What is a lead lifecycle (MQL, SAL, SQL), and where does it break?

A lead lifecycle is the agreed set of stages a person or company moves through from first contact to customer, with a written rule for entering each one. It usually breaks at the handoffs between teams, where a lead changes owner and nobody is measured on what happens in between.

What Is a Lead Lifecycle? MQL, SAL and SQL

The common stages

A marketing qualified lead meets the criteria marketing set. A sales accepted lead is one sales has looked at and agreed to work. A sales qualified lead has had a real conversation and shows a need. Then opportunity and customer. The labels matter less than the definitions behind them, written down and enforced by the system.

Where it breaks

Between marketing qualified and sales accepted. Leads are passed, nobody accepts or rejects them, and they wait. The second break is recycling: leads that were not ready are closed and forgotten instead of returned to nurture with a reason. Both leave revenue on the table that the reports never show.

Rules that make it work

Each stage needs an entry rule, an owner and a time limit. A lead passed to sales is accepted or rejected within a set time, with a reason. A rejected lead goes back to marketing with that reason attached. The system moves the lead and records the date of every change, so the stage history can be trusted.

How to check yours

Pull last quarter's leads and look at how long each spent in every stage, and how many never left one. The stage where leads pile up is the broken handoff. Then compare the reasons sales gives for rejecting leads: if they are vague or missing, the definition of qualified is not shared.

Want this built inside your own stack? Book a call, or ask the concierge in the nav.