The New Sales-Marketing Handoff: Why MQLs Don’t Work Anymore

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Everyone says Sales and Marketing need to be aligned.
But most handoffs still rely on lead volume, not lead quality.
The result? Bloated pipelines, low demo-to-close rates, and frustrated reps chasing ghosts.

We’re rebuilding our Sales ↔ Marketing handoff from scratch.
Not around MQLs - but around product signals, expansion potential, and sales readiness.

Here’s what we’re changing and why.

Why the MQL System Is Broken

The traditional MQL system is based on form fills, eBook downloads, or intent from cold traffic.

But in 2025, that doesn’t reflect how people buy SaaS.

• Leads aren’t buyers.

• Inbound volume ≠ revenue.

• And CAC payback gets worse when unqualified leads get passed to Sales.

The old system optimises for Marketing’s targets, not Sales outcomes.
That’s why most GTM orgs have misaligned incentives.

We’re fixing that.

What the New Handoff Looks Like

We’re redesigning the handoff around Qualified Trialers - not raw leads.

That means:

• Marketing is responsible for filtering and scoring signups

• Sales only engages once intent and fit are clear

• Product signals and team fit now drive the score - not just content engagement

The 5-Part System We’re Implementing

[1] Define a Qualified Trialer

We score trialers based on:

• Email domain (no Gmail-only leads)

• Enriched firmographic data (ICP match, company size, tech stack)

• Onsite behaviour (pricing page visits, onboarding steps, feature clicks)

• Expansion potential (team invites, usage frequency, vertical fit)

Only trialers with clear revenue potential move forward.

[2] Enrich Before Engage

We use enrichment tools to surface key traits automatically:
Company name, HQ, size, job title, and intent score.

→ If it’s not useful to Sales, it doesn’t reach them.
→ SDRs and AEs don’t waste time qualifying noise.

[3] Intent Thresholds for Outreach

No more blind outreach after signups.
We require two things before Sales touches the lead:

• Fit score (ICP match, vertical, seat potential)

• Intent signal (used product, requested demo, clicked “Upgrade”)

This improves demo show-up rate and ACV per meeting.

[4] Shared SLAs Between Teams

No more lead dumping. Every step is tracked and owned.

[5] KPIs We’re Tracking Instead of MQLs

The metric that matters isn’t how many “leads” we generate
It’s how many expansion-ready accounts we activate.

Final Words

1. MQLs don’t reflect product usage, expansion potential, or true fit

2. The modern handoff must be built on intent + ICP + signal

3. Marketing needs to own quality - not just volume

4. Sales needs fewer leads, faster

5. Growth happens when GTM teams build a shared scoring system, not a blame system.

We’re still building this in real time, but it already feels tighter, leaner, and more aligned.

That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.

Wishing you a productive week ahead!

I always appreciate you reading.

Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria