Sales Lead
A sales lead is a person or company that may become a customer, identified through their interest, their fit with the ideal customer profile or both, but not yet qualified as a real opportunity.
Also called: lead, prospect
Why it matters
Leads are the raw material of a sales pipeline. Marketing generates them through forms, content and events, and sales development generates them through prospecting. How a company defines, scores and routes its leads decides how much of that raw material turns into meetings and revenue.
Teams usually move leads through stages. A lead becomes a marketing qualified lead when it meets marketing's criteria, a sales qualified lead when sales accepts it, and an opportunity once there is a real deal being worked. The word prospect is often used for a lead that fits the profile and is being actively pursued, though usage varies between companies.
Example
A visitor downloads a pricing guide and gives her name, company and job title. She is now a lead in the CRM. Her company matches the target profile and she visits the pricing page again, so her score passes the MQL threshold, and an SDR calls her to see if there is a real project.
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