Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO)
A Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO) is a prospect that a sales rep has vetted and accepted as a real, winnable deal worth active pursuit.
In depth
An SQO sits one step deeper in the funnel than a Sales Qualified Lead: the lead has been worked, the budget and need are confirmed, and the rep has formally moved it into the active opportunity stage of the pipeline. Teams track SQO volume and SQO-to-close conversion because these reveal whether marketing is sending genuine demand and whether sales can convert it efficiently. Clear entry criteria, often a checklist like budget, authority, need, and timeline, keep the SQO stage honest and prevent the pipeline from filling with wishful entries.
A frequent pitfall is loose qualification, where reps mark too many leads as opportunities to look busy, inflating the pipeline while crushing forecast accuracy. A quiz-funnel approach raises SQO quality before human review: a scorecard asks the qualifying questions automatically, so only respondents who clear a threshold are routed to reps, which means a larger share of the opportunities they accept are real and the SQO-to-close rate climbs.
Example in practice
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an SQL and an SQO?
An SQL is a lead marketing believes is sales-ready, while an SQO is one a sales rep has personally vetted and accepted as a real opportunity. The SQO stage adds the rep's confirmation of budget, need, and fit.
Why track SQO-to-close conversion?
It shows how effectively your team turns accepted opportunities into revenue and whether your qualification criteria are accurate. A low rate often signals that opportunities are being created too loosely.
How does a quiz funnel create better SQOs?
A scorecard quiz asks budget, authority, and timeline questions automatically, so only qualified respondents reach reps. This raises the share of accepted opportunities that are genuinely winnable.