How do you audit marketing-sourced pipeline quality and spot rotten SQL sources?

Brief

Track SQL→Opportunity close rate by source. Below 20% kills your deal math; above 50% questions your SQL gate.

Detail

Marketing sourced 100 SQLs last month. Sales closed 12 of them. That's 12% close rate. Is that good or terrible? Depends on the source:

• High-intent webinar (gated, vertical-focused): 35–45% SQL→Opp
• Organic content (blog, SEO): 22–28% SQL→Opp
• Paid ads (brand keyword): 18–25% SQL→Opp
• List/outbound nurture: 8–15% SQL→Opp

If your paid ads are only hitting 12%, that's below the band. Your MQL gate is too loose.

Quality Audit Framework

For each source, calculate over 90 days:

The *Paid Search (Brand)* source is bleeding money. Why? Three tests:

1. Is the form too loose? (Landing page accepts anyone)
2. Is the audience wrong? (Targeting SMB instead of Enterprise)
3. Is the message misaligned? (Ad promises X, product is Y)

Root Cause by Data Pattern

Run this audit monthly. Kill sources dropping below 18% SQL→Opp unless they're volume plays (high MQL count, lower quality acceptable).

TAGS: pipeline-quality,SQL-sources,source-audit,marketing-sourced,conversion-by-channel