Marketing metrics are undergoing a dramatic shift. For many years, MQL (marketing qualified lead) was the dominant metric used by marketers to measure the success of campaigns and programs. However, more and more companies are moving away from MQL in favor of metrics based on sales pipeline.
This shift reflects a broader transition taking place in B2B marketing . Companies are moving away from unfocused lead generation tactics and toward a more sales-aligned, customer-driven approach. The pipeline brings metrics back to what really matters in the end—generating revenue and growth for the business.
Rather than simply counting leads
Pipeline looks at the broader process, from initial lead generation to dubai email list 31062 contact leads closing deals. This provides a much more accurate view of marketing effectiveness and ROI. Companies that transition to pipeline often see a dramatic increase in the number of leads that convert to customers.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into this shift and explore how companies can successfully transition from MQL to pipeline as their primary metric. We’ll look at the drawbacks of MQL, the benefits of pipeline, and how to integrate marketing and sales teams around this new metric.
What is MQL?
MQL stands for marketing qualified lead, a metric created by marketing massive embed form updates: customer emails, spam blocking, and more to measure the interest and engagement of potential customers. MQL has become a standard metric over the past decade for tracking leads who have shown interest in making a purchase.
Marketing sets criteria to determine when a lead becomes an MQL, typically based on actions like content downloads, webinar signups, form completion, etc. Once a lead reaches the defined threshold, they are considered an MQL and passed to sales teams to continue the buying cycle.
The logic behind MQL is that it represents warmer leads that are more likely to become customers. This way, marketing can measure and optimize its efforts to generate promising leads for sales to pursue. However, as we’ll see later, MQL has serious limitations as a metric.
MQL Problems
MQL has two main disadvantages:
Not aligned with sales – MQL measures initial engagement, but not phone number iran necessarily the quality or likelihood of closing deals. MQLs may not be true leads or qualified contacts. This creates a disconnect between marketing and sales.
Narrow focus – MQLs focus primarily on top-of-funnel engagement. But that’s just the first step. It’s important to track metrics across the funnel to understand where to improve. MQLs neglect crucial steps like demos and proposals.