---
name: "sales-marketing-alignment-and-sla"
description: "Use when the user names lead handoff, MQL, SQL, or follow-up speed, or asks why marketing pipeline never closes: the SLA with definitions, handoff rules, time bars, and the joint scorecard."
triggers: ["MQL", "SQL", "lead handoff", "sales marketing alignment", "SLA", "speed to lead", "why doesn't marketing pipeline close"]
version: "1"
---
# Sales-marketing alignment and SLA
Use this when the user names lead handoff, MQL, SQL, or follow-up speed,
or asks why marketing pipeline never closes. Start from the lead tiers
and definitions on hand, the funnel numbers by stage — HubSpot or an
export — and the follow-up reality today.
## Define the lifecycle in shared words
Lead, MQL, SAL, SQL, opportunity. SAL is where sales accepts or rejects
with a reason code — the handoff accountability mechanism. Lifecycle stage
is marketing-owned for the first half and sales-owned for the second;
lead status is always sales-owned. Each stage gets its entry bar in
observable terms — fit score plus behavior, never vibes. One definition
per stage, signed by both sides.
## Start scoring at 100 points
Roughly 25 demographic, 25 firmographic, 40 behavioral, 10 negative; MQL
at 65–75, SQL at 85. Weight behavior over demographics, decay stale
activity, and backtest the bars against the last 100 won and 100 lost
before they ship.
## Set the handoff rule
What a sales-ready lead carries (tier, source, context, next step), where
it routes, and what bounces back with cause. Every bounce gets a reason
code; reason codes get reviewed monthly.
## Set the time bars
First response inside 4 business hours — inbound inside 5 minutes, social
inside 15, referral inside 60 — 6 touches over 14 days, and disposition
inside 5 business days as Accepted, Rejected, or Disqualified.
Speed-to-lead is the one SLA number that never gets negotiated away, and
a breached bar escalates to the named owner the same day.
## Write the joint scorecard
Volume, acceptance rate, conversion by stage, velocity, and the sourced vs
influenced pipeline split with named proofs. Starter bars: MQL-to-SAL
acceptance above 60%, SQL-to-opportunity above 30%; any published
MQL-to-SQL benchmark is direction-only until your own funnel confirms it.
One scorecard, reviewed in one forum, monthly at least.
## Add the feedback loop
Sales grades lead quality weekly with quotes, marketing tunes scoring and
sourcing monthly. Scoring changes need triangulated evidence — quotes
plus conversion drift — before they ship.
## What you hand back
The SLA doc with definitions, handoff rules, time bars, and the joint
scorecard template beside it, shown in chat. Take one round of edits from
each side, then save under alignment. You draft the agreement; the
approver signs it, and neither side gets to freeload.
## Fallbacks
No funnel numbers means you draft the SLA on tier math and hold the
targets as UNKNOWN. No shared CRM means the SLA ships with a routing log
template instead of automation. Never invent a conversion rate, a lead
count, or a follow-up time. Label each line FACT, INFERENCE, or UNKNOWN.