What is SQL?
Sales Qualified Lead
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is an MQL that sales has reviewed and accepted as worth pursuing.
MQL + BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) verificationWhy SQL matters
Sales owns SQL definition. A healthy funnel converts 20-40% of MQLs to SQLs. Below that = misaligned lead criteria. Above = marketing being too strict (missing volume).
Worked example
Plug a real number into the formula to see SQL in action:
Numbers are illustrative. Try our B2B SEO Maturity Scorer for your real numbers.
Common mistakes with SQL
- 1
Buying intent data without a clean ICP. Intent without fit is noise.
- 2
Letting marketing pass MQLs without sales SLA. Leads age — 5-minute response wins, 24-hour response loses.
- 3
Optimizing for volume over quality. 100 enterprise leads beats 10,000 SMB leads on most B2B P&Ls.
How to improve SQL
Build an ICP scorecard with firmographic + technographic signals. Score every inbound and route accordingly.
Implement 5-minute SLA on inbound demos. Speed-to-lead is the single biggest pipeline lever.
Layer LinkedIn ads on top of your CRM ICP. Account-based targeting at scale outperforms generic by 2-3×.
Common questions about SQL
What is SQL?▾
How is SQL calculated?▾
Why does SQL matter for marketing teams?▾
Related terms
Need help applying SQL to your business?
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