Defining Lifecycle Stages

Qualifying Leads by Lifecycle Stage

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Qualifying Leads by Lifecycle Stage

 

Defining Marketing Qualified Lead, or MQL, can be a slippery process because companies, departments and individuals can have very different viewpoints as to what really makes a prospect and MQL.

At Lead Liaison, we let Marketing and Sales define the stages together, so everyone owns and clearly understands what is taking place inside the sales funnel. Here’s how we’ve defined lifecycle stages, including MQL and SQL. We hope this is a helpful resource for your company as well:

Lifecycle Stage Definitions

People progress through Lifecycle Stages at Lead Liaison as we sell and market to them. Lifecycle Stages represent the different phases of a person as they evolve from a lead to a Prospect and ultimately into a customer.Our CRM, called OneFocus, tracks and reports on people in their Lifecycle Stage. Marketers can pull reports on the three Vs of marketing, the Velocity (how quickly people move into and out of stages), Viscosity (where people are getting stuck), and Volume (how many leads they have) of their leads. Depending on the stage, statuses change automatically, manually, or by customized business rules defined in the system. A critical function of Lifecycle Stages is that a person can never go backwards in their lifecycle. They only move forward. Lifecycle Stages are:

Suspect > Engaged > Marketing Qualified > Sales Qualified > Opportunity > Customer > Evangelist > Disqualified > Other

Suspect

Behavior: Automatically updated

When a new person is loaded into the system who we have never interacted with they become a Suspect. A Suspect has no idea who we are either. This is the first status for any net-new person in the system. This status is set automatically. 

Engaged

Behavior: Automatically updated

This status is set automatically. Prospects move from Suspect to Engaged whenever they generate inbound activity with us. For example, clicking through on a link in an email campaign, visiting a website, submitting a form, playing a game, etc. 

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

Behavior: Updated by automated rules.

Prospects will be considered a MQL when any of the following happens:

  1. Prospect completes a form, or sends correspondence indicating interest in Lead Liaison solution(s) AND has submitted contact information pursuant to. This includes phone and/or email.
  2. Phone / Email Validity: Can be verified as a phone number or email where the prospect can be reached. Email should contain the company URL (no personal email domains), and if not, then verified by a response from the prospect which indicates ongoing interest in Lead Liaison solution(s).
  3. Prospect indicates current or future interest in doing business with Lead Liaison.
  4. Prospect can be considered a new MQL every 12 months. In other words, if the Prospect indicated interest in 2019, but fell off, and expressed renewed interest after 12 months, then the MQL will be counted as a new MQL.
  5. Prospect completes a process or form to receive a downloadable asset from a Lead Liaison website, landing page, social media platform or the like.
  6. Prospect replies to an outbound email campaign indicating interest.
  7. Prospect replies to an outbound social media communication indicating interest, and provides contact information pursuant to follow-up communications regarding Lead Liaison solution(s).
  8. Inbound Prospect reaches out to Lead Liaison via a website form inquiry, lead capture form inquiry of any kind in any Lead Liaison lead management platform.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

Behavior: Manually updated

Sales Managers have 10 calendar days to disposition a lead from MQL status before an alert is sent out to management, marketing, and the Sales Manager. The Sales Manager has three choices when dispositioning a lead:

  • Move to SQL
  • Move to Disqualified
  • Keep as MQL

Prospects will be considered an SQL using the following criteria:

  1. Prospect’s company has budgeted for our Services,
  2. Prospect has authority (or is closely connected to someone with authority AND awareness of the project) to purchase our Services,
  3. Prospect has a need to purchase our Services,
  4. Prospect has a clear timeline for purchasing our Services within six (6) months from becoming a MQL.

Opportunity

Behavior: Automatically updated

When a Prospect is associated with a Deal (Opportunity) then the system will automatically move their Lifecycle Stage to Opportunity. 

Customer

Behavior: Automatically updated

 

When a Prospect is associated with a Deal (Opportunity) and the Deal moves to Closed-Won then the system will automatically move their Lifecycle Stage to Customer. 

Evangelist / Disqualified

Behavior: Manually updated

Move Prospects to this status as you see fit. 

Other

Behavior: Manually updated

The Other Lifecycle Stage can contain any statuses you wish. We use Former Customer under Other to better track who our former clients are.

 

For additional information about Lead Liaison solutions, visit https://leadliaison.com or complete a demo request for a personalized walkthrough.