An MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) is a lead whose behavior and firmographics suggest interest worth a sales call. An SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) is a lead a sales rep has accepted, contacted, and confirmed has budget, authority, need, and timing to buy. The handoff between the two is the single most contested boundary in B2B revenue, and ambiguity here costs more pipeline than any other RevOps gap.
The definitions
- MQL. A lead that crossed a scoring or behavioral threshold defined by marketing. Examples: scored above 75 in your model, requested a demo, downloaded a high-intent asset, attended a product webinar.
- SQL. A lead a sales rep has spoken to (or attempted to, with documented disposition) and confirmed meets your qualification criteria — typically BANT, MEDDIC, or a custom version. The rep formally accepts ownership.
The defining moment is acceptance: an MQL becomes an SQL only when sales takes responsibility for working it.
How the handoff works
A clean handoff has four required artifacts:
- A shared definition. Marketing and sales sign off on the same MQL and SQL criteria, in writing, reviewed quarterly.
- A routing SLA. First-touch within minutes for inbound demo requests; one business day for content-driven MQLs.
- A rejection path. Sales can reject an MQL with a reason code (bad fit, no budget, wrong title), which feeds the lead score model and ICP refinement.
- A conversion metric. MQL-to-SQL conversion rate, tracked weekly by source and segment.
Without all four, leads stall. Marketing claims it sent 500 MQLs; sales claims it got 50 worth talking to.
Benchmarks
For B2B SaaS:
- MQL-to-SQL conversion: 13 to 25 percent for content-led; 40 to 60 percent for demo requests
- SQL-to-opportunity conversion: 50 to 70 percent
- MQL-to-closed-won: 1 to 3 percent overall
If your MQL-to-SQL conversion is below 10 percent, your scoring model is too loose or your ICP is wrong. Above 50 percent for content-led leads usually means your bar is too high and sales is missing pipeline.
Common pitfalls
- Volume targets on MQLs. Marketing optimizes for MQL count, sales gets garbage. Switch to SQL or pipeline-sourced as the marketing KPI.
- No rejection reasons. If sales just lets bad MQLs go cold instead of rejecting with a reason, the scoring model never improves.
- Different definitions per segment. Enterprise and SMB need different MQL bars. One universal threshold underweights enterprise intent signals.
Related
- Lead scoring — the mechanism that produces MQLs
- Lead routing — how MQLs get to the right rep
- ICP — the firmographic basis for both stages