3 Surefire Strategies for Increasing Sales-Qualified Leads

Every company engaging in inbound marketing recognizes the importance of sales-qualified leads (SQL). Lead-generating efforts are essential to the inbound philosophy, but these efforts matter little if they don't result in a greater number of sales-qualified leads and-ultimately-customers. This is especially true for B2B companies, which generally rely on lead generation more than their consumer-based counterparts.

Surveys and studies consistently reaffirm this claim: while lead generation makes business sense, 61 percent of B2B marketers believe that their greatest challenge is generating qualified leads. And we want to help. Below are three powerful strategies for increasing sales-qualified leads that you can implement today:

1. NARROW THE TOP OF YOUR FUNNEL

At first, this strategy may sound counterintuitive: if lead generation is among your top marketing priorities, should you really focus on generating fewer leads? The answer is a clear "yes," as long as the leads you generate are specifically targeted.

Effectively generating sales-qualified leads starts with the first marketing touch. If you focus on targeting only members of your audience who are most likely to turn into customers, your SQL conversion rate will skyrocket.

How do you go about narrowing the top of your funnel? Start by implementing content marketing tactics that are more intensive than simple LinkedIn campaigns. These tactics undoubtedly have a place, but there's a reason that more in-depth approaches like webinars, whitepapers, and on-demand events are consistently rated among the most effective B2B lead-generating methods. Narrowing the top of your funnel will produce better overall conversion rates, which ultimately presents a better return on investment.

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2. INTEGRATE YOUR MARKETING

Taking another look at the link above, you'll notice that many digital and traditional lead-generating efforts rank equally high in terms of effectiveness. Tradeshow marketing, for example, has been among the best ways to generate B2B leads for generations.

But how well are your digital and traditional marketing efforts integrated? The answer to that question says a lot about the quality of leads you generate and nurture. As any marketer knows, a member of your target audience most likely didn't become a lead after a single touch. Instead, they may have seen you at a trade show, recognized you from an ad, or heard about you on the radio before signing up for a webinar to learn more.

Integrating your tactics on all channels ensures that you project a consistent message with a single value proposition. That means that once your prospective buyers transition to being leads, they will have a better idea of what your company can offer and a greater chance of becoming sales-qualified.

3. SCORE YOUR LEADS

Finally, we'd be remiss not to mention what is arguably the most crucial way of detecting and increasing your SQL numbers: lead scoring. Assigning points to the various interactions that your leads have with your company means you can set a standard at which they become sales-qualified and are ready to be contacted by an agent to finalize the deal.

Your first attempt at lead scoring may include a simple system in which each contact with your company—for example, signing up for an e-newsletter or attending a webinar—is 10 points. Once a contact has reached 50, your sales team will be notified and make the call to convert the now sales-qualified lead into a customer.

After the process repeats itself a few times, you may see a pattern in which only those SQLs who actually attended the webinar tend to turn into customers. Now, you can go back to your scoring system and adjust the points to give webinars more weight. You can also use these results to feature webinars more in your overall content strategy, knowing that attendees are more likely to turn into customers. Suddenly, lead scoring has turned from a simple way to identify SQLs into a powerful mechanism that informs all aspects of your marketing.

Without lead scoring, identifying your SQLs can be a shot in the dark. But it can do more than just hone your SQL numbers: the result of your sales calls to SQLs can help you improve your lead scoring, which, in turn, results in an increased number of promising qualified leads.

Use these three can't-miss strategies, and you'll be sure to increase your company's total sales-qualified leads.