What is a Sales Qualified Lead
Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2025 5:11 am
A sales-qualified lead (SQL) is the fourth of six lifecycle stages in the buyer’s journey. It also happens to be both one of the most important and hardest stages for a company to define because it’s where the marketing-to-sales handoff occurs. So to provide some clarity, we think it’s prudent to review the other five lifecycle stages before discussing how the SQL stage fits in.
For your company to effectively execute transitions between lifecycle stages, you need to have an agreed upon definition between marketing and sales for each stage. To make that happen, it’s best to create a 99 acres database Service Level Agreement between those teams so you can identify gaps where people are falling off or your conversion tactics aren’t working. This allows you to go back and fix issues, improving your funnel’s performance over time.
What Are The Lifecycle Stages?
customer lifecycle funnel image
The customer lifecycle stages include:
Visitors
The definition of a site visitor is self-explanatory — a visitor is anyone who stops by your website. From a digital marketing perspective, understanding how many people are coming to your site is an important first step.
Leads
Leads are formed when a visitor has expressed interest in your company by providing their information. At that point, you’ve given them something of value through a gated piece of content or related offer such that they’re willing to provide details about themselves.
Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQLs)
When a company confirms a lead is a good fit and demonstrates return interest by marketing to them, that lead becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Once a lead becomes a MQL, the company continues to explore the contact and nurture them down the funnel.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
An MQL is characterized as an SQL when sales agrees with marketing that the contact has enough interest and is a good enough fit for a discovery call to initiate a sales conversation.
Opportunities
An SQL becomes an opportunity when they confirm your company could provide a viable solution to their problem and decide to continue the sales process by exploring your products and services in greater detail.
Customers
Opportunities become customers when they sign a deal.
Download the Essential Guide to Demand Generation
What is a Sales-Qualified Lead?
With that background in mind, let’s delve further into what characterizes a SQL.
Typically, a meeting is involved for an MQL to become an SQL. That meeting can be a demo, an assessment or even just a discovery call, but a conversation between the prospect and a sales rep should occur at this stage. The contact only becomes an opportunity if during this conversation they confirm interest in continuing the sales process and potentially making a purchase. Of course, this procedure can look different for every single company.
The reason SQLs look different for every company relates back to the SQL definition I gave earlier: “An MQL is characterized as an SQL when sales agrees with marketing that the contact has enough interest and is a good enough fit to start the sales conversation.” The key aspects that help define SQLs are their high levels of fit and interest. However, companies define high fit and high interest differently. Consider the fit-interest matrix below:
For your company to effectively execute transitions between lifecycle stages, you need to have an agreed upon definition between marketing and sales for each stage. To make that happen, it’s best to create a 99 acres database Service Level Agreement between those teams so you can identify gaps where people are falling off or your conversion tactics aren’t working. This allows you to go back and fix issues, improving your funnel’s performance over time.
What Are The Lifecycle Stages?
customer lifecycle funnel image
The customer lifecycle stages include:
Visitors
The definition of a site visitor is self-explanatory — a visitor is anyone who stops by your website. From a digital marketing perspective, understanding how many people are coming to your site is an important first step.
Leads
Leads are formed when a visitor has expressed interest in your company by providing their information. At that point, you’ve given them something of value through a gated piece of content or related offer such that they’re willing to provide details about themselves.
Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQLs)
When a company confirms a lead is a good fit and demonstrates return interest by marketing to them, that lead becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Once a lead becomes a MQL, the company continues to explore the contact and nurture them down the funnel.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
An MQL is characterized as an SQL when sales agrees with marketing that the contact has enough interest and is a good enough fit for a discovery call to initiate a sales conversation.
Opportunities
An SQL becomes an opportunity when they confirm your company could provide a viable solution to their problem and decide to continue the sales process by exploring your products and services in greater detail.
Customers
Opportunities become customers when they sign a deal.
Download the Essential Guide to Demand Generation
What is a Sales-Qualified Lead?
With that background in mind, let’s delve further into what characterizes a SQL.
Typically, a meeting is involved for an MQL to become an SQL. That meeting can be a demo, an assessment or even just a discovery call, but a conversation between the prospect and a sales rep should occur at this stage. The contact only becomes an opportunity if during this conversation they confirm interest in continuing the sales process and potentially making a purchase. Of course, this procedure can look different for every single company.
The reason SQLs look different for every company relates back to the SQL definition I gave earlier: “An MQL is characterized as an SQL when sales agrees with marketing that the contact has enough interest and is a good enough fit to start the sales conversation.” The key aspects that help define SQLs are their high levels of fit and interest. However, companies define high fit and high interest differently. Consider the fit-interest matrix below: