How to calculate your Qualification Rate:

(#) of SQLs / (#) of MQL = (%) Qualification Rate

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) refers to people who have indicated they’re interested in your company but are not quite ready to commit to a purchase yet.

Examples: downloaded a piece of content, subscribed to your newsletter, etc.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) refers to people who have shown interest in purchasing one of your services and ready for a direct sales follow up.

Examples: requested a quote, claimed a coupon, completed a contact form, etc.

What we like about Qualification Rate:

Qualification Rate helps you understand how well you—or whoever is responsible for marketing and sales on your team—is at qualifying and screening incoming leads. If your Qualification Rate is high, it means you are generating high-quality leads, and doing a great job of following up quickly and often. If your Qualification Rate is low, it means you need to (1) rework your offer and/or (2) improve your follow-up cadence.

What we DON’T like about Qualification Rate:

Your Qualification Rate is affected your average sales cycle length. Meaning if your average sales cycle length spans many months, then measuring your Qualification Rate over a week doesn’t make sense. You’re not expected to convert MQLs that quickly.

This means you need to know what your Average Sales Cycle Length is so you can choose the proper time period for your Qualification Rate calculation. For example, if your average conversion time from MQL to SQL is three months, then you simply take the SQLs created in month three and divide them by the MQLs created in month one.

Sales metrics similar to Qualification Rate:

Before you select Qualification Rate as your One Metric That Matters (OMTM), be sure to check out these related sales metrics and KPIs for context.

• Conversion Rate
• Closing Rate