MQL vs SQL

Both a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and a Sales Qualified Lead are, as the name indicates, a qualified lead. However, the type of qualification varies, especially due to them being usually developed by different departments with different objectives. That’s why it is so important that there is a clear definition for each of the leads.

To know more about the difference between these two kind of leads, read our article dedicated to that subject.

Parameters to consider in the definition

Lead behaviour

One of the most important factors in deferenciating the two types of leads is the person’s behaviour, more specifically the way the person interacts with the digital presence of the company or the way the person gets in touch with the company.

Usually, a person that has interacted with your company’s website, or some sort of digital presence of yours, and revealed an interest by your contents (filled out a form, participated in a poll, etc.), providing a little bit of information (name or email), is considered a MQL.

What the company needs to define is what behaviours fit the definition of each lead.

Lead’s demographic

It is also important to define the demographic parameters, like regions, billing, number of employes, etc.

In the exemple given above, depending on the kind of revealed information, it could be a SQL. Many times, when a person describes its need and its budget, for instance, it is already considered as a SQL, even though it came from the same method as the MQL.

Scoring

To give different scores to each of the criteria identified as essential for each of the leads, allows the sales team to prioritize their follow-up contacts. Besides this, it also offers the marketing department a way to evaluate their inbound efforts.