What Is a Sales-Marketing SLA?
A sales–marketing SLA (service-level agreement) is a shared, documented commitment between the two teams: Marketing agrees to deliver a quantity and quality of qualified leads, and Sales agrees to follow up within a set time and standard. It aligns the handoff and ends the “bad leads / no follow-up” blame loop.
Key takeaways
- An SLA defines lead volume and quality from Marketing, and follow-up speed from Sales.
- It lives at the MQL→SQL boundary and is enforced with shared reporting.
- It replaces finger-pointing with accountable, measured handoffs.
What a good SLA specifies
- Marketing: number and quality of MQLs to deliver per period.
- Sales: maximum time to first follow-up (speed-to-lead).
- Sales: number of attempts before a lead is recycled.
- Shared definitions of MQL and SQL, plus the reporting to track both.
Why it matters
Most Sales–Marketing friction is a definition and accountability problem. An SLA makes both sides' commitments explicit and measurable, so the conversation moves from blame to “are we both hitting the agreement?”
Frequently asked questions
What is a sales-marketing SLA?
A documented agreement where Marketing commits to deliver qualified leads of a set volume and quality, and Sales commits to follow them up within a set time and standard.
What should a sales-marketing SLA include?
Lead volume and quality targets, maximum follow-up time, attempt counts, shared MQL/SQL definitions and the reporting to hold both sides accountable.
How do you enforce an SLA?
With shared dashboards that track both sides' commitments — MQL delivery and speed-to-lead — reviewed regularly by both teams.
Related service: Operationalize your SLA in HubSpot