MQL vs sales qualified lead
Marketing Strategy

Marketing Qualified vs Sales Qualified Leads: Who Owns What, and When?

In many businesses, the line between marketing and sales is fuzzy. That fuzziness often creates confusion, misalignment, and missed opportunities, especially when it comes to leads.

At the heart of this problem lies a deceptively simple question: Who owns which lead, and when?

The answer isn’t just academic. It determines:

  • How well your marketing and sales teams collaborate
  • How quickly your leads move through the funnel
  • How efficiently you convert interest into revenue

To fix the confusion, you need clarity. That clarity begins with understanding the difference between a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL).

Let’s break it down.

What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?

An MQL is a lead who has shown enough interest or engagement to indicate potential as a customer but not quite enough to warrant a direct call from sales.

This is someone who:

  • Downloaded a whitepaper
  • Subscribed to your newsletter
  • Attended a webinar
  • Visited your pricing page multiple times
  • Requested a product demo (but hasn’t scheduled it)

They’re interested. Curious. Aware of your brand. But they’re not yet ready to buy.

Marketing owns this stage. It’s their job to generate demand, educate the lead, and nurture that interest.

How do you know someone is an MQL? By using scoring models. Typically, marketing teams apply lead scoring frameworks based on:

  • Behavioural triggers (downloads, time on site, etc.)
  • Demographics (job title, company size, industry)
  • Fit (based on your ideal customer profile)

Once a lead crosses a threshold score, they become an MQL and should be flagged for review or hand-off.

What Is a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)?

An SQL is a lead that has been vetted and deemed ready for direct sales engagement.

They’ve gone beyond casual interest. They’ve either:

  • Requested a sales conversation
  • Responded positively to outreach
  • Asked detailed product or pricing questions
  • Indicated a buying timeline

They’re actively considering a purchase. That makes them sales-ready.

At this point, the sales team owns the lead. Their job? To:

  • Personalise the outreach
  • Uncover specific pain points
  • Demonstrate product fit
  • Close the deal

This transition from MQL to SQL is crucial. If you pass leads too early, sales waste time. If you pass leads too late, momentum is lost.

Why the Distinction Matters

Misunderstandings around MQLs and SQLs hurt growth.

Common issues include:

  • Marketing says: “We delivered 500 leads last month!”
  • Sales says: “They were all junk.”

This results in frustration, blame, and silence, none of which are healthy for any business.

The core problem isn’t volume. It’s qualification.

Defining the line between MQL and SQL gives both teams shared expectations. It creates a common language and builds trust.

When done right, this hand-off becomes seamless. Like a baton pass in a relay race, it keeps momentum going.

Who Owns What, and When?

The cleanest way to define ownership is in three stages:

  1. Marketing Generated Lead (Top of Funnel):
    • New contact. Little to no engagement.
    • Owned by marketing.
  2. Marketing Qualified Lead (Middle of Funnel):
    • Shows real interest and fits the ICP.
    • Still owned by marketing, but monitored for hand-off.
  3. Sales Qualified Lead (Bottom of Funnel):
    • Expressed buying intent.
    • Owned by sales.

Ownership should be based on readiness, not internal politics.

And just because a lead becomes an SQL doesn’t mean marketing steps away. Great revenue teams know it’s a loop, not a line.

How to Align on Lead Qualification

Here’s how high-performing teams create clarity:

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

You can’t score leads without knowing what a good lead looks like. Align on:

  • Industry
  • Company size
  • Job role
  • Budget
  • Pain points

This becomes the benchmark for lead scoring.

2. Build a Lead Scoring Model

Use a mix of:

  • Explicit data (company size, role)
  • Implicit behaviour (downloads, visits, webinar signups)

Assign points. Determine a threshold. Agree on what makes a lead “qualified.”

3. Set a Service-Level Agreement (SLA)

This is a contract between marketing and sales. It should outline:

  • What qualifies as an MQL
  • How quickly sales will respond to an SQL
  • Feedback loops and follow-up protocols

This creates accountability on both sides.

4. Use Technology to Automate the Hand-Off

Platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce make this easier.

  • Trigger alerts for sales when leads become MQLs
  • Set automatic tasks
  • Track lead source and engagement

Automation ensures no lead slips through the cracks.

What Happens When There’s Misalignment?

When marketing and sales aren’t aligned on lead definitions:

  • Marketing celebrates vanity metrics
  • Sales wastes time on poor-fit leads
  • Prospects get inconsistent messaging
  • Conversion rates suffer

And eventually, leadership starts asking hard questions about ROI. Misalignment is a performance killer.

How to Recycle Leads That Aren’t Ready

Sometimes, sales reaches out to an SQL… and they’re ghosted. But that doesn’t mean the lead is dead. It just means they weren’t quite ready.

Smart teams send them back into the marketing nurture track. This is known as lead recycling.

Marketing can:

  • Send relevant content
  • Invite them to events
  • Share case studies

This keeps the relationship warm until they’re ready again.

Marketing’s Role Doesn’t End at MQL

Modern marketing teams don’t just generate leads and walk away. They support the entire buyer journey. That includes:

  • Creating sales enablement content
  • Providing insights from lead behaviour
  • Helping sales personalise outreach

When marketing sticks around, sales becomes more effective.

And when sales shares insights back, marketing gets smarter.

When Sales Doesn’t Follow Up

This is the elephant in the room. Sometimes, leads are qualified… and sales doesn’t follow up.

Why?

  • Lack of capacity
  • No buy-in on the scoring model
  • Poor visibility into the lead’s journey

The fix isn’t to point fingers. It’s to:

  • Review the SLA
  • Audit follow-up times
  • Listen to call recordings
  • Share real examples of missed opportunities

Culture matters here. Transparency builds trust.

Examples in Action

B2B SaaS Example

  • A marketing team drives leads through gated content.
  • Once a lead downloads three assets and visits the pricing page twice, they become an MQL.
  • If they then request a demo, they’re promoted to SQL.
  • Sales follows up within 24 hours.

This is clear, measurable and repeatable.

B2C Example (High-Ticket Services)

  • A prospective customer fills out a long-form application.
  • Marketing reviews and qualifies based on income, interest, and timeline.
  • If approved, sales is notified and takes over.

The criteria are different, but the principle remains the same.

Metrics That Matter

Don’t just track lead volume. Track:

  • MQL to SQL conversion rate
  • SQL to customer rate
  • Average time to follow up
  • Feedback loop quality (sales to marketing)

These reveal the health of your funnel. If MQL-to-SQL rates are low, your scoring might be off. If SQL-to-close is low, sales might need better enablement, or the leads aren’t ready.

One Funnel, One Team

Marketing and sales aren’t rivals. They’re different parts of the same engine.

The customer doesn’t care who owns the lead. They just want relevance, clarity, and help.

When you align on MQLs and SQLs, you stop dropping the baton. Instead, you start building momentum with clear definitions, clean hand-offs and shared accountability. That’s how you turn interest into revenue and leads into lifelong customers. To find out more on how to qualify leads, get in touch to book a discovery call.

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