Inquiry-to-MQL conversion rate measures how much of the raw top of funnel survives qualification. It sits one step earlier than the metrics most teams report, and it answers a question those metrics cannot: how much of what marketing captured was worth passing along.
The formula and the cohort rule
Inquiry-to-MQL Rate = MQLs from Cohort / Inquiries in CohortCohort by inquiry date. Every inquiry created in a month stays in that month's denominator, and each MQL is credited back to the month its inquiry arrived. Reporting by MQL date instead breaks the link between spend and outcome, since a spike in one month's MQL count can come entirely from the prior month's traffic.
Read it by source or do not read it at all
The blended rate is a mix effect. Shifting budget from demo-request campaigns toward broad content moves the number without any change in program quality. Split the rate by source and the diagnosis becomes obvious.
| Inquiry source | Inquiries | MQLs | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo request form | 180 | 162 | 90% |
| Webinar registration | 900 | 216 | 24% |
| Gated ebook | 1,400 | 168 | 12% |
| Purchased list | 3,000 | 90 | 3% |
What moves it, and what should
Two forces change this rate. One is real, meaning better targeting and stronger offers reaching the right traffic. The other is definitional, meaning someone lowered the threshold or added an automatic qualification rule for target accounts. Both look identical on the chart. Annotate every scoring change on the same timeline and verify improvement downstream. A genuine gain shows up as more MQLs converting to sales accepted leads, while a definitional gain shows up as a larger MQL count and a falling acceptance rate.
Where it fits in planning
This rate is the first multiplier in the chain that produces pipeline. Inquiries multiplied by inquiry-to-MQL rate, then by MQL-to-SQL rate, then by SQL-to-opportunity rate, gives the opportunity count a demand plan can promise. Work that chain backward from the pipeline coverage the quarter requires, and the inquiry target stops being a number pulled from last year. Feed the resulting opportunity count into the sales forecast as the created-in-quarter component rather than assuming the visible pipeline is the whole quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as an inquiry?
Any hand-raised or captured contact record before qualification logic runs. Gated content downloads, webinar registrations, event badge scans, newsletter signups, and purchased list records all qualify as inquiries. The test is whether a person or a system created a contact record, not whether anyone believes the record is good.
What window should you measure the conversion over?
Use the time it typically takes a scored lead to cross the threshold, then cohort by inquiry date. Thirty days works for most inbound programs. Measuring by MQL date instead of inquiry date inflates the rate in months following a large campaign, because MQLs from an earlier inquiry cohort land in the current month's numerator.
Does a rising inquiry-to-MQL rate mean demand improved?
Not on its own. The most common cause is a lowered scoring threshold or a new automatic qualification rule, both of which raise the rate without adding a buyer. Confirm improvement by checking whether MQL-to-SQL conversion held steady. If the downstream rate fell by the same proportion, the gain was definitional.
How low is too low?
There is no universal floor, because the rate depends entirely on inquiry mix. A program running purchased lists and broad content syndication will convert a small fraction of inquiries. A program running only demo requests will convert most of them. Track your own rate by source and investigate a source when its rate moves more than a few points against its own history.
Put these metrics to work
ORM builds custom revenue forecast models that turn concepts like inquiry-to-mql conversion rate into prescriptive action for your team.
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