# 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.

## 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

Stages, as both teams agree them:

| 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].

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From Take the Market: https://www.takethemarket.com/tools/sales-sla