One score versus two axes. Person versus account. Hand-raises versus behavior. Static versus decaying.
This is a direct comparison of the old qualification model, the MQL, and its replacement, the Demand Compass.
The MQL asks one question with one number and can only say hot or not. The Demand Compass asks two independent questions, do they know you and are they buying, so it can tell an aware account apart from a ready one and give each a different move.
One score vs two axes: the MQL sums everything into a number; the Compass keeps awareness and readiness separate. Person vs account: the MQL scores a contact; the Compass scores the account, because the person leaving the trail rarely signs. Hand-raises vs behavior: the MQL waits for form fills; the Compass reads behavior in the dark channel. Static vs decaying: an MQL counts forever; a Compass signal has a half-life, see the decay rule.
Use this comparison when you are deciding whether to keep scoring leads or move to reading demand, and when you need to explain to sales why the new model earns their trust where the MQL lost it.
Under the MQL, an aware-but-not-ready account and a ready-but-unaware account both score 87 and get the same treatment. Under the Compass, the first is Nurture and the second is In-Market, two different owners, two different moves.
The Compass keeps what the MQL got right, a shared definition of a workable account, and fixes what it got wrong. See why the MQL is dead for the history.
From The Demand Compass: The Signal-Based GTM Framework for B2B Marketing Leaders in Complex Sales, by David Moreira and Marcos Stubrin (automate rev.ops.).
ISBN 979-8-9969092-1-6 (paperback). Get the book →