Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs) vs Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQLs)

While marketing qualified leads (MQLs) may seem like a useful tool for making sales, they differ significantly in practice from sales-qualified leads.

An MQL is a potential customer that's been reviewed by the marketing team and considered to be "marketing-qualified," which means they're more likely than other leads to eventually become a customer on their own.

While every company has its own definition of a marketing-qualified lead, most organizations use behavioral actions as indicators of interest to determine MQLs. For example, if a prospect clicks a CTA, downloads an ebook, attends a webinar, or looks at a pricing page, they may be deemed an MQL.

There are a few problems with using marketing-qualified leads to fill sales pipelines.

First, MQLs are often generated based on criteria that aren't always relevant to the eventual purchase.

Marketing teams may use broad demographics or industry data to determine who qualifies as an MQL, but these factors don't always reflect whether a lead is genuinely interested in a product or service, or whether they have purchasing power, budget, and authority.

MQLs are often generated based on "soft" indicators of interest, such as website activity or social media engagement.

Soft indicators don't always indicate an intent to purchase. For example, if someone attends a webinar on "the future of account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns," they may just want to learn about ABM and without desire to purchase ABM software.

Depending on the funnel stage an MQL is in, they may need more nurturing before they are ready to buy. Some are simply at the stage where they are looking for education and need additional engagement before they are ready to talk to sales.

Sales-Accepted Leads (SALs) vs Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs)

SALs are often the bridge between MQLS and SQLs since they have met the company's initial criteria for being considered a potential customer.

Factors that contribute to sales-accepted leads include: job title, company size, industry, intent signals,intent to offboard from a competitor, and budget.

All of this is a matter of priority. Sales teams, even large and well-funded teams, have limited time and resources. Thus, it's important to spend the most time on the highest potential leads.

Why are sales-qualified leads important?

Sales-qualified leads help sales reps prioritize their time and resources, resulting in increased productivity and revenue for the business.

When sales leaders can predict which leads are more likely to convert to customers, they can spend more time focusing on those prospects.

How to identify a sales-qualified lead?

Identifying an SQL requires careful analysis of customer data and feedback from the marketing and sales teams.

For new sales teams, sales leaders use first principles to determine how to qualify leads.

This can be as simple as creating an ideal customer profile and matching prospects to this profile.

As an example, suppose the owner of a services business that assists brands with their search engine optimization strategy decides to concentrate on a specific industry, such as B2B software.

Within that industry, they might identify the VP of Marketing as the budget holder and decision maker, and then narrow down their ideal customer profile to include only B2B software companies of a specific size or in a specific vertical. Using technology like LinkedIn Sales Solutions can help sales professionals identify key decision makers and buying committees within target companies.

Then, sales leaders must define an "event" or action that determines the purchase intent of a prospect.

What happens once a sales lead is "qualified?"

SQLs are enrolled in the sales process once they’re considered qualified.

Typically, a member of the sales team will set up a discovery call to learn more about the lead’s needs and preferences, and present the product or service as a solution that can help them achieve their goals.

Sales teams may use a variety of methods to connect with SQLs, like phone calls, LinkedIn InMail, emails, and in-person meetings. To stay connected to leads and continue engaging with them, sales professionals can upload leads to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which will in turn send alerts and insights to reps identifying changes within the company.

How to generate sales-qualified leads

Get marketing to commit to SQL and pipeline key performance indicators (KPIs).

When marketing teams are incentivized to increase MQLs regardless of quality, lead volume may rise, but the number of sales-qualified leads can stagnate or drop.

Specific strategies and channels to increase sales-qualified leads include:

How does lead scoring work?

Lead scoring is an important component of identifying sales-qualified leads as well as all other types of leads.

It involves assigning a numerical value to each lead based on criteria such as demographics, behavior, and engagement levels, in order to determine and predict their level of interest and potential as a customer.

Businesses set a threshold score that represents the minimum level of engagement or interest required to qualify as an SQL.

For example, a lead who's visited the pricing page multiple times, downloaded a white paper or ebook, or requested a consultation would likely score higher than a lead who simply visited a blog post once and left without taking action.

Demographic and firmographic characteristics also factor into this score. For example, a VP of marketing may have a higher score than a freelancer or junior marketing specialist.

How to close sales-qualified leads

For most companies, the "lead nurturing" process comes before the sales-qualified lead stage.

Once they've been accepted by the sales team and qualified, they enter the sales process.

This sales process differs from company to company, but typically follows these steps to get to the close: