An MQL is a lead marketing says is worth a look. An SQL is a lead sales has agreed to work. An HQL is a lead a person has checked against questions you wrote. A BANT-qualified lead has answered four of those questions live: budget, authority, need, and timeline. The labels describe who checked what, and that is the only thing they reliably tell you.
MQL: marketing qualified lead
An MQL has matched a rule. The rule is usually a mix of fit (industry, company size, role) and behaviour (downloaded something, visited pricing, opened three emails). Marketing sets the rule and a scoring model applies it.
What an MQL proves: the person exists, works somewhere that could buy, and did something.
Where it breaks: nobody spoke to them. Interest is not intent. A director who downloaded a report for a class she teaches scores the same as one who is comparing vendors this quarter. When sales calls and finds the second kind twice in a week, they stop calling MQLs at all, and the definition dies quietly.
SQL: sales qualified lead
An SQL has been accepted by sales. In most teams that means a rep has spoken to the person, or at least reviewed the record and agreed it is worth an opportunity. The definition belongs to sales, and the moment of qualification is the handoff.
What an SQL proves: a rep believes there is a deal to work.
Where it breaks: the definition lives in two heads. Marketing counts SQLs to show pipeline contribution; sales rejects them to keep its conversion rate clean. If the acceptance criteria are not written down and signed by both sides, every quarterly review turns into an argument about whether a lead was ever "really" an SQL.
HQL: highly qualified lead
An HQL sits between the two. A person, not a scoring model, has checked the lead against questions the buyer defined: are you evaluating this category, when, for how many seats, who else is involved. The answers travel with the lead. Vendors that generate HQLs usually collect them through content programs and confirm them by phone or a follow-up form.
What an HQL proves: the answers to your questions, as the prospect gave them.
Where it breaks: when the vendor writes the questions. "Highly" is a vendor word. If the questions are soft ("interested in learning more about X?"), an HQL is an MQL with a phone call attached. Write the questions yourself, and write the answers that disqualify.
BANT: budget, authority, need, timeline
BANT is the oldest of the four and the only one that names its questions. Does the account have budget for this? Is this person the one who decides, or close to them? Is there a need the product actually solves? Is there a timeline, or is this a someday project? A BANT-qualified lead has answered all four, usually to a caller, and the answers are recorded.
What a BANT lead proves: the four facts a rep needs before a first call is worth taking.
Where it breaks: buying committees. One person rarely holds budget and authority and need. "Timeline" is the easiest answer to inflate, and callers paid per lead learn which answers pass. The fix is to record who holds each of the four, not just whether they exist, and to add the fields from MEDDIC that BANT skips: the metric the buyer cares about, the paper process, and the champion.
The four side by side
| Label | Who qualifies it | Evidence you get | Breaks when |
|---|---|---|---|
| MQL | A scoring model, set by marketing | Fit fields plus behaviour | Interest is read as intent |
| SQL | A sales rep | The rep's judgement, sometimes call notes | Acceptance criteria are unwritten |
| HQL | A person, against your questions | Recorded answers | The vendor wrote the questions |
| BANT | A caller, live | Four answers, ideally with who gave them | One person is assumed to hold all four |
None of these is "the good one". An MQL costs the least to produce and the most to work. A BANT lead costs the most to produce and the least to work. The right choice depends on how much checking your sales team will do itself and what a wasted first call costs you.
How to write a lead definition both teams accept
- Start from fit. Industry, size, geography, role. Anything outside fit is rejected before any other question is asked, whatever it did on your website.
- Name the evidence. For each label you use, write what has to be true and how it is proven. "Has budget" is not evidence. "Confirmed on a call that a budget line exists this fiscal year, and named the owner" is.
- Say who checks. A model, a marketer, a vendor's caller, or your rep. This is what separates the four labels, so make it explicit.
- Write the acceptance criteria with the receiver. If sales accepts the lead, sales signs the criteria. If the criteria change, the definition changes, in writing, with a date.
- Build a rejection loop. Every rejected lead gets a reason from a short list. Review the reasons monthly. The list tells you which question to add next.
Where this fits
This is the definition work that starts a Qualified Demand program. The buyer sets the depth, MQL, HQL, or BANT, and the questions. Leads are generated, checked to that definition, reviewed against the acceptance criteria, and delivered to the CRM with the answers attached. SQL acceptance stays with the buyer's sales team, because it should.