The Lead-Centric Past: MQLs as the North Star
If you’re still measuring success by how many people filled out a form, you’re optimizing for the wrong outcome—and your revenue numbers probably reflect it.
For years, Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) reigned supreme as the holy grail of B2B demand generation. Teams built programs, dashboards, and even careers around generating as many MQLs as possible. The logic was straightforward: more MQLs = more opportunities = more revenue.
But here’s the problem: the world has changed. Buyer behaviors, team structures, and technology have evolved. And MQLs? They often fail to reflect actual buying intent or account-level engagement. In a world where B2B buying decisions are made by buying committees, not individuals, a lead-centric model simply doesn’t cut it anymore.
Enter ABX: A New Operating Model Requires New Metrics
Account-Based Experience (ABX) is more than just a buzzword. It represents a fundamental shift in how go-to-market teams align around shared revenue outcomes. Rather than focusing on individual leads, ABX strategies orchestrate personalized, timely experiences across entire buying groups within high-value accounts.
But here’s the kicker: you can’t measure ABX success with MQL metrics. You need a new scoreboard.
Lead-Centric Metrics: What MQLs Measured
- Volume of MQLs: Number of leads who met a predefined scoring threshold.
- Conversion Rate: % of MQLs that became SQLs, opportunities, or closed deals.
- Cost per MQL: Marketing spend divided by total number of MQLs.
- MQL Velocity: Average time from lead creation to MQL status.
These metrics aren’t inherently bad. But in an account-centric world, they miss the forest for the trees. They focus on individuals instead of the buying group, volume instead of quality, and quantity instead of progression.
Account-Centric Metrics: What ABX Measures Instead
- Engaged Accounts: % of target accounts showing meaningful engagement from multiple personas.
- Account Progression: Movement of accounts through defined journey stages (e.g., awareness → engaged → qualified → opportunity).
- Buying Group Coverage: % of key personas within a target account who have engaged.
- Account Fit + Intent + Engagement (FIE): A composite score combining firmographic fit, intent signals, and behavioral engagement.
- Pipeline Contribution by Tier: Revenue impact segmented by Tier 1, 2, and 3 accounts.
These metrics give GTM teams a much more accurate picture of how effectively they are activating, influencing, and progressing their most important accounts.
The Real Question: What Are You Trying to Optimize?
MQL metrics optimize for lead capture. ABX metrics optimize for account progression and revenue impact.
To put it another way: MQL success is like counting how many people walk into a store; ABX success is about how many of the right people came in, stayed, talked to a sales rep, and made a purchase. One measures activity, the other measures progress and influence across a group.
Representative Use Case:
Consider a representative scenario we’ve seen play out across multiple Intelligent Demand client engagements: A B2B cybersecurity company targeting mid-market financial institutions was generating thousands of MQLs per quarter through gated content and paid media. However, pipeline contribution remained flat, and win rates were declining. Upon transitioning to an ABX approach, they prioritized Tier 1 accounts showing strong intent signals. They built campaigns that activated multiple personas within the same buying group and tracked account-level engagement over time. Key metrics included Buying Group Coverage (tracked across CISO, IT Director, and Procurement), Account Progression through defined buying stages, and composite FIE scores.
Rather than celebrating MQL volume, they celebrated meaningful engagement from multiple stakeholders within the same account. Within two quarters, they saw a 34% increase in opportunity creation and a 27% lift in win rate from target accounts—proof that aligning metrics with actual buying behavior pays off.
If your strategy is still anchored in MQLs, you may be inadvertently optimizing for the wrong outcomes. You might be over-investing in channels that drive form fills but under-investing in programs that build real engagement and consensus within buying committees.
This imbalance often creates a false sense of marketing success. Teams hit their MQL targets and celebrate, while sales struggles to turn those leads into meaningful pipeline. Why? Because filling out a form doesn’t equal buying intent, and it rarely represents the voice of the entire buying group. In ABX, success means engaging multiple personas across the buying committee and driving collective movement toward a purchase decision. That requires different programs—ones built for orchestration, personalization, and multi-threaded engagement—and a willingness to fund longer-term, high-value motions like sales enablement, account-based advertising, and 1:1 outreach.
Making the Transition: Practical Advice for RevOps Leaders
So how do you actually move from a lead-centric to an account-centric measurement model? It’s one thing to understand the theory, but another to operationalize it across your revenue team. The good news is: you don’t have to boil the ocean. Transitioning your metrics can start small—by auditing what you track, aligning cross-functional definitions, and iteratively evolving your dashboards to reflect true buying behavior.
Here are five steps to guide your shift:
- Audit Your Metrics: Identify which KPIs are tied to lead-centric thinking and which reflect account-centric outcomes.
- Align on Shared Definitions: What does “account engagement” mean? What qualifies as a “progressed account”? Get sales, marketing, and CX aligned.
- Update Your Dashboards: Move away from MQL counts. Start tracking account engagement, buying group coverage, and stage progression.
- Educate Your Stakeholders: Help your executive team and board understand why success looks different in an ABX model.
- Celebrate Early Wins: Highlight accounts that progressed due to ABX strategies, not just leads that converted.
Where ABX Metrics Are Headed
As RevOps continues to evolve, so too will the sophistication of ABX measurement. Expect to see wider adoption of AI-driven engagement scoring, real-time buying group insights, and predictive analytics that forecast account progression with greater accuracy. Dashboards will become smarter and more forward-looking—surfacing accounts that are not just engaged, but ready for next-step orchestration based on intent, persona engagement, and behavioral triggers. Ultimately, the future of ABX metrics lies in enabling revenue teams to act proactively, not just reactively—anticipating buyer needs before they become visible in traditional KPIs.
Metrics Drive Behavior
At the end of the day, your metrics shape your team’s behavior. If you measure the wrong things, you’ll incentivize the wrong activities.
Think about it: if your dashboard rewards marketing for generating form fills instead of progressing high-value accounts, that’s exactly what your team will optimize for. The result? Misaligned efforts, wasted budget, and frustration between sales and marketing.
Shifting from MQLs to ABX metrics isn’t just a data exercise—it’s a strategic transformation that aligns your GTM teams around what truly matters: engaging the right accounts, building buying group consensus, and creating pipeline that closes. For organizations serious about revenue growth, alignment, and customer-centricity, it’s not just worth it. It’s necessary to stay competitive and customer-focused in a modern B2B landscape.
Ready to stop tracking the wrong metrics? Let’s talk about how Intelligent Demand can help you design an ABX measurement strategy that drives real pipeline and revenue.