Lead
LEED
A person or company that has shown interest in your product. The starting point of every sales pipeline.
A lead is someone who has done something that signals interest. Downloaded a whitepaper. Signed up for a free trial. Filled out a contact form. Attended a webinar. The specific action matters less than the signal: this person might buy from you.
Not all leads are equal. A CTO who requests a demo after reading your documentation is a better lead than someone who downloaded a generic ebook. That is why marketing teams score and qualify leads before passing them to sales. A raw lead is just a name. A qualified lead is someone who matches your ICP, has a real problem, and has budget and authority to solve it.
The number of leads you generate matters far less than the quality. Ten leads that convert at 30% beat a hundred leads that convert at 1%. If your sales team ignores marketing leads, the problem is usually quality, not laziness.
Examples
A developer tools company runs a webinar.
150 people register. 90 attend. Those 90 are leads. Marketing scores them based on job title, company size, and engagement during the session. 15 are passed to sales as MQLs.
A PLG product sees signups spike after a blog post.
400 people sign up for free accounts in a week. Those are product leads. The product tracks which ones complete onboarding, and sales follows up with the ones at companies matching the ICP.
An enterprise company sponsors a conference.
The booth collects 200 badge scans. Of those, 30 had meaningful conversations with the team. Those 30 are warm leads. The other 170 wanted free t-shirts.
In practice
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a lead and a prospect?
A lead has shown some interest but has not been qualified. A prospect has been vetted and confirmed to match your ICP with a real need and budget. All prospects started as leads. Most leads never become prospects.
How do you measure lead quality?
Track the conversion rate from lead to opportunity, and from opportunity to closed-won. If your lead-to-opportunity conversion is below 5%, your leads are low quality. If it is above 20%, your marketing team is doing its job.
Related terms
A lead that marketing has scored and deemed ready for sales follow-up based on fit and engagement signals.
A lead that a salesperson has vetted and confirmed has real buying intent, budget, and authority.
The total dollar value of deals your sales team is actively working. The most important leading indicator in any sales organization.
Assigning numerical values to leads based on their fit and engagement to determine which ones are ready for sales follow-up.
A description of the company (not person) most likely to buy, succeed, and expand with your product. Your best-fit customer.
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