Does someone who downloads a report evolve into someone who requests a consultation? In my experience, more often than you'd think, those are simply two different people.
In B2B marketing, managing leads in stages like 'lead → MQL → SQL → opportunity → contract' is common practice. As a result, I often see marketing run on the expectation that someone who downloaded an asset (an MQL) will naturally grow, over time, into someone who wants a consultation (an SQL).
Of course, some people overlap. But MQLs and SQLs aren't steps on a single staircase; they're closer to different sets with only a small intersection. The psychology of someone downloading a resource is different from the circumstances and psychology of someone seeking help and advice. For one to cross over to the other, it doesn't happen on its own; it takes a trigger.
Interestingly, even Forrester, which popularized this stage model, now says that MQL-centered management needs to end. In a lead-centric funnel, they say, the share of inquiries that make it all the way to a contract is under 1%.1
Of course, if you have a large sales organization and have been running marketing for a long time, MQLs have their uses. But at a startup, you have two or three capable salespeople at most. Is it better for them to spend all day calling the people who downloaded a report, or to meet the people, however few, who showed interest in adopting and talking it through?
I think it's the latter. The smaller the team, the more marketing's role is not to gather more people, but to bring in the people who are worth sales' time to meet.
