Sales-Qualified Lead (SQL) is a lead that has been vetted — usually after being a marketing-qualified lead — and judged ready for direct engagement by a salesperson.
A Sales-Qualified Lead has shown enough fit and intent that a salesperson should act on it now. It is the stage after a marketing-qualified lead: marketing hands over the lead, and sales accepts it as worth pursuing.
An MQL has engaged enough to suggest interest (downloaded a guide, attended a webinar). An SQL has been further qualified — against budget, authority, need and timing, or a lead score combining fit and intent — and is ready for a sales conversation. The clean handoff between the two is where marketing and sales either trust each other or fall out.
Counting SQLs (not raw leads) keeps marketing honest: it rewards quality over volume. A programme judged on SQLs and the pipeline they create produces deals; one judged on lead count produces noise. See the B2B lead-gen playbook.
An MQL has shown marketing engagement suggesting interest; an SQL has been further qualified for fit and intent and is ready for direct sales follow-up. The SQL is closer to a real opportunity.
Ideally both teams, against a shared definition. Marketing passes leads that meet agreed criteria; sales accepts those it judges worth pursuing. Writing that definition down prevents disputes.
Because raw lead counts reward volume over quality. Counting sales-qualified leads ties marketing to pipeline and revenue, which is what the business actually cares about.
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