The share of marketing qualified leads that sales accepts as real opportunities. Read with the next stage, SQL to customer, it shows whether marketing is sending sales the right people.
Formula
MQL-to-SQL rate = SQLs ÷ MQLs (in the same period or cohort). Lead-to-customer rate = customers ÷ MQLs
Example
A Pune B2B software firm passes 400 MQLs to sales in a quarter. Sales accepts 80 as SQLs, so the MQL-to-SQL rate is 80 ÷ 400 = 20%. 16 of them buy, so 4% of MQLs became customers.
How you'll hear it
“MQLs doubled but the MQL-to-SQL rate fell to 12%, so the extra leads aren't adding much pipeline.”
What it helps you decide
Whether to tighten or loosen the lead scoring threshold, which campaigns to fund, and how much sales time to spend on marketing's leads.
Where people misread it
Teams celebrate a rising MQL count while the rate behind it falls. The rate also lags: an MQL from the last week of the quarter may become an SQL next quarter, so compare cohorts, not calendar totals.
The story
A Pune B2B software firm wants more pipeline. In the second quarter marketing runs a big webinar series, and MQLs double.
| MQLs | 400 |
| SQLs | 80 |
| Customers | 16 |
| MQL-to-SQL rate | 20% |
|---|
| MQLs | 800 |
| SQLs | 96 |
| Customers | 18 |
| MQL-to-SQL rate | 12% |
|---|
The headline looks right. Marketing reports 800 MQLs, twice the earlier number.
What it hides. Sales had to call twice as many people to find 16 more SQLs, and customers went from 16 to 18. Lead-to-customer fell from 4% (16 ÷ 400) to 2.25% (18 ÷ 800). Webinar attendance earned enough points to cross the score threshold, but attending a free webinar is not buying intent.
What to look at instead. Track MQL-to-SQL and SQL-to-customer by source. If webinar leads convert far worse, cut the points for attendance or add a fit condition, such as company size, before a lead becomes an MQL.
All figures are fictional and illustrative.
Check your lead funnel
The example's numbers are filled in. Replace them with yours.
Compare these rates by lead source. A source with many MQLs and a low MQL-to-SQL rate is costing sales time.
Don't confuse it with
- Conversion rate: a general share of visitors or users who complete an action; this one tracks a specific hand-off between marketing and sales.
- Lead scoring: the rule that creates MQLs; this rate tests whether that rule is right.