This readiness is determined based on a certain score (hence the term 'scoring') assigned to the Lead according to jointly agreed-upon and predefined parameters by Marketing and Sales. Over time, we have evolved from definitions such as BANT (an acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) to concepts such as #leadscoring, which determines when a lead can be considered 'Sales Ready' and ready to be accepted and managed by the Sales team. From this moment on, the salesperson will manage the Lead as an 'Opportunity' that is identical to existing ones in the sales funnel.

This phase is extremely important because it ensures the transition from Leads (which are the responsibility of Marketing) to actual Sales Opportunities (which are the responsibility of Sales), with a 'status change' of them in CRM systems, where they are assigned to a salesperson. These Marketing-Qualified Leads can be considered 'Sales Ready' and can be assigned to sales representatives, knowing that they will take charge of them only if they meet a predefined and agreed-upon definition of 'Sales Readiness' between the Marketing and Sales functions.

These Leads are no longer just a list of demographic data as they now have additional information associated with them, such as preferences, requests, and/or specific needs.

If the Lead Management process, using #marketingautomation tools and implementing appropriate #leadnurturing logic, has been well executed, we reach the point of talking about MQLs (Marketing-Qualified Leads).

Lead generation ads linkedin