What is a sales qualified lead (SQL), and how is it different from an MQL?

Marketing hands sales a list of “hot leads,” sales calls them and finds half aren’t a fit, and both teams end up arguing about whose numbers are wrong. The fix is not more leads — it is a shared definition of when a lead stops being marketing’s responsibility and becomes sales’s. That definition is the line between an MQL and an SQL.

What is an MQL?

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is someone who has engaged enough with marketing to look like a real prospect, based on activity: downloading a guide, attending a webinar, visiting the pricing page repeatedly, or scoring high enough on a lead scoring model. An MQL is a signal of interest, not a guarantee of fit — plenty of MQLs turn out to be students, competitors, or people with no budget at all.

What is an SQL, and how does it differ?

A sales qualified lead (SQL) has passed a further check, usually a conversation with a sales development rep, confirming they have a real need, the budget or authority to buy, and a timeline that makes sense. The difference is verification: an MQL is qualified by behavior, an SQL is qualified by a human judgment call that the opportunity is real and worth a rep’s time.

How does a CRM track the MQL-to-SQL handoff?

A CRM makes this a defined workflow rather than a guess. Marketing automation raises a lead’s lead score or status to MQL once it crosses a threshold, which triggers lead routing to an SDR. The SDR logs the qualifying call directly on the lead record, and if it checks out, converts the lead to an SQL and creates an opportunity — the same handoff that turns a lead into a contact and an opportunity. Because both stages live in the same system, marketing and sales report from the same numbers instead of two disconnected spreadsheets.

Why does the distinction matter?

Without it, teams disagree about whose fault a bad lead is. Marketing hits its MQL quota by lowering the bar; sales ignores leads it does not trust; and the business cannot tell whether its funnel problem is volume, quality, or follow-up speed. Agreeing on what counts as an SQL — in writing, with the criteria built into the CRM — turns that argument into a measurable process.

What should you do next?

Write down, in one sentence per stage, what separates an MQL from an SQL for your business, and get marketing and sales to agree on it before your next lead review. Then configure your CRM to enforce it: an automatic score threshold for MQL, and a required qualifying-call log before a lead can be marked SQL. The goal is a handoff neither team has to argue about.