It’s a common gripe between sales and marketing teams: “The leads aren’t good enough.” But let’s get one thing straight — most of the time, the problem isn’t the leads. It’s what happens next.

Marketers are measured on MQLs. Sales teams are measured on revenue. The disconnect between the two creates friction, but what’s often overlooked is this: the leads you’re generating *are* qualified — they’re just not being followed up in a way that converts.

Here’s what’s really going wrong:

Slow response times

Responding to leads within the first five minutes makes you *21x more likely* to qualify them — yet only 7% of companies respond within that window. Most B2B teams take hours, if not days.

Source: Lead Response Management Study

One-and-done outreach

It takes an average of *8 touches* to get a response from a prospect. Many sales reps stop after just 2.

Source: Rain Group – “Top Performance in Sales Prospecting”

Generic follow-ups

72% of buyers expect B2B companies to personalise outreach based on their previous interactions. Templated, non-contextual follow-ups simply don’t make the cut.

Source: Salesforce – State of the Connected Customer, 5th Edition

Poor sales/marketing alignment

Only 46% of B2B organisations report having a formal definition of an MQL agreed upon by both teams. When there’s no shared understanding, the follow-up is inconsistent and ineffective.

Source: Demand Gen Report – 2023 Lead Nurturing & Acceleration Benchmark Survey

So what does good MQL follow-up look like?

🔹 Fast and personalised: Respond while intent is high and reference the specific asset or page they engaged with.

🔹 Multi-channel: Don’t rely on just email. Use LinkedIn, phone, and remarketing to stay top of mind.

🔹 Structured and consistent: Build follow-up cadences that include a minimum of 6-8 touches across 10+ days.

🔹 Context-rich: Arm your sales team with the right messaging, content hooks, and background on the lead’s journey.

🔹 Shared accountability: MQLs should be a shared metric. If marketing delivers them, sales should be ready to follow through — and vice versa.

👉 Here are 5 key marketing metrics every team should be monitoring to connect activity to actual pipeline impact.

Don’t let good leads go cold

At Air Marketing, we work with B2B teams who are tired of the blame game. We don’t just generate MQLs — we help our clients build intelligent follow-up frameworks that turn those leads into real pipeline. Whether it’s implementing structured nurture workflows, training BDRs to follow up effectively, or taking on the outreach ourselves, we help bridge the gap between interest and impact.

So before you question the quality of your leads — ask yourself: what happens after the form is filled?

📞 Book a quick call and learn how we can help.