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How to measure MQL to SQL Speed & Rate for Pipeline Velocity

This hack helps you measure pipeline velocity in HubSpot by tracking how fast and how many contacts move from Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). It gives you visibility into both speed and conversion rate, helping uncover process gaps, performance trends, or issues with sales enablement.

Why It's Useful 

  • Lead volume alone doesn’t give you the full picture. This hack allows you to:
    Evaluate the quality of leads over time
  • Understand how fast leads move through the funnel (speed)
  • Identify how many convert (rate)
  • Improve decision-making around training, content, or handover processes
  • It enables you to optimise the system around your leads—not just increase spend.

How to Implement It

Step 1: Create a Calculated Property
 

Navigate to Settings > Properties > Create Property under Contacts

  • Label e.g.: timeFromMQLToSQL
  • Field type: Calculation property
  • Calculation type: Time between
  • Number format: Duration
  • Start date: Date entered Marketing Qualified Lead
  • End date: Date entered Sales Qualified Lead
This property will calculate the number of days each contact takes to move from MQL to SQL.

Step 2: Build the Report
 Go to Reports > Create Report > Custom Report Builder
 Choose Contacts as the data source


Filters:
  • Lifecycle stage is any of MQL or SQL
  • timeFromMQLToSQL is known (optional, but useful to exclude blanks
X-axis:
  • Use Date entered Sales Qualified Lead
  • Group by month
Y-axis:
  • Use the calculated property: timeFromMQLToSQL
  • Set aggregation to Average (not Sum)

This setup will show how long on average leads take to move from MQL to SQL, grouped by the month they became SQL.

 

Step 3: Add a Conversion Rate View
 To get the full view of pipeline velocity, you can also create a second report (or a table widget in a dashboard) to show:

  • MQLs created per month
  • SQLs created per month
  • Conversion rate: MQL to SQL
 
This helps you track both how fast leads move and how many make it through—your true pipeline velocity.
 
 

Additional Tips

  • Consider adding segmentation by original source or contact owner to uncover deeper insights
  • Use in a dashboard alongside:
    • Leads created in the last 30 days
    • Average lead response time
    • Sales activity counts
    • MQL to SQL rate and speed
  • Monitor changes over time to spot seasonality, campaign impact or sales enablement gaps

 

By Chris Griffiths