What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
Last updated July 7, 2026
What Is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
'MQL' is where marketing and sales go to war. Marketing declares victory on lead volume; sales complains the leads are junk.
The short version
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect that marketing has judged more likely to become a customer than an average lead, based on their engagement, behaviour and fit with your ideal customer profile. It signals 'worth sales' attention soon' , but not yet 'ready to buy,' which is what a Sales Qualified Lead represents.
What makes a lead an MQL
An MQL is defined by a combination of fit and behaviour. Fit means they resemble your ideal customer. Behaviour means they've shown buying signals.
How MQLs are scored
Demographic and firmographic fit.
Engagement signals , content consumed, emails opened, pages visited.
Intent actions , pricing views, demo interest, high-value downloads.
Recency , recent activity counts far more than months-old clicks.
The definition is the whole game
The single biggest MQL failure is a definition marketing and sales never agreed on.
MQL to SQL
An MQL isn't the finish line , it's a checkpoint. Tracking the MQL-to-SQL conversion rate tells you whether marketing's definition is any good.
FAQ
What's the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL is qualified by marketing based on engagement and fit. An SQL has been further vetted by sales as genuinely ready to buy.
How do you define an MQL?
Jointly, with sales, using a mix of ideal-customer fit and buying-signal behaviour, documented and agreed.
Is a high MQL count good?
Not by itself. Volume without quality just floods sales with junk.
Sources
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