Why It’s Time to Move Beyond MQLs: Insights from a C-Level Breakfast

My weekend ritual includes a special roundtable meeting with my C-level friends—a group of formidable colleagues who come together to discuss the latest challenges and opportunities in our businesses. This past weekend, the topic was all about lead generation, and as always, the conversation was insightful and thought-provoking.

It quickly became clear that many of us are ready to move on from the traditional idea of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). Here’s why.

The old approach to go-to-market (GTM) strategies went something like this:

1?? Marketing works to generate leads, hoping to find potential customers who fit our ideal customer profile (ICP). 2?? They then score these leads and send the promising ones (MQLs) over to sales. 3?? Sales cherry-picks the most interesting leads and often ignores the rest.

But as we discussed, this method feels outdated and, quite frankly, broken:

?? It’s hard to know where we actually stand with our target accounts. ?? This approach often leads to finger-pointing between marketing and sales over who’s responsible for what. ?? It doesn’t fit well with newer sales models, like Product-Led Growth (PLG) or self-service options. ?? And let’s be honest, it wastes a lot of effort, time, and money.

Just like a center, winger, and defenseman have different success criteria in a game of hockey, different functions like product, sales, and marketing need to be evaluated differently. It’s less about having unified measures across the board and more about aligning on unified goals. This distinction is crucial because it ensures that each function is optimized for its specific role while still contributing to the overall success of the team.

One thing I felt strongly about, and many agreed, is that MQLs can still play a crucial role—if we define them correctly. That’s why our definition of an MQL is solely those ready to talk to sales and who fit our ICP. They must have booked a demo, filled out a contact form, or requested pricing.

There are leads that engage with marketing—downloading guides, engaging with content—where we can infer intent based on what they’re engaging with. Then, there are quality leads that match ICP companies. These quality leads’ accounts become our top accounts, and we then drive towards the MQL/meeting set among all relevant personas. Of course, the percentage of quality leads is a key KPI to continue refining our targeting and ensure we’re hitting our ICP.

When those meetings go well and meet at least two of the BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) criteria, they become Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). I also like to ask what I call the "3 Whys": Why is the prospect doing something? Why are they doing it now? Why us? Knowing the answers to these three questions allows us to qualify prospects effectively and focus on what to go after.

So, there’s nothing wrong with MQLs when you have a defined process and strategy!

Today, anything that can build a pipeline is on the table. We’re running campaigns across social media, engaging in BDR/SDR outreach, automating outbound efforts, optimizing for SEO, partnering with influencers, hosting field events, and experimenting with AI-powered SDRs. We’re even exploring PLG and Account-Based Marketing (ABM).

If we want to figure out what really works, we need a clear, unified view of GTM effectiveness. This means shifting our focus to an account-centric approach where we measure:

• How many accounts fit our ideal customer profile?
• Where are these accounts in their journey with us? Are they just aware, interested, or seriously considering us?
• Which activities are most effective at moving these accounts forward in their journey?

It wouldn’t matter whether we invest more in one channel or another. What would matter is that we’re reaching the right people and turning them into customers as efficiently as possible.

Over the course of our breakfast, it became clear that while different functions need to be evaluated differently, the goals should be unified. It’s time to evolve past a simplistic view of MQLs and embrace a more holistic and strategic approach to how we connect with and serve our customers.

I’d very much like to hear your thoughts, opinions, and insights on this topic. We’re all trying to learn and improve, and there’s no right or wrong answer here. Let’s keep the conversation going!