What is a sales qualified lead (SQL)?
A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that stands out from other leads based on certain attributes and actions. It is the lifecycle stage that comes immediately after marketing qualified lead. Unlike a marketing qualified lead, a sales qualified lead is ready to be followed up by sales.
For this, it is wise to use the data you have collected about your lead during the previous stages of the buying process.
When is someone a sales qualified lead?
When someone becomes a sales qualified lead depends on your target audience, product or service and the market in which your organization operates. Based on that, you determine when it's time to follow up with the lead and contact someone by phone.
You qualify leads based on attributes (e.g., size of your lead's company) and actions (e.g., downloaded gated content three times on your website). These aspects are also described as fit (does the lead fit your organization) and engagement (how much interest does the lead show).
Difference with marketing qualified lead (MQL).
A sales qualified lead is not the same as a marketing qualified lead (MQL). In fact, these two lifecycle stages (lead stages) follow one another. Thus, a lead first becomes an MQL and only then an SQL.
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) has the potential to become a sales qualified lead. A MQL meets certain criteria that are important for your organization (such as right industry, right function, etc.), but has not yet shown signals that he/she is ready to be followed up by Sales.
Only when the lead gives these signals, then the MQL becomes a SQL. And what then are these signals? That's different at every company and entirely up to you. In HubSpot, the sky is the limit, but think for example:
- Budget
- Viewing a price page
- Downloading a product data sheet
- High interaction on the website
Sales qualified lead in HubSpot
So when someone becomes a SQL depends on your target audience, product and market. It is important to define this clearly for yourself.
HubSpot 's marketing automation software allows you to automatically give a lead that meets certain requirements of a sales qualified lead the attribute SQL. You accomplish this through a workflow in HubSpot.
Within the workflow, you determine what requirements the lead must meet to become a sales qualified lead. On the one hand, these can be hard validation requirements on which a lead can literally drop out, such as:
- Budget
- Company size
- Turnover
- Role or function of the lead
But also (somewhat softer) qualification requirements in terms of the interaction the lead has with your organization, such as:
- Number of clicks in emails
- Number of sessions or page views
- Number of conversions
- Visiting or not visiting a specific page on your website.
When qualifying a lead, lead scoring usually plays an important role. The marketing automation software assigns points to the lead when it meets the criteria you have defined. Then, in the workflow, you determine the threshold at which the lead becomes a SQL.
Once you have processed the desired criteria for the sales qualified lead in the HubSpot workflow then do the following:
- Select 'set contact property value'.
- Select the property 'lifecycle stage'.
- The 'new property value' of course becomes: sales qualified lead.
Voilà! All leads that meet your criteria now automatically become an SQL. Based on this lead status, you can now send this warm lead directly to Sales through a lead notification. Also automatically of course!
For a detailed explanation, check out this explanation from HubSpot.
Although sales qualified lead status is usually set with a workflow, there are also other ways to set a lead to SQL in HubSpot:
- Manually, for example, when a salesperson has had the lead on the phone and there is a concrete sales opportunity.
- With an import or sync, for example, from your CRM system.
- With an invisible form field, for example, when a lead asks for a concrete appointment, quote or demo. The lead then fills out the form and when sending the form, HubSpot immediately sets the lifecycle stage to SQL.
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