TIt’s time to put MLQs (marketing qualified leads) on standby in 2022. Marketers have been trained to believe that each lead is a unique selling opportunity; though their metrics, processes, and attribution all support this notion, they aren’t taking a comprehensive, holistic look at how signals can be further interpreted to proactively close deals.

On January 28th, BDI’s CEO and Founder Steve Etzler sat down with Kerry Cunningham, Product Marketing Leader at 6sense and B2B marketing expert, for MQLs Are a Thing of the Past: A Modern Approach to Qualifying Leads and Closing Deals. At their fireside chat, Steve asked Kerry and the fellow B2B marketing community about recognizing and embracing signals to optimize each prospect’s value, particularly in regards to demand gen events.

Check out a few of the top things we learned from the discussion on the 28th.

1. Dig deeper to find the source of your traffic.

Kerry emphasized that there are various ways to identify whether or not there are prospects within the market, and almost always, having multiple leads from a single account correlates with high interest.

“You have to do everything in your power to legally find out where that traffic is coming from,” shared Kerry. “If you’ve only got one lead from an account, it probably means that the account is not in the market for it.”

2. Sales teams must develop a new perspective.

In an accelerating digital environment, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to receive those perfect signals that sales teams strive for. Kerry explains, “a lot of those times, we may not have all of those signals, and so what we’re looking for is, ‘what’s the next best opportunity?’”

More often than not, Kerry highlighted, it’s most beneficial to go with a sales teams’ second best option. “It may not have all of the signals that we want,” he said, “but if it has a good bunch of those signals, that’s what we’re going to give to you.”

3. Don’t resort to automation if manual solutions will bring more success.

“Get those leads attached to the account and then manually have those reps go look to see if they’re there, and then act on it,” shared Kerry.

Though automated solutions would seamlessly connect marketing and sales teams, it isn’t always easy to bridge the two teams with technology; resorting to trustworthy, fool-proof manual processes is often a safer and more efficient option.

4. Be cautious of your intent data strategies.

“If you’ve got a third party intent signal that says, ‘we think this account is in the market,’ that’s a great signal for marketing to focus spend on those accounts where you see activity,” shared Kerry.

Additionally, he advised to be aware of drilling “intent data” into marketing processes, as they can easily resort to ineffective sales efforts, such as cold-calling and follow-ups.

5. Event attendees are a huge indicator of potential deals.

Having multiple registrants from one account attend your event should serve as a wakeup call for marketing and sales teams alike. Registration numbers are a promising indicator of account interest and whether or not there’s opportunity to pursue further.

“It’s much more visible to the field marketers… they notice when you have multiple people, and generally respond in the way that you would want,” stated Kerry.

Curious to hear more takeaways from our conversation with Kerry? Fill out the form at the top of the page to access the full event content.