When Do MQLs become SQLs?

In order to succeed in the short-term and survive in the long-run, a business must accurately distinguish between MQLs (marketing qualified leads) and SQLs (sales qualified leads).

Now, we won’t drill into the differences between MQLs and SQLs, because we’ve already done that here. But because it’s part of our discussion on when MQLs become SQLs, we can quickly recap what these terms means:

About MQLs

MQLs are leads that are within a business’s target audience (i.e. they are included among its buyer personas). As such, there is a reasonable likelihood that they’ll be interested in accessing or receiving informative and educational content, which could include blog posts, ebooks, white papers, social media content, videos, and so on.  

It’s CRUCIALLY important to appreciate that MQLs are not sales-ready, and should not be engaged as if they were. Unfortunately, this is something that many businesses overlook or don’t understand, and it leads them to believe that their conversion rates are somewhere between underwhelming and disastrous.

In fact, and as noted by TechnologyAdvice.com, only 5-15 percent of leads are sales-ready from the outset. That means 85-95 percent of leads are at best MQLs (and some of them, frankly, aren’t legitimate leads at all and need to be filtered out of the pipeline ASAP so they don’t waste resources and time). 

About SQLs

SQLs are leads that are ready to make a purchase as soon as they find the right solution/vendor, or are very close to making a purchase (for B2C this duration is typically measured in days, while for B2B it’s typically measured in weeks).

As mentioned, a small portion of leads are SQLs right off the bat. But the majority aren’t, which means that they need to be cultivated and nurtured through inbound marketing campaigns.

When do MQLs become SQLs?

So, now that you know (or have had your memory refreshed) what MQLs and SQLs are, we can return to the big question: when do MQLs become SQLs?

To start with, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this – nor should there be. Each business has to find its own unique line between MQLs and SQLs, and they must also make ongoing adjustments based on incoming data.

Yet with this being said, there are some lead scoring factors that all businesses can use to help them identify where the hand-off occurs between SQLs and MQLs. These lead scoring factors include: 

• How many times a lead has visited the business’s website, social media page, or any other digital property.
• What actions a lead has taken (e.g. filling out forms, watching videos, reading blog posts, etc.).

• The source of the lead. This is helpful when the data supports that a higher proportion of eventual SQLs derive from a specific source, such as a LinkedIn Pulse post, a PPC ad displayed on a specific website, etc.).
• A lead’s job title/role. This is information that can be gleaned via forms).
• Where a lead is located. This may seem like an odd variable, but some businesses discover that certain parts of the country/world deliver a higher proportion of eventual SQLs).

This above identifies some (but certainly not all) of the building blocks for a robust, accurate and functional lead scoring system. As mentioned, each businesses needs to develop their model based on specific dynamics. They also need to constantly monitor if they’re setting the SQL bar too low or too high. If it’s too low, then MQLs will exit the customer journey because they feel “pushed” into buying too soon. If it’s too high, businesses will leave revenue on the table, and ironically, they’ll nurture and develop leads for their competition!

Learn More 

At Leap Clixx, we work closely with each of our customers to build a lead scoring system that fits their business and marketplace. We also create the content they need to engage MQLs and SQLs, and automate the process with a comprehensive inbound marketing system.

To learn more, contact us today and take advantage of your free consultation.

For more information on how to get more leads by turning your website into a lead generation machine, download our FREE eBook: