Ep. 492 | Why MQL is a Terrible Metric?

OnBase: Smashing Sales and Marketing Misalignments

Episode Summary
In this episode, Peter discusses the problems with the traditional "marketing qualified lead" (MQL) metric, arguing that it doesn't accurately reflect the relationship between marketing and sales, and suggests focusing on "marketing qualified accounts" (MQAs) instead. Bregman emphasizes the importance of aligning marketing, sales, service, and product teams around a shared go-to-market strategy and customer-centric approach. He also provides recommendations for using AI in marketing to empower sales teams, as well as books, podcasts, and industry experts that listeners should check out.

About the guest

Peter Bregman is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience propelling organizational growth across diverse sectors. Peter has expertly navigated complex business landscapes, assisting various companies, from startups to Fortune 150s, in both B2B and B2C markets. His approach emphasizes collaboration and building strong alliances across Marketing, Sales, Product, and Tech teams to ensure success. Committed to delivering actionable strategies, Peter empowers businesses to drive substantial growth through strategic innovation.

Connect with Peter Bregman

Key takeaways
- The traditional "marketing qualified lead" (MQL) metric is flawed and doesn't accurately reflect the relationship between marketing and sales. Marketers should focus on "marketing qualified accounts" (MQAs) instead.

- Aligning marketing, sales, service, and product teams around a shared go-to-market strategy and customer-centric approach is crucial for successful B2B growth.

- AI can be a valuable tool in marketing, but it should be used to empower sales teams, not replace them. The key is finding specific use cases and having enough data to train the AI models effectively.

Quotes
"Quality Matters way more than quantity, prospects have to be at the right place in their buying cycle, the ideal customer profile has to match, and generating a whole bunch of leads is really just resulting in bad conversion metrics, distrust between marketing and sales." -Peter Bregman

Recommended Resource

Books:
- "Invisible Rulers" by Renee de Resta - A fascinating look at how influence and ideas spread on the internet and the creation of "bespoke realities" on social media.

Podcasts:
- "Planet Money" - An entertaining economics podcast

- "Hard Fork" - A podcast covering the state of technology

- "In Depth" from First Round Capital - Interviews with founders of companies they've invested in

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