MQL and SQL

What it means

MQL and SQL are two stages of lead qualification. An MQL, marketing qualified lead, is a contact who has shown interest through marketing, for example by downloading a guide or registering for a webinar. An SQL, sales qualified lead, is one that sales has confirmed as ready for a sales conversation.

The split exists because not every interested person is ready to buy. If marketing passed every contact to sales, salespeople would waste time on people who are just gathering information. If it passed none, mature prospects would be lost. The stages help find the right moment.

Between MQL and SQL lies qualification, carried out by sales or a dedicated team. It checks whether the contact fits the target group and has a real need, budget and authority to decide. Only then does it become an opportunity in the sales funnel.

How it works in practice

The criteria for becoming an MQL are usually set through lead scoring. Points are awarded for behaviour, such as visiting the pricing page or repeatedly opening emails, and for profile fit, such as company size or industry. Once a threshold is reached, the contact is handed to sales.

The hand-over should take place in the CRM with full information on what the contact has done, so the salesperson does not start from scratch. A response time is also agreed, for example within one working day, because interest fades quickly.

If sales does not accept a contact as an SQL, it returns it to marketing with a reason. The contact then continues in lead nurturing until it matures. Regular joint reviews of how many MQLs became SQLs and customers help improve the criteria over time.

What to watch out for

The most common problem is misalignment between marketing and sales. Marketing measures success by the number of MQLs while sales complains about their quality. A shared definition and shared goals, such as deals won, matter more than the metric itself.

In B2B services with long decision cycles and several decision-makers, splitting things by individual contact can mislead. In such cases a whole-company view, as in account-based marketing, works better, tracking the interest of the entire organisation rather than one person.