An MQL (marketing qualified lead) is a prospect that marketing considers ready to hand over to sales. An SAL (sales accepted lead) is an MQL that sales agrees to follow up. An SQL (sales qualified lead) is a prospect that sales has qualified as a potential customer. What separates them: who decides, and on what criteria.
Two teams, two numbers, one meeting
Marketing announces a record month of MQLs. Sales replies that not a single serious prospect came through. Both are right, and that is exactly where things jam: each team counts something different.
If SQL and MQL are acronyms that mean something to you, you know this scene. It almost always comes from definitions that were never written down, or written by only one of the two teams.
This guide sets out the three definitions, shows why the SAL changes everything, and gives the method we use so that marketing and sales finally count the same thing.
MQL, SAL, SQL: the three definitions
HubSpot defines an MQL as a contact or company that the marketing team has qualified as ready for the sales team, and an SQL as a contact or company that the sales team has qualified as a potential customer.[1] The SAL comes from elsewhere: the SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall, a model first launched in 2006 and since taken over by Forrester.[2]
In practice, each stage has an owner and a criterion:
- MQL: marketing raises its hand. The prospect looks like your target customer and has taken an action that shows interest: a demo request, a visit to the pricing page, a guide download. Marketing decides.
- SAL: sales takes over. A rep has looked at the MQL and agrees to follow it up, or rejects it with a reason. Sales decides, within an agreed time frame.
- SQL: sales confirms. After a real conversation, the rep confirms a need, a project and a person who can make the decision. From there, you open an opportunity, a deal in HubSpot.
The SAL is the handshake
The SAL is the moment sales commits. Until a rep has accepted an MQL, that MQL belongs to no one. And in HubSpot, this stage doesn’t exist by default: the lifecycle stages offered are subscriber, lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity, customer, evangelist and other.[1]
Forrester sums up well what the two teams need to settle: what an MQL is, what an SAL is, the sales response time for marketing-generated demand, and the criteria for accepting or rejecting a lead.[2]
Response time, in fact, weighs heavily. In a study published by Harvard Business Review in 2011, covering 1.25 million leads at 42 US companies, firms that tried to reach a prospect within an hour of the inquiry were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that waited an hour or more.[3] The same researchers sent a test inquiry through the websites of 2,241 US companies: 23% never responded.[3] The study is fifteen years old, and the principle still holds: a prospect who waits goes cold.
Aligning marketing and sales in five steps
This is the method we apply with our partners, before touching the tool.
- 1. Write the MQL definition together. Two families of criteria: fit (industry, size, role, region) and behaviour (demo request, pricing page visit, repeat visits to the site). Every criterion must be checkable in the CRM, with no interpretation.
- 2. Set the SAL time frame and rules. How long does sales have to accept or reject an MQL? Which rejection reasons are allowed? A rejection without a reason teaches marketing nothing.
- 3. Define the SQL through the conversation. A confirmed need, a dated project, a person who decides or weighs on the decision. An SQL is established after a conversation, never on a score alone.
- 4. Build the definitions into the tool. Lifecycle stage, lead status, rejection reason, date each stage was reached. HubSpot lets you customize the default stages or create your own, so you can add an SAL.[1] With Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, the leads object also tracks each prospect, from the New stage to Qualified or Disqualified.[4]
- 5. Review the conversion rates every month. From MQL to SAL, from SAL to SQL, from SQL to customer. A rate that drops tells you where to look: the definition, the time frame, or the offer.
Here is what a written definition looks like. The company is fictional: an industrial parts distributor on Montreal’s South Shore.
- MQL: a purchasing or maintenance manager at a Quebec plant with more than 50 employees who requested a quote or viewed two spec sheets within 30 days.
- SAL: a rep accepts or rejects it, with a reason, within 4 business hours.
- SQL: after a call, a confirmed need, an estimated volume and a purchase date within 6 months.
A definition like this one can be agreed in a single meeting. What takes time is making it stick, month after month. Learn more: our RevOps approach.
An MQL is not a marketing contact
In HubSpot, the two terms sound alike and mean two different things. Marketing contact status is a property separate from the lifecycle stage: only marketing contacts receive your marketing emails, and only they count toward your contact tier and the cost of your subscription.[5]
An MQL tells you where a prospect stands. Marketing contact status tells you what it costs you. Mixing the two up means risking paying for contacts nobody follows up. Learn more: HubSpot pricing: what drives the cost of your subscription.
The MQL has its limits
An MQL measures one person. Yet a B2B purchase decision often involves several. In May 2021, Forrester evolved the SiriusDecisions waterfall into the B2B Revenue Waterfall, focused on buying groups and opportunities. The new role of marketing and sales, Forrester’s Monica Behncke said at the time, is to help buyers progress through their buying journey, not to push leads through a funnel.[6] The same announcement states that in consensus buying scenarios, 95% of current purchases involve three or more people across two or more departments.[6]
Should you drop the MQL? For a small business, no. It is a simple signal that two small teams can track without specialized software. Treat it as a signal, not a trophy: associate each MQL with its company, look at who else in that company is interested in you, and judge marketing on SQLs and revenue rather than on MQL volume.
And if you ever hand qualification over to an AI agent, it will apply your definition, good or bad. Write it first. Learn more: What is an AI agent, and what it really does for a small business.
How we see it
Definitions before tools. An MQL, an SAL and an SQL are defined around a table, with marketing and sales, then built into HubSpot. In that order, never the other way around. That’s how we see things, and we won’t change. Learn more: our HubSpot services.
If you are a small B2B team that has to do everything at once, this is exactly the kind of project we take on with you, working as part of your team. Learn more: how we work with B2B teams.
One definition. One time frame. One shared number.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL is a prospect that marketing considers ready for sales, based on fit and actions such as a demo request or a pricing page visit. An SQL is a prospect that sales has qualified as a potential customer after a real conversation. Marketing decides on the MQL, sales decides on the SQL.
What is an SAL?
An SAL, or sales accepted lead, is an MQL that sales has agreed to follow up. It is the intermediate stage between MQL and SQL, from the SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall, now part of Forrester. It requires sales to accept or reject every MQL, with a reason, within a time frame agreed with marketing.
Who decides that a prospect becomes an MQL?
Marketing, but according to a definition written with sales. It combines fit criteria, such as industry, size or role, with behaviour criteria, such as a quote request. Every criterion must be checkable in the CRM, with no interpretation, otherwise each team keeps its own version of the MQL.
How do you manage MQLs and SQLs in HubSpot?
With the Lifecycle stage property, whose default stages are subscriber, lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity, customer, evangelist and other. HubSpot lets you customize these stages or create new ones, such as an SAL. With Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, the leads object also tracks each prospect, from the New stage to Qualified or Disqualified.
Is the MQL outdated?
Not for a small business, as long as you treat it as a signal rather than a goal. Forrester evolved its model in 2021 toward buying groups and opportunities, because a B2B decision often involves several people. Associate each MQL with its company, and judge marketing on SQLs and revenue.
Sources
- ↑ a b c HubSpot, “Use contact and company lifecycle stages“, HubSpot Knowledge Base, updated July 17, 2026.
- ↑ a b Steve Silver, “The Demand Waterfall®: What Sales Operations Needs to Know“, Forrester, May 17, 2018.
- ↑ a b James B. Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads“, Harvard Business Review, March 2011 (paywalled; figures reported by SmartCompany, July 2011). “Qualify” means having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker; the 42 companies are 29 B2C and 13 B2B firms.
- ↑ HubSpot, “View and edit individual lead records“, HubSpot Knowledge Base, updated July 24, 2026.
- ↑ HubSpot, “Understand marketing contacts“, HubSpot Knowledge Base, updated September 14, 2026.
- ↑ a b Forrester, “Forrester Debuts Next-Generation B2B Revenue Waterfall To Help Firms Accelerate Revenue Growth“, press release, May 4, 2021.
