How often should you revisit your definition of a Marketing Qualified Lead or Marketing Qualified Account?

Most teams should do this regularly and I’d recommend quarterly. This allows for adjustments based on the performance of the previous quarter and alignment with the sales team to ensure the leads are indeed qualified over a large enough sample size. Goals are typically set quarterly, so this also allows for adjustment there as well.

It’s important to note that your criteria for marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and marketing qualified accounts (MSAs) should be separate. Here’s a few other considerations for when to make adjustments

• After Major Campaigns: Every big campaign creates new data and insights that can be used to fine-tune the criteria for MQLs and MQAs. For example, your campaign may be effective and more prospects are moving directly to consideration stage — you don’t want to have a lead scoring rule for multiple engagements blocking them from proceeding to your sales team.

• Product Launches: You will see increases in demand and lead flow around major product launches. You might see an increase from different or new customer segments, which may push your team to make adjustments to the definitions.

• Sales Feedback: Constant feedback from the sales team is crucial. If the sales team notices a a decrease in the quality of leads or accounts, it might be time to revisit and possibly refine your definitions to align better with the sales targets and needs.

• Changes in Marketing Strategy: If you make adjustments in how your team is going to market, investing more in other areas, you’ll want to review lead scoring to ensure that you are meeting the goals to provide your sales team with enough coverage to

• Market Shifts: If you see a significant shift in your market, it’s likely a good time to revisit your criteria. Let’s see recently legislation has either increased or decreased demand… you will want to adjust to ensure the sales team is working

• Annual Review: Whenever you are setting goals or readjusting budgets, you should review your qualification criteria.

Remember, the goal is to have a definition that helps in identifying leads or accounts that have a higher probability of becoming customers, facilitating a smoother and more productive sales process. It's about maintaining a balance between frequency and necessity, ensuring that you revisit the definitions as often as needed to keep them relevant and effective, without causing disruption or inconsistency in your marketing strategies.

Revisiting your definition for Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQAs) is a best practice. This will largely depend on your business goals and target audience, but a general rule of thumb is to revisit the definition at least once a year.

Here are some additional factors that may impact the frequency of reviewing these definitions:

1. Shifts in the market

2. Feedback from sales teams

3. Performance and/or KPI-based evaluations

4. Business dynamics
   

The goal of this review is to ensure that you are effectively targeting and qualifying leads. Even if the definitions do not change, it is still a worthwhile exercise.