What is Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
A lead that has shown interest through marketing interactions and meets basic qualification criteria.
Definition
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has engaged with your marketing content or campaigns and meets predefined criteria suggesting they might be interested in your product. Common MQL triggers include: downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar, visiting the pricing page, or filling out a form. MQLs are passed to the sales team for further qualification. The MQL concept is increasingly criticised because many MQL definitions are too loose – resulting in 60-70% of MQLs never converting.
Why Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) Matters
The traditional MQL model leads to sales and marketing misalignment. Marketing teams optimise for volume (more MQLs), while sales teams need quality (leads that actually buy). This is why modern B2B companies are moving from MQL-based handoffs to intent-based scoring that measures genuine buying readiness.
How IngageNow Uses Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
IngageNow moves beyond the MQL model with 37-level scoring that measures actual buying intent, not just marketing activity. A prospect who downloaded an ebook but has no budget scores low, while a VP who visited your pricing page once but has strong firmographic fit scores high.
Try IngageNow FreeRelated Terms
Assigning numerical values to leads to prioritise those most likely to convert.
A detailed description of the type of company that would get the most value from your product.
A lead that has been vetted by the sales team and confirmed as a genuine potential buyer.
The process a B2B buyer goes through from identifying a problem to purchasing a solution.