Counting MQLs when partners get paid on SQLs

Counting MQLs when partners get paid on SQLs

A persistent measurement failure: partner dashboards celebrate Marketing Qualified Leads while the revenue team only respects Sales Qualified Leads. The two diverge sharply, and the gap quietly destroys partner trust.

The disconnect:
— Industry MQL-to-SQL conversion clusters around 13% in several 2023 demand-gen benchmarks, with wide variance by channel.
— Co-marketing partners optimizing for an MQL target will flood you with form-fills that never qualify.
— Sales then discounts all partner leads as low quality — including the genuinely good ones — because the aggregate looks weak.

The fix — pay and measure at the qualification stage you actually value:
— Define a shared, written qualification rubric (firmographic fit + intent signal + budget-authority-need-timeline) before the partner sends a single lead.
— Pay on SQL acceptance or on opportunity creation, not raw MQL.
— Give partners a feedback loop: report rejection reasons back so they can self-correct targeting.

Trade-off: paying later in the funnel lengthens partner payback and may deter smaller players. Offset with a modest MQL micro-bounty that is fully recoverable against the SQL payout.

Open question: does your partner see the same lead-quality scoreboard your sales floor sees, or a flattering proxy?