Why Chasing MQLs Is Holding Your Sales Back

Are you still measuring success by MQL counts? Traditional MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) are starting to show their age. They may have clicked your ad, downloaded a whitepaper, or attended a webinar, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy.

If your pipeline is filled with leads that stall after handoff, you’re not alone. MQLs often generate more noise than revenue. It’s time for a smarter metric.

1. MQL's Create Pipeline Clutter

An MQL is often just a surface-level interaction. While it may look good in a marketing report, it rarely tells the full story of buyer intent.

Sales teams get overwhelmed chasing leads that have no real interest or decision-making power. This misalignment leads to friction, burnout, and missed opportunities.

2. PQL's Give You Signals That Matter

At FEtch, we advocate for a better approach: the Pre-Qualified Lead (PQL).

Unlike MQLs, PQLs are filtered through both fit and intent. Using enriched data, real-time behaviour tracking, and contextual triggers, we identify leads that are not only in your ICP, but are actively engaged and showing readiness to buy.

This shift dramatically improves handoff quality, follow-up speed, and conversion outcomes.

3. How FEtch's Sales Success Module Bridges The Gap

Our Sales Success module is built to eliminate the disconnect between marketing and sales.

It does the heavy lifting:

• Qualifies leads using smart scoring models

• Tracks engagement across all touchpoints

• Syncs high-intent leads directly into your CRM

• Notifies your team the moment a PQL is sales-ready

Sales teams are no longer chasing cold or lukewarm leads. They’re engaging with opportunities that are already primed.

Conclusion

The MQL model may have worked a decade ago - but today, it’s holding your sales team back. By upgrading to a PQL-first strategy and integrating tools like FEtch, you can unlock real alignment between marketing and sales, and build a pipeline that actually performs.