Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)

What are Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)

A sales-qualified lead is a prospective customer that has expressed enough interest in your product or service that they're ready to move into your sales process. Usually, they've been researched and vetted by your marketing team and are then handed off to your sales department. 

How do you generate sales qualified leads?

Generally speaking, you generate qualified leads by creating a vetting system in your sales funnel that allows you to move prospective customers toward making a purchase as they continue to exhibit interest in your product or service. 

What is SAL vs SQL?

SALs and SQLs are very similar: both are prospective customers who seem poised to buy your product or service. The difference is a matter of communication and categorization. SALs are leads your sales team officially accepts from marketing for further investigation. SQLs still get vetted, but in a sense, they get dumped on the sales team without a formal acceptance process. 

What percentage of leads should be qualified?

On average, your conversion rate from MQL to SQL should be 13%. However, that will vary greatly based on the source of the lead. For example, your email campaigns may only result in a 1% conversion rate while your website produces 30%. 
sales qualified lead conversion rate

Your SQL conversation rate percentage is simply your SQLs divided by your Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). 
sales qualified lead example

Let’s say there’s an eCommerce site you’ve visited before, but recently you filled out a form to be contacted by one of their sales reps. For most businesses, that qualifies you safely as an MQL, but maybe not an SQL. Once the sales rep contacts you and asks you their qualifying questions, depending on how you answer, you could become an SQL. 

SQL vs MQL

A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is further down the funnel than a Marketing Qualified Lead MQL and closer to becoming a customer. Simply put, SQLs are the MQLs that the sales team agrees are good prospects with a strong chance of converting.