A KPI is what again? MQLs and more.
Are you like many others and get confused with what a kpi is or other key marketing abbreviations? What are the differences between KPIs, MQLs, and SQLs? How do they differ? Here are three terms to remember when working with your sales and marketing teams.
KPI – Key Performance Indicators
A KPI is a specific critical point of measurable data used to indicate progress levels towards your business goal. These individual indicators are analytical data that focus on the most important factors that determine performance. Key performance indicators are determined by your company and used to set targets for success. They determine leading (positive data indicating future success) or lagging (negative data indicating future failures) indicators in your organizations.
An example of a KPI used in marketing campaigns would be how interested in your product customers are by reviewing through click-through rates on a specific product webpage. They can also tell you if that webpage is providing customers the information they want through your bounce rates on that page. If they are leaving your website on that specific page, they may be looking to other providers for a solution, hence your KPI suggests you may need to provide additional information on that page. If they instead clicking the “Purchase Now” button on that page, your KPI could be spot on, and you’re performing successfully.
Establishing a KPI is essential for monitoring the success of your product to ensure you are providing the necessary information or actions to increase your target performance concerns.
MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead
A prospective customer-driven by marketing that performs an action to learn about your product. An MQL qualifying action could be through software demonstrations, registering to receive white sheets or product documents, extended website journeys, and personal contact.
These actions receive points that are tallied up to make a score for each customer. These prospects remain MQL’s until they reach a certain score determined by your sales team that shows enough intent to purchase.
Not all customers who perform an action are MQL’s. Customers begin as low-level leads, with some intent or interest, but they are not at a qualified status instantly. There is a difference between a low-level lead and a high-level lead. You need to decide for your business, what actions (or scores) separate those who are curious about products from the customers looking for solutions to solve their problems.
SQL – Sales Qualified Lead
Any customer, either an MQL with a qualifying score or by direct contact, that returns with questions or begins a conversation about your product, the sales team must decide IF they are an SQL AND where they fit in the sales funnel.
Placement in the sales funnel may not always start at the top. Some SQL’s already understand the product and are ready to be converted into a sale. Other customers will need to be vetted by the sales to determine if the solution the product provides is suited to the problem the customer is trying to fix.
The sales team needs to research where the customer has engaged in their product, for how long, and use that information to begin a conversation on how the product solves the customer’s problem.
If you found this helpful, leave a message in the comments and check out my other post Adobe Capture, Drawings to Vectors.