MQL, SQL and qualified meeting measure different moments.
An MQL is a lead marketing judges likely to buy. An SQL is one sales has accepted to work. A qualified meeting is a conversation that actually happened with a fitting buyer.
How we use it.
We do not sell MQLs or SQLs. Both are labels on a record, and both can be assigned without the prospect ever speaking to you. The unit we price and guarantee is the qualified meeting: a conversation that happened, with someone who fits and can buy.
When you compare vendors, ask which of the three a price is attached to. A cost per MQL and a cost per qualified meeting can differ many times over, and only one of them puts a person in front of your closer.
One prospect, three labels (fictional)
A fictional operations director downloads a guide: marketing marks her an MQL.
A rep checks her company size and role and accepts her: she is now an SQL.
She agrees to Tuesday at 10am and joins the call: now a qualified meeting under all four rules.
Only the last step needed her to do anything with your team.
Common mistakes
- Paying a qualified-meeting price for what is really an SQL with a calendar invite.
- Letting marketing and sales define the labels differently, so the reports never agree.
- Reading a high MQL count as pipeline. Labels measure interest; meetings measure conversations.
