Sales lead qualification process flowchart: MQL to SAL
A swimlane sales lead qualification process flowchart: lead capture, ICP scoring, the MQL decision, SDR cadence, discovery, BANT or MEDDIC and AE handover.
How it works
Rename the lanes to your real roles
Replace 'Lead source' with the sources you actually take leads from, and rename 'SDR' to BDR, inside sales or whatever your team is called. If the same person prospects and closes, merge the SDR and account executive lanes, but keep 'Account executive accepts?' as a decision: self-handover still needs an explicit accept, or nothing is ever formally rejected.
Write down the MQL threshold
'Meets MQL threshold?' is only a real decision if the threshold exists on paper. State the fit attributes (industry, size, region, geography, tech stack), the behaviours that count, the score or rule that trips the threshold, who owns it and how often it is reviewed. Until then the answer is somebody's judgement, and it will not be consistent.
Define the cadence and what ends it
Set the number of touches, the channels, the working days between them and who owns the first attempt. That turns the 'Attempts remain' loop into a rule rather than a habit, and it gives 'No response' a defined trigger, so leads leave the queue instead of ageing in it.
Choose one qualification framework and make it fields
Decide whether 'Record qualification notes' captures BANT (budget, authority, need, timing) or MEDDIC (metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identified pain, champion), then create those as CRM fields rather than a notes box. A framework you cannot report on is a checklist, not a gate.
Agree the acceptance criteria and the return route
Write down what the account executive may reject a handover for and by when they must respond, then confirm who arbitrates. This template routes a returned handover to the sales manager, who upholds it into the reason-code path or overturns it into an accepted opportunity; if you leave the route undefined, returned leads stop moving entirely.
Publish the reason codes and review them
Fix a short closed list of disqualification reasons and prevent free text. Review the counts with marketing at a set interval: a spike in 'no budget' points at targeting, a spike in 'no response' points at the cadence or the source. Keep one version of the chart so a process change shows up in its history rather than in an email.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an MQL, a sales-accepted lead and an SQL?
They mark three different handovers and three different owners. A marketing qualified lead (MQL) has met marketing's scoring threshold and is being passed over; in this chart that is the 'Yes' branch of 'Meets MQL threshold?'. A sales-accepted lead (SAL) is one sales has agreed to work, which is why acceptance is drawn as a decision the account executive answers rather than an automatic status change. A sales qualified lead, or a qualified opportunity, is one that has passed qualification on the discovery call and has a real chance of becoming a deal. Demand waterfall models separate them for a reason: without the acceptance step, marketing reports leads delivered and sales reports leads it never took, and neither figure can be reconciled.
How many outreach attempts should a cadence have before a lead is recycled?
There is no universal number worth quoting, and figures that circulate as best practice usually come from one vendor's dataset rather than from your market. Set it from your own evidence: which channels you use, how long your buying cycle is, and at which touch replies stop appearing in your own data. What matters structurally is that the cadence is finite, written down and enforced, because an open-ended cadence never formally exhausts, so leads are neither worked nor released. That is why 'Response received?' in this chart has an explicit 'No response' branch rather than an implied one.
Should we qualify with BANT or MEDDIC?
They answer different questions. BANT (budget, authority, need, timing) is a fit and readiness filter that a competent SDR can complete in a first conversation, which makes it a reasonable gate for handover. MEDDIC (metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identified pain, champion) is a deal-inspection framework built for complex, multi-stakeholder sales; you rarely learn the decision process or identify a champion on a first call. A common arrangement is to qualify for handover on BANT and complete MEDDIC inside the opportunity, after acceptance. MEDDPICC is the same framework extended with the paper process and the competitive position. Pick one, name it in the chart, and make its fields mandatory.
What should happen to a lead that never responds?
Recycle it rather than delete it. In this template the 'No response' branch does not go straight to a closed record; it goes to 'Record disqualification reason code', then to 'Recycle or disqualify?', which either returns the lead to nurture or closes it. No response is usually a timing signal rather than a fit signal, and the lead may score again later. Two practical points: record the lead's source and the basis on which you are contacting it, and check the rules for unsolicited electronic marketing in each jurisdiction you prospect into, as they differ, and in the UK they treat individual and corporate subscribers differently. Confirm the detail with whoever owns marketing compliance in your organisation.
Who owns a lead the account executive rejects?
Someone has to, or it stops moving. This chart sends a returned handover to the sales manager, who either upholds the return, in which case the lead goes to the reason-code path and is recycled or disqualified, or overturns it, in which case it becomes an accepted opportunity. The value of drawing the arbitration is that rejections become visible and countable. If most returns are upheld, the qualification criteria are being applied loosely; if most are overturned, the account executives are declining work they should be taking. Both are worth knowing, and neither shows up when rejected leads simply drift back to marketing without a record.