need vs lead samjaye
Answers
Explanation:
The terms lead, prospect, and opportunity get thrown around a lot in sales and marketing articles. Often, they’re used interchangeably making understanding the differences difficult.
Here, we’ll provide definitions for each of the three terms, explain where they fit in the sales funnel, and explain how you can optimize your efforts to convert more leads into customers.
Simply put, a sales lead is a prospect that has not been qualified. Leads are at the top of the sales funnel. Generally, leads are within your target market, but you don’t know much about them yet.
For example, a lead may come to your attention after a pull marketing strategy prompts them to fill out a form on your website.
The takeaway here is simple: a sales lead is a contact that might become a customer based upon basic preliminary information. With proper lead management, you can nurture leads through the sales process and convert them into customers.
Before we move on, let’s take a quick look at a few other types of “leads”. The term “cold lead” refers to a lead with little to no data to suggest they may turn into a customer.
If you’ve ever been involved with a “cold call”, the individuals on the receiving end of those calls are an example of a cold lead. A “warm lead” on the other hand has done something, such as sign up to a webinar, to suggest they may have interest in your product or service.
If you’ve been doing research on leads vs prospects, you may have come across the terms “sales qualified lead” (SQL) and “marketing qualified lead” (MQL). An MQL is a lead that has been qualified by the marketing team in some way, for example by using predictions from marketing analytics tools. An SQL has been qualified by marketing and sales. Roughly speaking, an MQL equates to the sales prospect stage while an SQL is closer to the opportunity stage.