MQL
Marketing Qualified Lead
A lead that's shown enough interest for marketing to pass to sales. The catch? Marketing and sales rarely agree on what 'enough interest' actually means. That's where your first revenue leak starts.
If you generate 1,000 leads and 150 meet your MQL criteria, your MQL rate is 15%. But here's what matters more: how many of those 150 actually became customers? If only 2 closed, your MQL definition needs work.
Most MQL definitions are completely made up. Someone downloaded a whitepaper three years ago, and now that's your qualification bar.
The MQL/SQL handoff is where revenue leaks begin. Marketing celebrates hitting MQL targets. Sales complains the leads are garbage. Both teams point fingers while real buyers slip through the cracks.
The fix isn't more leads. It's a definition both teams actually agreed to. What behaviors predict buying intent in YOUR business? Not HubSpot's benchmark. Your data.
Define ItOther Definitions
“A lead that marketing has identified as having a higher likelihood of becoming a customer based on engagement and fit criteria, typically through lead scoring or other evaluation methods.”
“A prospect who has interacted with marketing content and meets qualification criteria including both behavioral signals and demographic/firmographic fit. More likely to become a customer but not yet ready for direct sales outreach.”
“A prospect who has meaningfully engaged with your business and shows potential to become a customer, determined by tracking engagement and fit with the ideal customer profile.”
“Leads who have demonstrated both behavioral readiness (content downloads, webinar attendance) and demographic/firmographic fit with the target market, indicating higher potential for conversion.”
Everyone agrees on the basics: an MQL is a lead that's shown enough engagement and fits your target profile well enough that marketing thinks sales should talk to them. The disagreement is always about where to draw the line.
The key word every source dances around is "agreed-upon criteria." HubSpot says marketing identifies them. Salesforce says track engagement. Forrester wants behavioral AND firmographic fit. They're all right, and all missing the point.
The real definition: an MQL is whatever marketing and sales TOGETHER decide predicts a real buying conversation. Not what HubSpot's benchmark says. Not what worked at your last company. What YOUR data shows actually converts.
MistakesCommon Mistakes
Setting MQL criteria based on industry benchmarks instead of your own conversion data
Never revisiting MQL definitions after initial setup
Marketing and sales using different definitions of what qualifies
Counting demo requests the same as whitepaper downloads
Marketing and sales still arguing about lead quality?
We fix the handoff. One aligned definition. One SLA both teams agree to. No more finger-pointing.
Experience across
