Getting into the Room: The Heart of the MQL to SQL Process

One of the most frequent complaints we hear from clients is they have difficulty transitioning marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales qualified leads (SQLs).  Basically, if they get a potential client in the room, they usually close the deal – but they have troubles getting clients in the room. This highlights the gaps in the MQL to SQL process for B2B sales.

One significant contributor to this bottleneck is the tendency for marketing and sales automation technologies to eclipse basic relationship building. With the growth of customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation (MA) systems, it has become possible to (attempt) to build relationships at scale through data driven personalization. While this automation is a game changer, it can sometimes lead to a disconnect where technology drives the marketing instead of marketing using technology to execute a strategy. As competition gets tougher, getting in the room requires a more personalized and human approach that sets you apart from everyone else using the same automated approaches and speaks directly to the MQL you hope to convert to an SQL. But this also isn’t an either/or proposition. The solution is a hybrid model that combines technology with 1X1 personalized outreach that shows potential clients that it’s worth their time to give you time. In this article, we run through a door opener playbook to help you more successfully execute the MQL to SQL process for B2B sales.

Creating a 1X1 Sales Outreach Campaign: Target Accounts for the MQL to SQL Process

Executing the MQL to SQL process starts with creating a campaign focused on the individual people you hope to get into the room with (the buying committee), which is a central organizing concept that has been lost to today’s marketers and SDRs who are overly dependent on automated email drips. In developing your plan, you should be specifying who your campaign is directed at and what your goals are in approaching them.

Let’s take the example of a cybersecurity SaaS company located on the West Coast starting an MQL to SQL process for enterprise-level B2B. Here are some things to consider when building a campaign:

1)   Time frame: Campaigns are defined as being time bounded efforts. Usually, this will be 3 months. In sectors with complex sales cycles, like enterprise-level software, it may be longer.

2)   Geographical boundaries: Focus your campaign on a specific region. Marketing to everyone everywhere leads to a diluted campaign. Consider a region you have clients and recognition in so you can leverage the proximity and density of those relationships to build trust and credibility. Our software company may want to focus on the West Coast as the complex sales cycle is often easier to navigate face-to-face and they have clients in the region, which provides social proof.

3)   Objectives and key performance indicators: Define your team’s weekly targets in terms of prospects imported, emails sequenced, calls made, LinkedIn outreach etc. Without clear weekly quotas, you will never hit the consistency of action required to warm up your MQL prospects. 

4)   Target industries: Cater your campaign to specific use cases and pain points so you can pitch how your product provides solutions to companies in target industries. Personalization and customization is key here. As with geography, choosing an industry or use case where you have experience helps you gain trust more quickly, particularly if you can link geography and industry. If our software company has clients in the oil and gas sector, they should target that sector both because of the existing clients and because most targets would be enterprise-level.

5)   Service/product focuses: Within a specific industry, narrow your focus to particular potential customers. For our software company, showing how their product can provide added protection from the threats gas and oil companies specifically face is key.

Once you’ve made choices around these factors, you can create a list of target accounts (we assume you’re familiar with target accounts but feel free to brush up with this related article on account-based marketing). This allows you to focus your energies on personalized messaging to a select group of potential clients. Spreading your net too wide means spreading yourself too thin and sending signals to those who aren’t likely to need your product or who don’t fit your own goals. Having a target list allows you to strategize how to get your foot in the door by targeting companies and their buy committee members. Additionally, it allows your marketing and sales teams to work harmoniously through the MQL to SQL process. This is key as you need to understand what is and isn’t working in the conversion process, which involves sales giving feedback on conversion strategies and rates. 

6 Degrees of Separation: Narrowing the Gap in your MQL to SQL Process

After you have a list of target accounts, start thinking about how to connect with buy committee members or other high-level employees. When starting the MQL to SQL process, there will seem to be a huge gap between you and targets. To narrow the gap, use a “six degrees of separation” approach.

Build Density (Geography, Industry, Personal Networks, Associations)

Begin narrowing the gap by building density in industry, geography, networks, and associations. While it might take time to get your first customer in an industry, your knowledge and proximity helps to build trust within the industry so that companies who are not yet customers know of you in advance. The goal here is to build yourself up to the level that you are comfortable presenting yourself as an expert in the industry.

To achieve this, a successful firm will be permanently embedded in an industry by joining industry associations. These associations are a trusted source of news and referrals in the industry and distributing curated content through their mailing lists is a great way to get in front of their audience. These also give you a chance to mix digital media practices with traditional forms of marketing like attending in-person networking events to a “put a face to the name.”

Building critical mass can put you into proximity with CEOs and other buy committee members from target accounts. The point is to show your knowledge of the industry and the solutions that your product offers. You want to be known as an expert in as many circles as possible. Potential clients will notice when you know their use cases and pain points. Moreover, your participation in these circles leads to discoveries about new use cases and pain points as you get face time with members of the audience.

Building density also allows you to cultivate personal relationships with industry insiders and this might involve going beyond networks and participating in charity events or non-profits that industry members are involved in. This requires some additional research but door opening is all about a personalized and hands-on approach.

Leverage Social Media for Building 1X1 Relationships Instead of Trying to Sell To Everyone Through Posts

Social media was invented to allow people to make connections. Use it to follow and connect with target accounts. The point is to make personal connections through likes and occasional direct messaging with connections. Research suggests that referrals and outreach to people with mutuals have higher response and sales rates than cold emails. 

Obviously, LinkedIn is an indispensable tool for ongoing engagement with targets. It can be used to keep up to date with everything from larger life changes (e.g. promotions) to everyday interactions like article sharing around topics a target is passionate about. The key is to set aside time to make connections and interact with them. You or other team members may already have direct connections via LinkedIn with employees of the target account. If this isn’t the case, the density you’ve built may connect you through mutuals. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can collaborate with your team as the “teamlink” feature allows you to check if there are connections through your colleagues’ networks. When executing a campaign, Sales Navigator also has a helpful filter that lets you see the activity of targets in different groups. 

Breakthrough Strategy: Prioritizing the MQL to SQL Process

Having a focused campaign and making some connections with buy committee members is just the beginning of the MQL to SQL process. You still need a breakthrough strategy. Getting someone’s time involves more than connecting and getting lukewarm sales signals. It involves getting them to make you a priority because they can see the value your product offers and the urgency to purchase it soon. If you want to break through, you need to find a way to show them that doing business with you should be a priority. Here are some helpful strategies.

Conference Participation

Conference participation is a great way to show target accounts that you’re a knowledge leader in the field that can offer value to their company and, therefore, should be a priority. Start by researching the industry conferences your targets are likely to attend over the course of your campaign. Once you’ve done this, you have two opportunities to breakthrough with targets.

First, see if there is an opportunity for an expert on your team to speak at the conference about the pain points or use cases you solve in the industry. Develop a marketing and outbound campaign directed at all of your target accounts that are likely to attend the conference inviting them to attend the talk. This is a chance to make an indirect pitch to targets, so you make sure as many are in attendance as possible.

Second, do you have existing clients that will be attending the conference? If so, is it possible to invite your clients and anyone else they know at the conference to meet for coffee, dinner, or a discussion? Conferences are often lonely places and people will jump at the chance to connect, which gives you a chance to cultivate relationships with target accounts and potentially pitch your product.

Direct Mail & Handwritten Notes

Email has obviously become the standard method for marketing. But consider how often you delete marketing emails or ignore them because they go directly to your junk mail folder. Your emails to target accounts meet the same fate. Because personalization is the name of the game with the MQL to SQL process, sending direct mail with handwritten notes shows a hands-on touch that can set you apart both because it’s more memorable and there’s less competition or clutter. If you show that you’ve put in the time to reach out, this may also be met with time in return. But be sure to follow up by phone as well.

Physical Gifting

Physical gifting (or executive door openers) works on the same logic as direct mail and handwritten notes but with an added oomph. This strategy has grown immensely in the last few years, and corporate gifting sales in the US are expected to increase from $242 billion to over $300 billion in the next two years. This has led to the growth of companies like Sendoso that specialize in automating personalized gifting and delivery.

Physical gifting shows a thoughtfulness that calls for attention and, hopefully, some time. But you also need to be cautious as there are do’s and don’ts to physical gifting:

• Don’t be lazy. A generic gift basket won’t catch anyone’s attention – especially if it’s what everyone else is sending a target account.
• Be personal. Gifting is intended to connect you with target accounts, so put some time and effort into your strategy. Focus on gifting something that might be useful to your client or that communicates who you are and what your company can offer them. It doesn’t need to be an expensive gift and, if your target is on LinkedIn or social media, this may give you clues as to their interests and inexpensive gifts (like a waffle iron, a Lego Star Wars stormtrooper helmet, or a donation to a charity) can be attention getters.

Obviously, you need to consider scale when it comes to physical gifting. If you are reaching out to a lot of target accounts, finding a gift that is overly personal will be difficult and time consuming. But you still want to stand out from the crowd and this is where you can pass along a gift that says something about you. On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re pursuing enterprise-level target accounts where the deals will be in the millions, it will be worth the extra time and effort to provide a more personalized gift. Regardless of scale, always include a handwritten note to add a personal touch and follow up with a phone call.

Custom Assessment

In B2B software sales, everyone is familiar with free trials where you get a 30-day window to try the product. If you’re in software, this is an obvious door opener. But if you’re in a different industry (e.g. accounting, law, marketing, etc.) you need to think of an equivalent. In most cases, this will involve a custom assessment like a free consultation, audit, or something else. A custom assessment helps to execute the MQL to SQL process by showing the tangible benefits you have to offer. Even beyond this, it also helps to build personal connections. Even if the target account doesn’t buy your product on the spot, it gives you a chance to cultivate connections for longer sales cycles and future opportunities.