3 Main Types of CRM Leads
Leads are the lifeblood of a great CRM system. For most CRM systems, a CRM lead is a kind of customer who could already be in your sales pipeline but has not completed their lifecycle yet.
Unfortunately, not all leads are made equal. Focusing on the wrong ones can be detrimental to both your company’s budget and your teams’ time. So what are the types of leads in a CRM system?
3 Main Types of Leads
Information Qualified Lead (IQL) – Cold Lead
In the early stages of interacting with your customers, companies are often given contact information in exchange for freebies, promotional offers, or relevant information. With a stream of nurturing activities from marketing and sales teams, IQLs need to learn more about your company, your offerings, and how it answers to their particular needs.
IQLs can be considered cold leads. More often than not, it’s good to keep tabs and regularly maintain your relationship with them. However, they shouldn’t be a priority for your team’s follow-up strategies.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) – Warm Lead
Marketing Qualified Leads are a kind of lead that is likely to convert into sales. While they’re not likely to buy right now, they are likely to respond better to being nurtured. MQLs are also called warm leads. After a combination of time and effort, they can become paying customers.
Different companies will have different ways of qualifying an MQL. It is often a combination of the prospective customers’ positive interactions with your marketing campaigns, their existing history, or how well they fit into your ideal customer persona.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) – Hot Lead
A Sales Qualified Leads is also what you call a hot lead. The main difference between MQL and SQL is their readiness to commit to purchasing your product or service. After being qualified by marketing, prospective customers are nurtured by sales teams to avail of your product or service.
Through careful vetting, sales qualified leads to feel that their needs are understood. The marketing department’s budgets are also better spent, and the sales teams maximize the effort they are putting in.
Nurturing Every Kind of Lead
The key to a great CRM system is knowing exactly where each lead is in their buyer’s journey. As a rule of thumb, it’s always best to prioritize the hottest leads first before going after the colder ones.
It’s not enough to have a lot of leads. You also have to find good quality leads. With limited time but a mountain of opportunity, sales teams need help to find the best prospective customers at the right stage and the right time.
One way to make sure that each lead is taken care of until they are ready to be closed by sales is by working with Voice to CRM enablement companies such as Hey DAN.
With their data management system, consulting services, and opportunity spotting technology, they can help you nurture each kind of lead at every stage of the sales pipeline.
