtured by marketers, and that indicate genuine interest in a particular offering. They complete their pipeline journey and land into the sales team’s territory potentially ready to be converted into a buyer.
However, that’s only half the story!
It is because, although low-hanging, they aren’t fruits that would readily fall on your lap.
To have them, you must make the right efforts in the form of strategies and convert them into loyal and high-value clients. So, how exactly do you do it? Let’s find it out in this blog.
How to Develop a Lead Scoring Model That Identifies SQLs with Precision?
Leads are opportunities. However, not every lead is the same. Your sales team cannot be wasting time chasing merely shadows! Thus, you must be able to separate leads who just browse your website from those who want to genuinely purchase something.
This is where a robust lead scoring model comes into the picture. It helps you navigate the complex landscape of leads, guiding your sales efforts toward high-value prospects.
However, developing an accurate lead-scoring model requires a collaborative effort from the sales and marketing team. It involves defining what a truly sales-ready lead looks like, based on various factors, including the following.
- Demographics: Company size, industry, and location can denote ICP alignment
- Behavior: Tracking engagement with content and product/service shows intent
- Engagement: Demo requests, contact form submissions, and pricing inquiries
- Fit: Assessing the relation between your offerings and the lead’s pain points
You must assign weighted points to the above attributes depending on their correlation with historical sales conversions and create a numerical value or score. You can flag leads that exceed the above score as SQLs. Nevertheless, this isn’t a one-time task. This model requires constant updates to ensure it keeps up with the evolving environment.
The Sales Playbook for Nurturing SQLs into High-Value Clients
Now that you’ve identified a particular lead as an SQL – game on! This is where the sales playbook comes into the picture. A solid playbook includes factors like,
- Outreach Plan: Mix emails, LinkedIn messages and calls
- Value-Driven Messages: Using data, use cases, and pain-point storytelling
- Timely Follow-ups: Staying connected and striking while the lead is warm
- Discovery-First Approach: Asking open-ended questions to probe deeper
- Clear CTAs: Guiding the lead with clear steps to encourage a favorable action
- Objection Handling: Addressing objections and turning them into opportunities
Remember, your sales playbook should be an active document that undergoes constant updates based on successful strategies and lessons from historical conversions.
Using Predictive Analytics to Identify and Prioritize Sales Qualified Leads
As a business, you wish you had a crystal ball to pinpoint which leads would convert.
Although not magical, predictive analytics is one such empowering capability that helps you provide an impactful glimpse into the future of your lead pipeline.
So, what does predictive analytics do? It does a lot at the backend. However, overall, it analyzes past data that includes lead behavior, demographics, engagement patterns, conversion outcomes across history, etc.
By doing so, predictive analytics helps identify patterns and predict the potential of a particular lead to become a paying customer.
But we said predictive analytics is empowering. So, here’s how it adds capabilities.
1. Prioritize High-Potential Sales Qualified Leads:
Direct resources on leads with a high conversion probability, optimizing efficiency and revenue generation.
2. Personalize Engagement:
Discover deeper insights into the needs and preferences of high-potential SQLs, driving more customized and effective communication.
3. Point Out At-Risk SQLs:
Identify leads losing momentum and re-engage them proactively with a strategy that helps you bring them back.
4. Optimize Lead Scoring:
Refine your lead scoring model with data-driven insights, further enhancing its accuracy and predictive power.
Introducing predictive analytics in your current lead ecosystem demands technology investment. But it is worth it as it increases the chances of converting SQLs into sales.
Read more in detail about Sales Qualified Leads in this blog – What Strategies Can Help You Generate More Sales Qualified Leads?
The Role of Sales Enablement in Converting Sales Qualified Leads into Revenue
A competent, equipped, and educated sales team is one of the cornerstones of every successful business. Sales enablement makes it possible by providing sales representatives with the tools, training, and content to close deals quickly.
Some key components of the sales enablement program can include;
- Providing content assets like pitch decks, RoI calculators, and case studies
- Organizing regular coaching sessions based on real-time calls
- Ensuring data accuracy, updated notes, and activity tracking
- Enabling faster handoffs between marketing, BDEs, and account executives
Sales enablement aims to eliminate the friction in the sales process, making it seamless and enabling salespeople to focus on their core expertise and responsibilities.
How to Align SQL Criteria with Sales & Marketing Goals for Maximum ROI
The sales and marketing team cannot work in isolation. They must be closely aligned to the SQL criteria to reflect mutual goals so leads are handed over at the right time. Some steps to align both these teams can include;
- Collaborative SLAs: Joint SLAs with mutually agreed SQL definition, disqualification reasons, and conversion metrics
- Closed-Loop Reporting: Enabling marketers to see what happened to leads they passed – which ones left, which ones are in progress, and which ones converted
- Regular Feedback Loops: Weekly updates to review SQL quality, reasons for disqualifications, and insights into conversions
The idea is to ensure sales and marketing teams work as a single unit and not as two different teams. This will enable more efficient handoffs, enhanced lead quality, and increased return on investment.
Final Words!
Converting Sales Qualified Leads into sales isn’t luck but the outcome of targeted efforts that include process, precision, and alignment. It begins with identifying SQLs, leveraging technology, enabling the sales team, and keeping your sales and marketing team hand-in-hand. Getting these aspects can help you convert SQLs pretty frequently.
Having an expert to do all of the above always helps. If you want one to help you get all the above right, DemandFluence is prepared to serve you. Our experience, expertise, and appreciative outcomes in this domain make us a reliable partner. Want to know more about our support? Email us at hi@demandfluence.com.
