What is the best approach to convert an MQL into an opportunity for sales?

If you have a marketing automation platform in place, this can be done for you automatically. There are ways to do it with a CRM and without. But we need at least a lead score, history of engagement, and the topic of interest.

Lead Scoring

Lead Score helps me stack rank my leads so I can prioritize the “hottest” prospects first

History of Engagement

History of engagement will tell me how long this individual has been nurtured by marketing, any prior engagements they’ve had with either marketing or sales. This information helps me identify buying signals as well as have a relevant conversation.

Topic of Interest

Topic of interest this will usually be reflected in the most recent engagement but is crucial as a salesperson only has seconds to show value on the phone to keep the conversation going. Being able to speak to a recent engagement and tie it back to a topic of interest will help tremendously.

By setting up segmentation rules inside your marketing automation platform, you can have dynamic lists that pull MQL that reach a certain criteria (i.e. certain lead score, certain engagements) and push them to your CRM or excel file for your sales team to stack-rank and call on. This can be done easily with Act-On’s platform (yes, I work for them) and run automatically, allowing the marketer to focus on filling that marketing funnel.