Working with qualified leads is one of the main ways to significantly increase your conversion rate.
However, for this to be possible, you first need to understand what these leads are and the qualification process. Check out our article and learn more about this topic.
What is a lead?
Before understanding what a qualified lead is, we first need to take a step back and understand what a lead is.
In marketing, a lead is a consumer who provides their information to a brand.
In other words, a potential customer who has provided contact details or some other type of information to a company.
What is a qualified lead?
To be considered a qualified lead, consumers must not only have provided their information, but also demonstrated interest in your product or intention to purchase.
This means that not all contacts prospected by a business are qualified.
That is why it is common for businesses to have difficulty assessing whether leads are qualified or not.
Therefore, a detailed analysis of the user to find out if they are a potential customer is important to assess the feasibility of investing resources in their conversion.
Check out the main differences between qualified and unqualified leads below:
| Qualified lead | Unqualified leadalificado |
| Has completed or is in the process of completing the nutrition campaign cycle. | It was not nurtured enough to advance in the sales funnel. |
| Controls their own purchasing journey and actively moves forward in the funnel. | You may not be sure what solutions the company offers. |
| You clearly stated your needs. | Still don’t know what you’re looking for. |
| They have the budget available. | The solution is beyond your budget. |
| If and when converted, there is a high chance of retaining their loyalty. | Even after conversion, there is a good chance of losing that customer. |
What are the steps to qualify a lead?
Understanding that not all leads are qualified is the first step in creating a successful strategy.
However, you also need to master the qualification stages to ensure that your marketing and sales efforts are well targeted.
Check out the steps for qualifying a lead below.
MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead
A Marketing Qualified Lead is a contact generated by the marketing team.
Many marketing strategies attract people’s interest through content and publications, leading these consumers to the top of the sales funnel.
However, there is a long way to go before these people become customers.
MQLs are considered contacts that are not yet qualified enough to be sent to the sales team.
This level of qualification can be measured in different ways, such as maturity level or lead scoring.
So, it is the marketing team’s role to continue nurturing these interested people with new content to deepen their knowledge and interest in the brand’s solutions.
SAL – Sales Accepted Lead
The Sales Accepted Lead is in the intermediate stage of its qualification.
This is the stage at which the lead is sent from the marketing team to the sales team, which can then evaluate and validate the information to begin commercial contact.
A good understanding of SAL is essential to ensure that there are no errors in the qualification made by marketing, otherwise the sales team may end up wasting time with cold leads.
SQL – Sales Qualified Lead
A Sales Qualified Lead is a contact accepted in the previous stage that will be worked on by the sales team.
For this to happen, the lead must meet the criteria defined by the business or achieve the score defined by lead scoring.
How to improve lead qualification processes?
Lead qualification is a dynamic process that needs to be reviewed and improved from time to time to continue generating maximum results.
To do this, you need a reliable database and tools that can help your teams gain insights and identify potential flaws and bottlenecks that can hinder your conversion rate.
One way to understand how to get more qualified leads is to try to find exact answers to these questions:
- How many leads came in?
- How many leads are SQL, SAL, and SQL?
- How many leads became customers?
- How many leads were not converted?
- What were the reasons for the purchase or withdrawal?
- What is the length of your sales cycle?
How much does a qualified lead cost?
The acquisition cost of qualified leads can vary greatly depending on several factors, such as area of operation, lead quality, acquisition strategy, and even location.
Although this information is not readily available to businesses, it is possible to calculate the cost of a qualified lead if your company has the information available.
To do this, simply use the cost per qualified lead (CPQL) formula:
CPQL = Number of Qualified Leads / Total Marketing Cost
Check out the step-by-step guide on how to use this formula:
Define the time period for which you want to calculate the CPQL, whether monthly, quarterly, or annually. Collect the total marketing cost by adding up all expenses related to campaigns during that period. Identify and count the qualified leads. Apply the formula.
Here is a practical example of how to use the formula:
Let’s use a fictional example of a company that invested $100,000 in marketing in the last quarter and generated 400 qualified leads.
The calculation is:
CPQL = $100,000 / 400 = $250
The process of acquiring a lead can vary in steps and stages depending on your type of business. If you want to get more leads and don’t know where to start, know that there are digital marketing agencies that offer this personalized service.
Do you know what a qualified lead is?
Now that you know what a qualified lead is and the steps involved in the qualification process, it’s time to update your strategies and increase your conversion rate.
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