A marketing-sales service-level agreement (SLA) is a short written agreement that defines what counts as a qualified lead, what marketing commits to deliver, how fast sales commits to follow up, and how both teams review results together. It is the cheapest fix for the most common growth problem in small B2B companies: sales does not trust marketing’s leads.
What goes in the SLA
- Definitions: lead, marketing-qualified lead (MQL), sales-qualified lead (SQL) and opportunity, with examples.
- Marketing’s commitment: a number of qualified leads or pipeline value per month, by source.
- Sales’s commitment: first contact within an agreed time, a minimum number of attempts and a status update on every lead.
- Disqualification reasons: a short required list, so rejected leads teach marketing something.
- The review: a weekly 30-minute pipeline meeting and a monthly look at the numbers.
| Marketing promises | Sales promises |
|---|---|
| X qualified leads per month, defined in writing | First contact within a set time (for example, 15 minutes in business hours) |
| Full lead context: source, pages viewed, form answers | A set number of attempts over a set number of days |
| Nurture for leads that are not ready | Disposition every lead: qualified, nurture or disqualified, with a reason |
| Weekly report on volume and quality | Feedback on lead quality in the weekly review |
The weekly pipeline review
- New qualified leads by source since last week.
- Leads not contacted within the SLA, by owner.
- Leads rejected and why.
- Opportunities created and their value.
- One decision for next week.
Keep it short and consistent. The meeting builds trust because both teams look at the same numbers from the same CRM.
Make the CRM enforce it
Automate lifecycle stages, assign every lead an owner instantly, require a disqualification reason, and report SLA breaches automatically. When our founder was the sole marketing function at a growth-stage PEO, owning that marketing-to-sales handoff with pipeline reviews, routing and SLAs was a core part of the job, alongside Salesforce and Pardot attribution.
Frequently asked questions
Who should own the SLA?
Marketing and sales leaders jointly, with the CEO or owner as the tiebreaker.
What if we only have one salesperson?
Even more reason to write it down. A one-page SLA keeps a single rep and a single marketer aligned as the company grows.
Fractional CMO engagements usually start here, because no campaign fixes a broken handoff.
