An MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) is a lead that has met predefined criteria indicating they're worth sales attention. Typically, MQL criteria combine demographic fit (right company size, right industry, right title) with behavioral engagement (downloaded content, attended a webinar, visited the pricing page). When a lead crosses the MQL threshold, marketing "hands it off" to sales for follow-up.
Why It Matters
The MQL is where marketing and sales alignment either works or breaks. If the MQL definition is too loose, sales gets flooded with low-quality leads and stops trusting marketing. If it's too strict, good leads sit in nurture while competitors reach them first. The definition needs to be agreed upon by both teams and backed by data showing which criteria actually predict conversion. And the data feeding those criteria needs to be accurate, otherwise the threshold is meaningless.
Typical MQL Criteria
- Demographic fit: Company size, industry, job title, and geography match your ICP. This requires enriched data, not just what the form captured
- Engagement score: Points accumulated from content downloads, email clicks, page visits, and event attendance exceed a threshold
- Recency: Engagement happened recently. A lead who was active 6 months ago but went silent shouldn't be an MQL today
- Negative disqualification: Exclude competitors, students, job seekers, and existing customers from MQL status regardless of engagement
- Intent signals: Third-party intent data showing the account is actively researching your category adds urgency to the MQL
Example
Marketing defines MQL as: 50+ employees, in a target industry, Manager+ title, with 3+ engagements in the last 30 days. Before enrichment, 40% of leads can't be scored because they're missing company size or title. After enrichment, coverage jumps to 92%. Monthly MQL volume increases by 35% because leads that were stuck in "unknown" now have enough data to qualify.
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