Is the MQL dead? (with Freya Ward, Headley Media)
The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)
September 28, 2026
#395 | Dasha sits down with Freya Ward, Associate Managing Director at Headley Media, to talk about why MQLs get a bad rap and what to do about it.
Speakers Dasha, Dave Gerhardt, Freya Ward
TopicsMarketingBusinessEntrepreneurship
Dasha (0:00)
Hey, it's me, Dave.
Dave Gerhardt (0:00)
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That's webflow.com/for/exitfive.
You're listening to the Dave Gerhardt Show.
Dasha (2:33)
Hey, it's Dasha and on today's episode, I'm talking to Freya Ward. Freya is the Associate Managing Director at an agency called Headley Media. They help B2B tech companies get their content in front of potential buyers to generate leads.
But before she worked in an agency, Freya was a marketer and she got so frustrated by how the sales team was treating her leads, that she actually stopped being a marketer and joined the sales team instead. So she has been on both sides, she really gets it. We spent today's episode talking about a topic very near and dear to my heart, sales and marketing alignment. We talked about whether the MQL is really dead and what Freya has been suggesting clients call the MQL instead. But probably my favorite part is Freya shared specific tactics that you can try with your sales team today to build good alignment. I shared some of the things that have been working on our team as well. I think you're going to walk away from this episode with a few things that you can implement right away, especially if you're tired of the same argument from the sales team, which is just these leads are not good enough. So enjoy the show. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Let me know what you think.
Freya, welcome to the podcast. So excited to chat with you today. Let's get you introduced. Freya, who are you? Where do you work? What do you do?
Freya Ward (3:47)
Amazing. Thank you, Dasha. So I am Freya Ward. I'm the Associate Managing Director at a company called Headley Media. We are based in the UK, but we're a global company.
We support marketing managers that are working at B2B technology companies who are looking to drive marketing qualified leads or MQLs, whatever they want to call them. Leads that are at that early stage in the funnel and ready for further nurture and conversion.
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