The marketing and sales SLA: Definitions, response times and the handoff rules
A service level agreement between marketing and sales is a short document both teams sign: what counts as each stage, what marketing commits to deliver, how fast sales responds and works each lead, what happens to leads sales rejects, and the weekly review that keeps both honest. Fill in the brackets with your own definitions and numbers.
- Document
- Template
- Written by
- Take the Market Desk
- Explained in
- Marketing and Sales SLA Template
Template
How to use it
Write the stage definitions first and get the head of sales to agree them word for word. Every other line in the agreement depends on them.
Set response times you can measure in the CRM today. A commitment nobody can report on will not survive the first missed quarter.
1. Stage definitions
| Stage | Definition | Who sets it | System field |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | A person with contact details and consent to be contacted. | Marketing | field |
| Marketing qualified lead (MQL) | Fit score of at least x and intent score of at least y, or a hand-raise such as a demo request. | Marketing, by rule | field |
| Sales accepted lead (SAL) | A sales rep has reviewed the MQL and agrees to work it. | Sales | field |
| Sales qualified lead (SQL) | A conversation confirmed need, authority, timing and budget range. | Sales | field |
| Opportunity | An SQL with a defined deal, amount and close date. | Sales | field |
2. What marketing commits to
- Volume
- Number MQLs a month, by segment, split as segment: number.
- Quality
- At least share of MQLs accepted by sales, measured monthly.
- Context with every lead
- Source, the content or event that qualified it, fit score, intent score and the last three engagements, visible on the record.
- Routing
- Every MQL assigned to a named owner within minutes of qualifying, by the rules in section 4.
3. What sales commits to
- First response
- Hand-raise MQLs (demo, pricing, contact) within hours in working hours; other MQLs within hours.
- Follow-up
- At least number attempts over days, across at least two channels, before a lead can be rejected for no response.
- Accept or reject
- Every MQL accepted or rejected within days, with a reason from the list in section 5.
- Stage hygiene
- Stage and next step updated in the CRM within hours of each conversation.
4. Routing rules
- Named accounts
- Leads from accounts with an owner go to that owner.
- Territory
- Region, segment or size decides the queue for everyone else.
- Round robin
- Within a queue, in turn, skipping reps who are out.
- Out of hours
- Who covers hand-raises outside working hours, or the next-morning rule.
5. Rejection and recycling
- Rejection reasons
- Not a fit (wrong company or role); no need now; no response after the follow-up above; duplicate; competitor or student. No free-text-only rejections.
- What happens next
- Rejected for no need now or no response: back to marketing nurture, re-scored from zero intent. Not a fit: excluded from scoring. Duplicate: merged.
- Disputes
- Either team can flag a rejection for review in the weekly meeting.
6. Reporting and review
- Weekly
- MQLs delivered, acceptance rate, response time against the commitment, rejections by reason, disputed rejections.
- Monthly
- MQL to SQL and SQL to opportunity rates by source and segment, and any change to the definitions above.
- Review date and owners
- Date of the next full review, signed by head of marketing and head of sales.