Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A lead that sales has confirmed is worth active pursuit, typically meeting BANT or similar qualification criteria.

A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a lead that the sales team has actively qualified and confirmed as worth pursuing. The SQL classification is sales’ formal commitment that the lead has the budget, authority, need, and timing (BANT) to be a real opportunity.

In the standard B2B handoff, a lead progresses MQL → SAL → SQL. The MQL is marketing’s flag. The SAL is sales’ acknowledgment that the MQL is worth a first-touch attempt. The SQL is sales’ confirmation, after that first conversation, that the lead is a legitimate buying opportunity.

How an SQL is defined

Unlike MQLs (which are usually defined by a score threshold), SQLs are defined by sales criteria. The most common framework is BANT:

  • Budget: the prospect has approved or accessible budget for a purchase in the relevant range
  • Authority: the contact is a decision-maker, or has direct access to one
  • Need: the prospect has a defined business problem the solution addresses
  • Timing: there is a specific timeframe for evaluation and purchase

Variants include MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion) for enterprise sales, and CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization) for SMB.

In practice, an SDR or AE flips the SQL field on the CRM record after a qualifying conversation, often a 15–30 minute discovery call.

Why the MQL→SQL conversion rate matters

The percentage of MQLs that convert to SQLs is the single most important alignment metric between marketing and sales. A healthy B2B SaaS team typically sees 13–25% MQL→SQL conversion (varies by industry and ACV). If the rate drops below 10%, one of three things is broken:

  1. The MQL definition is too loose. Marketing is sending leads that don’t meet basic fit criteria.
  2. The lead scoring model is uncalibrated. The score predicts engagement, not buying intent.
  3. Sales doesn’t trust marketing’s flags and isn’t pursuing them aggressively.

Teams that track this metric quarterly and recalibrate their scoring rules against actual SQL conversion rates outperform teams that “set and forget” their scoring model.

SQL vs adjacent terms

  • SQL vs MQL. MQL is marketing’s vote (“this lead looks engaged enough to hand off”). SQL is sales’ vote (“this lead has BANT and is worth working”).
  • SQL vs SAL. SAL (Sales Accepted Lead) is sales’ agreement to try the MQL. SQL comes after the first conversation, once qualification is confirmed.
  • SQL vs Opportunity. An Opportunity is the next stage after SQL: a defined deal with a stage, value, and close date in the CRM pipeline.

kenbun’s scoring drives the MQL handoff with explainable per-event rules, so by the time a lead reaches sales as an MQL, the AE can see exactly which signals fired and qualify against BANT with full context.

Related terms

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
A lead that marketing has decided is engaged or fit enough to hand to sales.
Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)
A lead that sales has formally accepted from marketing as worth pursuing, before full qualification.
Lead Score
A numerical value assigned to a lead that represents how likely they are to convert, based on a combination of behavioral and profile signals.
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