MQL

CRM & Retention

Also: Marketing Qualified Lead

What it isA lead marketing says is worth pursuing

Defined byAgreed criteria with sales

Next stepHandoff to sales as an SQL

Watch forCriteria that sales never agreed to

Quick definition

An MQL, or Marketing Qualified Lead, is a contact who has shown enough interest in your product or service that marketing considers them worth passing to sales. The threshold is set by an agreed definition of behaviour, fit or engagement, not by gut feel.

How it varies across Australia

MQL-to-SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) conversion rates vary widely by industry and by how tightly the MQL definition is written. Businesses with loose MQL criteria tend to volume-flood their sales teams and see low conversion rates downstream. Businesses with tighter criteria pass fewer leads but close at higher rates.

See lead qualification patterns across Australian industries →

What it actually means

MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead. It's the point in the funnel where marketing says: this person is ready for a sales conversation. The question is whether sales agrees.

The MQL definition is supposed to be a contract between marketing and sales. Marketing commits to passing leads that meet specific criteria. Sales commits to following up on those leads within an agreed time. When that contract is clear, MQL volume is a meaningful signal. When marketing writes the definition alone, it usually optimises for volume and the sales team spends its time chasing cold contacts.

The criteria for MQL status vary by business. In B2B SaaS, it might be a combination of company size, role seniority and product engagement. In professional services, it might be a form submission from a target industry. In ecommerce, the concept usually doesn't apply because there's no sales team to hand off to.

The MQL label itself is less important than the conversation it forces: who decides a lead is worth a sales rep's time, and what does that decision actually look like?

An MQL definition written by marketing alone is a number, not an agreement.

How it shows up

MQL status is typically assigned in a CRM or marketing automation platform when a contact crosses a threshold. That threshold can be built from lead scoring (a point system based on behaviour and fit attributes), from a specific action (booked a demo, downloaded a pricing guide), or from a combination of both.

The metric to watch is MQL-to-SQL conversion rate: of the leads marketing qualifies, how many does sales also qualify? A low rate means the definition is too loose. A very high rate sometimes means it's too tight and volume is being left behind.

The Australian context

In the Australian B2B market, the sales cycle is often shorter and the buyer group is smaller than in equivalent US businesses. This means the MQL definition tends to matter more per lead because there are fewer of them. Australian marketers running demand generation programmes often find that over-optimising for MQL volume, rather than MQL quality, wastes a disproportionate share of a small sales team's capacity.

Where people get this wrong

Marketing sets the MQL definition without sales input.Sales will ignore leads that don't match what they consider worth pursuing, regardless of what the CRM says the status is.

Treating every demo request or form fill as an MQL by default.Not every inbound action signals purchase intent. A competitor researching you, a student writing a thesis and a genuine buyer look identical in a form submission.

Reporting MQL volume without MQL-to-SQL conversion rate alongside it.Volume alone is gaming the metric. The conversion rate tells you whether the definition is working.

Related terms

Common questions

What makes a lead an MQL rather than just a lead?

An MQL meets a defined threshold of fit or engagement that marketing and sales have agreed signals readiness for a sales conversation. A plain lead is just a contact. The difference is the threshold, and the threshold only matters if sales helped write it.

How do I set MQL criteria for my business?

Start by asking sales which leads they actually close. Work backwards: what did those contacts have in common before the first sales conversation? Build your criteria from closed-won data, not from theory. Review and adjust every quarter.

What is a healthy MQL-to-SQL conversion rate?

Varies by how tightly the MQL definition is written. A loose definition produces high volume and low conversion. A tight definition produces lower volume and higher conversion. Neither extreme is ideal. The goal is a rate that sales would describe as 'most of these are worth my time.'

Does MQL apply to ecommerce?

Rarely. MQL is a B2B concept built around a handoff between marketing and a sales team. Ecommerce funnels typically go from lead to customer without a human sales step. The equivalent concept in ecommerce is more likely a warm retargeting audience or an abandoned cart segment.

Keep exploring

About New Rebellion

New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.

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