Popular Marketing Posts
What Clients Say
Pamela Mann is a leading UK manufacturer of fashion hosiery supplying high street and online retail shops with the latest fashion tights, stockings, socks and leggings. We wanted to promote our website to a wider audience and customer base. After working with Chris our website now has a much higher online profile for both our wholesale and retail businesses and we are happy to recommend.
What's The Difference Between MQLs and SQLs (and Why It Matters)
If your website captures leads but hardly any turn into real customers, here’s the question you need to be asking:
Are you treating all leads the same?
Knowing the difference between an MQL and an SQL isn’t about following some complex sales model. It’s really just about being smarter with your leads. Who needs more warming up, and who’s ready for a real conversation? If you can pick up on this difference early, you can remove a huge amount of guesswork from the equation.
What Is an MQL?
A Marketing Qualified Lead is someone who’s shown clear interest, but they’re not ready for sales yet.
They might have downloaded something, signed up for a webinar, subscribed to a newsletter - that kind of thing. They’re curious. Aware of what you offer. But they haven’t given a strong enough signal that they’re close to making a buying decision.
It’s early-stage awareness - they’re still browsing, learning, comparing options. These people need education, not a sales call.
What Is an SQL?
A Sales Qualified Lead has gone further. These are the leads that have taken steps showing serious interest - not just general awareness.
For example:
- Asking about pricing
- Booking a call or demo
- Requesting a proposal
- Filling out a "talk to sales" form
An SQL has gone past “looking around” and stepped toward actually engaging with your business.
That’s the point where sales teams can step in with specific offers and clear next steps - because the timing is finally right.
Why Getting This Wrong Slows Everything Down
If you treat all leads as “sales ready,” here’s what usually happens:
- The sales team spends too much time chasing cold or half-interested leads
- Good leads go untouched or disappear because they weren’t picked out early
- Marketing reports feel empty - loads of activity, few real results
But when you start flagging leads as MQLs and SQLs early on - and you have a way to track it - you start sending stronger leads to the sales team and improving the way marketing guides people forward.
Basically: better timing, better conversations, and better use of your team.
How Do You Know Which Is Which?
Every business sets different rules based on actual buyer behaviour, and this matters.
You might decide:
- Anyone who watches 50% of a webinar becomes an MQL
- A lead becomes an SQL after they ask about your services or visit your pricing page more than once
You create your own triggers based on patterns. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but it has to match your customer journey - not someone else’s.
Simple Changes, Big Impact
If your pipeline feels random or too full of dead-end leads, there’s a good chance it’s missing this structure.
Figuring out what separates your MQLs from your SQLs gives you a golden opportunity to stop wasting effort, follow up faster, and connect with the right people at the right time.
Whether your sales team is two people or twenty, building this kind of lead process makes a measurable difference - fast. It’s not just another fad or theory, it’s how stronger sales and results happen.