Marketing Qualified Lead

Also called MQL

A marketing qualified lead: a lead that has engaged enough, downloaded, signed up, visited key pages, that marketing judges them worth passing to sales, but who has not yet been sales-verified.

Why it matters

The MQL is the handoff point between marketing and sales, and disagreements over what counts as one are a classic source of friction. Aligning the two on the definition keeps good leads from falling through the cracks.

For example

A prospect who has visited the pricing page twice and opened three emails is flagged a marketing qualified lead and handed to sales.

Go deeper

The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO Amazon · article This is the book that made MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion) a household framework for enterprise selling, written by a five time CRO. As a tiny unknown startup, your problem is not charisma, it is navigating a complex buying committee you cannot see, and this book teaches you exactly how to find and arm a champion who sells for you on the inside. Treat it as a starting point on qualification: it is dense and enterprise heavy, so read for the champion and pain chapters first. Open amazon.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Getting your first customers, part of the Starting Up hub.

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