The Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) has been the north star of B2B marketing for over a decade. But in today’s complex buying environment, the MQL is losing its relevance. Why? because individual people don’t buy enterprise software—buying groups do.
The Problem with the MQL
Traditional lead scoring models are flawed. If a junior employee downloads a whitepaper, they become an MQL. Sales calls them, finds out they have no budget or authority, and marks the lead as “junk.” This friction destroys alignment between Sales and Marketing.
Enter the MQA (Marketing Qualified Account)
Modern revenue teams are shifting focus to the account level. By aggregating signals from multiple stakeholders within an account—website visits, content downloads, third-party intent data—we can identify when an entire organization is in a buying cycle, not just when one person is curious.
How to Make the Shift
- De-anonymize your traffic: Use tools to identify which companies are visiting your site.
- Track buying groups: Look for clusters of activity from the same domain.
- Intent Data: Monitor third-party sites to see who is researching your category.
The future of demand generation isn’t about more leads; it’s about better insights. It’s time to stop chasing form fills and start chasing revenue.
