Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
An MQL is a record that has met a documented, enforced threshold of fit and intent, and that marketing is formally handing to sales.
The definition has two halves, and operationalising only one is what produces the familiar failure. Fit is ICP conformance, evaluable from firmographic data. Intent is demonstrated behavior at a threshold. An MQL is the conjunction, not either alone, which is why engagement-only scoring produces high volume and low acceptance.
An MQL is also a commitment: it obligates a receiving function to work the record within a defined window and to dispose of it with a recorded reason. Without that reciprocal obligation, MQL count is a marketing vanity metric with no downstream consequence.
Where it breaks
MQL volume is a marketing target, sales acceptance is not tracked, and the two teams debate lead quality with no shared record of disposition.
Related terms
- Lead scoring
- Lead scoring is a model that ranks records by expected conversion, and it is only valid when it is calibrated against realized outcomes.
- Sales accepted lead (SAL)
- A SAL is an MQL that the receiving sales function has explicitly accepted as workable, creating the only honest measurement of demand quality.
- Lifecycle stage
- A lifecycle stage is a named condition for a declared object, with entry evidence, exit evidence, effective rules, and decision ownership.
- Qualification logic
- Qualification logic is the explicit, shared rule set that determines when a record is worth advancing, and it must resolve to the same answer in marketing, sales and the CRM.
Field notes on this
- The MQL debate needs an acceptance record
A recorded acceptance decision makes lead-quality disputes inspectable. It is a signal, not a complete diagnosis of demand performance.