Engagio's Brandon Redlinger shares how marketers must go beyond the MQL to see lasting success.
Brandon Redlinger — July 5, 2018
***Originally posted in the ABM in Action E-Zine here***
If you have or are considering an ABM program, you know that your sales and marketing teams must align on the companies you’re going to target. But that’s not the only time your teams need to be on the same page. They also need to speak the same language when it comes to the metrics you track and what it means for a prospect to be “qualified.”
In demand generation, marketers have long used marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to designate leads they consider worthy for sales. However, salespeople aren’t measured on the number of leads they close — they’re measured on the number of accounts they close. If you’re moving forward with an ABM strategy, this type of disconnect between both teams will hinder the success of the program.
For both teams to be aligned, you must clearly define what a qualified lead looks like. Because ABM is account-centric and requires different metrics than traditional MQLs, you should use marketing qualified accounts (MQAs) instead. MQAs are a subset of your ideal customer targets and they show engagement levels that indicate possible sales readiness. Think of it this way: while the MQL relates to one lead, the MQA is for the entire account that is ready to go to sales.
As you move forward with ABM and prepare to move to an MQA model, here are some account-level metrics that you will need to pay attention to:
Now that we’ve defined what an MQA is and we’re paying attention to the right signals, we must begin to look at the criteria that make up MQAs:
A simple example of an MQA could look like this: two key stakeholders at a target account spend 25 minutes of engagement with you over the last 30 days. You could then adjust that for different tiers of target accounts.
For an ABM program to be successful, it requires consistent communication between the sales and marketing teams. Both teams need to come together to define what it means to be “qualified” and which metrics will be used to measure performance. Then, they must work together to establish clear expectations on what happens once an account is qualified. When both teams work together, prospects are able to more effectively move through the funnel, close rates increase and the entire company benefits.
Fractional VP of Marketing, Co-Founder, The Forge
I'm a B2B marketing leader specializing in product marketing, demand generation, growth marketing, and account-based marketing. I'm passionate about the intersection between technology and psychology, especially as it applies to growing businesses. I relish the opportunity to always learn and grow from the opportunities that present themselves and the people in our presence.
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