Sales accepted lead (SAL)

A sales accepted lead is a lead that a sales rep has reviewed and agreed is worth pursuing, as opposed to a marketing qualified lead, which met a scoring threshold, or a sales qualified lead, which agreed to a conversation.

The three terms are a ladder, and the rungs get confused all the time.

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) did something marketing decided was meaningful: downloaded a guide, visited pricing twice, attended a webinar. Nobody has talked to them.

A sales qualified lead (SQL) has agreed to talk, or has been contacted and shown interest. The definition varies by company more than any other term in sales.

A sales accepted lead (SAL) is one a rep looked at and said yes, that's real. The rep can reject it, and if they do, it comes off the count. That veto is what makes the SAL the only one of the three that means the same thing to marketing and sales.

An example

A software company's outbound program books a meeting with the VP of Customer Success at a 400-person company that just closed a Series B. The VP wrote back, she fits the ICP, and the meeting is on the rep's calendar. The rep looks at it, checks the company against the line they agreed on, and accepts it. That's a SAL. If the rep had seen that the company already uses a competitor on a three-year contract, he could reject it, and it wouldn't count.

Why we count SALs

Because the rep's veto keeps the number truthful. Gainsight's 90 in two months were counted this way, against a line written down before the first email, with every reply visible to their team.

Related terms

Lead qualification · Lead generation · Positive reply · Cost per booked meeting

If you want this run for you, see our lead generation agency, or lead generation for B2B SaaS.