What is an MQL (Marketing-Qualified Lead)?
Short answer
An MQL is a lead qualified by marketing behaviour (content downloads, webinar attendance, pricing page visits) but not yet sales-ready. Upstream of SQL in the B2B funnel.
The long answer
MQL represents leads who have engaged with marketing enough to warrant nurture, but haven't yet shown direct buying intent. For Indian B2B SMBs with thin marketing motions, MQL may be a smaller category, many leads arrive through paid ads, referrals, or aggregators with clearer intent signals that skip directly to SQL. The MQL→SQL transition is exactly where a Priority Queue and Morning Brief earn their keep.
→Check it yourself
How to tell where you actually stand.
Check whether your qualification step measures demand or merely attention.
- 01Identify the action that makes a lead qualified in your setup.
- 02Count how many leads with that action ever reached a conversation with a rep.
- 03If most did not, the threshold is measuring interest, which is a much weaker claim.
Next
People also ask
In the product
Ready when you are
The fastest answer is your own data.
Import a CSV and every lead comes back graded A–F with a ranked queue per rep. Same-day setup, no card, no sales call.
Free forever · 1 user · 100 leads · No card