MQL and SQL

The distinction only earns its keep when both sides sign the definition. An MQL is a lead that meets criteria marketing and sales agreed in advance — fit, intent, and a behaviour that indicates both. An SQL is one sales has looked at, accepted and is actively pursuing. The handover between them is the only place in the funnel where two departments are jointly accountable, and it is where most pipelines break.

The useful metric is not the count of either. It is the acceptance rate: what share of MQLs sales accepts. A rate below about half means the definitions have drifted apart and marketing is being measured on volume it is producing at the expense of quality.

Thresholds set by whoever is being measured

When marketing owns the MQL definition alone, the definition loosens under target pressure — quietly, one criterion at a time. Write it jointly, date it, and review the acceptance rate rather than the count.

A definition sits still. This does not.

The term is a reading taken at a point in a sequence that is already running. These are the sequences, with the place each of them jams.

From an enquiry arriving to somebody answering it

A message from a person who might buy, travelling from the form they filled to somebody who can actually answer what they asked. 6 steps, one inbox per channel, and a person per inbox is the arrangement that fails while looking reasonable.

Somebody is accountable for this number.

A definition is free. Being answerable for the figure it produces is the part that is bought, and this term is a working part of the engagements below.

CRM, websites and omnichannel

One customer, one record. Every metric downstream depends on it.

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The reply that arrives tonight

An agent that will not say "I do not know" is not a sales asset. It is a liability with a fast response time.

Lead

A contact who has given permission to be contacted about a specific thing. Not a customer, not a prospect, and not a metric a business should be run on.

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Pipeline stage

A named position in the sales process defined by something the buyer did, not by how the seller feels about it.

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Conversion rate

The share of a defined population that completed a defined action — meaningless until both the population and the action are stated.

All ninety-six termsWhat this is regulated by in the UAE

Is this one right in your own numbers?

The definitions are the easy part. Whether the figure on your dashboard was computed this way is a different question, and usually the more expensive one.