There is a whole segment of marketing that is quite unlike the rest of the digital marketing mix, and that requires a specific set of skills to be able to succeed in this specialist area. The world of lead generation. You might already have heard about Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) but might be unsure as to what they are, and how you get them!
MQLs are often the gateway to customer acquisition and business growth, most especially for businesses that have long consideration periods associated with their products, or if the business is in the services and consultancy sectors. So how do you define and qualify MQLs, especially in a way that makes the most of CRM tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Marketo?
Let’s dig into how to define, qualify, and manage MQLs more effectively with the right CRM strategy!
In simple terms, an MQL is a lead who has shown genuine interest in your business but isn’t quite ready to make a purchase. These leads have interacted with your marketing efforts—maybe they’ve filled out a form, downloaded an eBook, or attended a webinar. They’re signalling they could be a good fit for your products or services, but they’re not yet ready for a sales pitch.
An MQL isn’t just any lead; it’s one who’s crossed a threshold of engagement that makes them likely to convert eventually. With the right CRM tool, like HubSpot or Salesforce, you can easily track these interactions, assign scores, and determine when a lead moves from “interested” to “sales-ready.”
Before qualifying MQLs, you first need to define what they look like. This is unique to every business and is often shaped by patterns observed among your best customers. CRMs are powerful for this stage, as they let you define lead scoring criteria and automate much of the process.
It is the automated lead gen process that is the holy grail chased by lots of businesses who want to get their CRMs to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Getting your CRM set up correctly, and choosing how to present the ‘flow’ you will push your prospective clients through (usually in the greater part on your website, but also heavily relying on reconnections through email) is vital to pay care and attention to.
1. Identify your key actions
The first step to take is to look at what you want your prospects to do – define what success looks like. You need to then examine what behaviours your prospective customers display would indicate a strong interest in urging them along to the goal you have in mind for them.
Examples might include downloading an eBook from your website, subscribing to a newsletter, or people who spend a set amount of time on your site or read key pages, or perhaps it might be that they attend a webinar. With HubSpot, for example, you can track each of these kinds of interactions and easily see a timeline of lead activities. These are the first steps to learning more about these customers and ‘warming them up’ as a lead prospect.
2. Assign values to key action activities with Lead Scoring
CRMs will often let you create custom lead scoring models where you can assign point values to different behaviours. It would be true to say that the more frequently someone interacts with, visits or looks at your content or information about your business, the more interested they might be in doing business with you. So the CRMs help automate the detection of this interest by scoring levels of interest activity that individuals show towards you.
For instance, if downloading a whitepaper shows high interest, you might assign it 10 points, while a simple newsletter signup might be worth 5 points. When a lead hits a specific score threshold, they can then automatically become defined as an MQL for your business.
3. Focus on your demographics
Demographic data, such as industry, job title, and company size, also play a big role and so giving some focus to this from the outset will help shape your CRM database as it grows and develops over time. HubSpot and Salesforce can automatically capture and store this information to help filter out leads that don’t fit your ideal customer profile, but you can also modify these types of information to suit specific niches you might be prospecting to work with.
Once you’ve defined your MQL criteria, your CRM system can help you qualify MQLs to ensure they’re truly worth pursuing. Qualifying an MQL means evaluating their “fit” and “intent”. Basically, determining if they’re a good match for your product or service and if they’re interested enough in your brand’s products or services to be passed to sales.
1. Analyze intent signals
CRM tools like HubSpot let you see detailed insights into lead behaviour. Actions like visiting key pages (such as product or pricing pages), interacting with sales-focused content, or engaging frequently with emails indicate high intent.
2. Assess if a good business fit for your brand by using filters
HubSpot and Salesforce can automatically assign “fit scores” based on demographics, making it easy to see if a lead’s business size, industry, and role align with your ideal customer profile. Use tools like these in your CRM to filter out leads that could be a waste of time for you.
3. Engage with lead nurturing campaigns
Not every MQL is immediately sales-ready. Your CRM lets you set up automated workflows and nurture leads with email sequences, content offers, or follow-up reminders. This helps move MQLs further down the funnel without overwhelming them with sales pitches. Designing these flows is a really important part of getting success out of this process.
4. Automate scoring adjustments
With a CRM, you can often easily adjust lead scores based on new data. As you refine your scoring model over time, these tools will help ensure you’re prioritising leads most likely to convert, which improves the MQL qualification process.
Using a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce can make lead management easier, but it’s still important to avoid common pitfalls.
Don’t overlook the importance of behaviour patterns. Not all interactions indicate true interest. Rather than focusing on one-time actions, look for patterns in the data and analyse what this might be suggesting to you. CRMs let you track engagement over time, so you can prioritise leads that consistently show interest.
Buyer behaviour changes over time, and so should use your lead scoring to keep your database of potential customers up to date. Use your CRM’s analytics to monitor how well your scoring criteria match with actual conversions as and when they come through, and adjust as needed.
Remember! An MQL is a marketing-qualified lead, not a sales-qualified lead and there is a difference*.
With HubSpot, you can automate reminders or triggers to ensure leads aren’t prematurely pushed to sales, which keeps the sales team focused on higher-quality opportunities.
Using a CRM to define and qualify MQLs isn’t just about organising leads; it’s about creating a streamlined, efficient system that bridges the gap between marketing and sales.
By using a CRM centralised software system you are able to achieve a number of goals including:
Defining and qualifying MQLs using a CRM is a powerful approach to lead management. With tools like HubSpot or Salesforce, you can easily set up scoring, track engagement, and nurture leads based on behavior. Over time, you’ll refine this process, improving lead quality and fostering smoother collaboration between marketing and sales.
The key is to continually optimize your scoring, pay attention to CRM analytics, and remember: a well-qualified lead is a potential customer just waiting for the right nudge.
Happy qualifying!
The main difference lies in position in the sales funnel and their readiness to be approached by your sales team. Whilst the subject of this blog tells you all about warming up activities carried out by your marketing team, you might also want to know what activities or trigger points turn an MQL into an SQL.
If your prospective customer has demonstrated a clear intent to purchase by asking for a demonstration, requesting a quotation or information about pricing, they will have a higher chance of converting and would demonstrate they are indeed a Sales Qualified Lead.
At this point you would usually hand them over from marketing and into your sales processes for direct outreach. Once a prospect becomes an SQL you would also want to update the information you hold about this customer so that you can modify any further marketing communication activity that respects their new status.
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