HR Tech SaaS · B2B23% mQL→SQL rate (was 8%).

MQL-to-SQL conversion of 8% against a healthy benchmark of 15–20%. 80 leads/month, 4 deals closing, sales team frustrated, marketing team claiming leads were fine. No lead scoring: every form fill became an MQL regardless of company size, job title, or intent signals. Average lead age in nurture: 41 days with zero activity-based re-engagement. Revenue attribution was being done manually by the CSO at end of each quarter, not systematically. No SLA existed between marketing and sales on lead response time.

Audited the last 12 months of closed-won and closed-lost deals to identify the 14 firmographic and behavioural signals that correlated with closing. Built a HubSpot lead scoring model: positive scores for company size >50 employees, HR director title, job description viewed, pricing page visited, case study downloaded. Negative scores for free email domains, sub-10 employee companies, student self-identification. Defined MQL jointly, first time marketing and sales aligned on a definition. Built a 3-stage nurture sequence based on score band. Created a 4-hour SLA for SDR follow-up on MQL-threshold leads with HubSpot task automation via Zapier.