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Sales qualified lead (SQL)

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a prospect that someone in sales has checked in a conversation and accepted as a real potential customer, with a need, a person who can buy and a reason to move. In many CRMs it is the step before an opportunity.

Updated November 2026 · 3 min read · GetSales team

What makes a lead sales qualified

The test happens in a conversation, by call, email or message, and it checks what data alone cannot show. Teams often use a framework so every rep asks the same questions:

  • BANT: budget, authority, need and timeline.
  • MEDDIC: metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identified pain and a champion inside the account, used for larger deals with several people involved.
  • CHAMP: challenges first, then authority, money and prioritization.

A lead can become an SQL without ever being a marketing qualified lead. A reply to an outbound email that says "we are looking at this now, can we talk Tuesday?" goes straight to sales. In the GetSales AI SDR, a new reply gets one of 15 labels, plus one of yours when it fits, with how sure it is and why. The label picks its plan, and a price question comes to you by default.

What an SQL becomes in a CRM

In HubSpot's default lifecycle stages, the SQL comes after the marketing qualified lead and before the opportunity, and it holds the records your sales team has qualified as potential customers. A Lead Status property tracks the steps inside the stage, such as Attempted to Contact, Connected and Bad Timing.1

Salesforce handles it as a conversion. Each company sets its own criteria, and once a lead qualifies, the rep converts it into an account and a contact, with an opportunity if they want one.2

How to measure SQLs

  • MQL to SQL rate: the share of marketing's leads that sales accepts. A low rate points to a loose MQL definition or slow follow-up.
  • SQL to opportunity rate: the share that turn into a deal in the pipeline.
  • Time to first touch: how long a hot reply or a demo request waits for a person.
  • Rejection reasons: why sales turned a lead down, picked from a short fixed list so the reasons can be counted.
  • Reply classification: one of 15 labels on each new reply, with the reason.
  • AI SDR: reads every reply, scores intent and drafts the first answer.
  • Data enrichment: the person and company data you check fit against.

Sources

  1. HubSpot Knowledge Base, Use contact and company lifecycle stages, last updated 20 October 2026. Read 28 October 2026.
  2. Salesforce Trailhead, Track Prospects with Salesforce Leads, no date stated. Read 28 October 2026.

Last updated: November 2026

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