Blog 72: What is MQL, SQL and PQL?
- Idea2Product2Business Team
- Jul 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Knowing whether a lead is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) or a Product Qualified Lead (PQL) is important if we want to increase the probability of our conversions. Based on the lead type, we will customise the experience and the content offered. A lead goes from being a MQL to a SQL to a PQL and then eventually to being a customer.
Marketing Qualified Lead is a lead that the marketing team has assigned as most likely to become a customer compared to other leads. This is based on the leads’ navigation activities on the website, the pages visited, content downloaded, social media interactions, etc.
Sales Qualified Lead is a prospect that is ready to talk to a sales team. Their activities indicate a desire towards the product. They are evaluated by the marketing team and passed on to the sales team.
Product Qualified Lead is a lead who has already experienced meaningful value using the product through a free trial or freemium model. This makes the sale easier. PQLs (of B2B SaaS businesses) conversion percentage is approximately 20-30%. Some examples of PQL definitions, a) Slack: A SQL becomes a PQL when an account reaches its 2000 message limit. b) Facebook: A SQL becomes a PQL when someone adds 7 friends.
The biggest difference between the three leads is their intent to buy. An SQL is ready for the sales team when they have an intent to purchase. Sending an MQL early to the sales team can result in losing them completely. Hence, our adopted tactics should be lead appropriate as they journey through the marketing funnel stages (refer blog 42: What are the marketing funnel stages?).
Additionally, by tracking MQL, SQL, and PQL we can identify similar behavioural patterns exhibited by each of the three leads.
Other differences between MQL, SQL, and PQL:
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) | Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) | Product Qualified Lead (PQL) |
Not ready to make a purchase | Ready to make a purchase | Experienced meaningful value in product |
May download top-of-funnel content | May download bottom-of-funnel content | Signed up for a free trial/freemium account |
Undecided but still shows interest | Reached the decision-making stage | Reached purchase-making stage |
Salient characteristics to keep in mind:
- The way we define a MQL, SQL, or a PQL will depend on our business. There is no one-size fit all definition. A product-led go-to-market strategy can help us identify PQLs (refer blog 71: How do product-led and sales-led strategies differ?).
- Tagging a lead as a MQL or SQL or PQL is a continuous process - requires regular finetuning.
Jump to blog 100 to refer to the overall product management mind map.
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All the best! 😊