“Lead”—The term is everywhere in the world of sales and marketing. However, What is a lead??
When a prospective customer fills out a contact form on your website, that counts as one lead. But be careful: not all leads are created equal. That’s because sales and marketing often take different approaches.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the question, “What is a lead?”“in detail. We’ll also explain the different categories of leads.”
What Is a Lead: The Definition
Let’s consider the following scenario: Someone fills out your contest entry form, providing their name and address. You’ve gained a contact. But is this contact also a lead? Are they interested in your offering, or just in winning the prize? Does your sales team have a realistic chance of closing a deal with this contact?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to these questions. In some cases—primarily in B2C business—a contact generated through a contest does indeed hold potential for a sale. In the more complex B2B sector, however, we would not classify such a contact as a lead. The likelihood that there is genuine interest in the product or service—and thus a real sales opportunity—is extremely low.
You’re probably asking yourself, “What is exactly a lead?”?” In short: In marketing and sales, a Lead When a prospective customer contacts the company and provides their contact information. However, as mentioned at the beginning, companies take various approaches to this. Therefore, at the start of the lead generation process, define the following: “This is a lead because…”.
Categories of Leads: What Is a (Un)qualified Lead?
Next, we’ll address the question, “What is a “good” leadthat leads to a closed sale and increased revenue?”
A “good” lead is often referred to as a qualified lead. But how do you distinguish between qualified and unqualified leads?
Unqualified leads are the most common. There are many contact requests that are not of high quality. This means that while the potential buyer is interested, this interest does not yet translate into a concrete intention to buy. Therefore, it’s important to filter out the leads that have a chance of resulting in a sale.
Qualified Leads are categorized into the following stages:
- MQLs (Marketing-Qualified Leads)
- SQLs (Sales-Qualified Leads)
- Opportunities
What is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
This is a lead for whom we already have some information. You can obtain this information either automatically (using marketing automation) or through traditional methods: email contact and telephone pre-qualification.
To evaluate leads, set criteria criteria that a lead must meet to be considered a genuine business opportunity. Forward only inquiries with real potential to the sales team as qualified leads. These are the leads that you know
- that the contact person is also the decision-maker,
- who is looking for a solution to his problem and
- and has the necessary budget available for that.
What is a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)?
That is a marketing Qualified A lead that the sales team has already contacted. From this lead know You not only that he fits the customer profile, but also what problem you can solve and what budget is available for it.
What is an opportunity?
These are leads to whom you have already made an offer and who are at a stage where a sale is very likely. They are also referred to as sales opportunities.
Discuss the project together with the marketing and sales teams. It is important that you precisely define and establish the criteria across departments, what a high-quality lead is and who is responsible for which inquiries.
Another important issue in the lead generation process is the GDPR.
What is a GDPR-compliant lead?
In the EU, the handling and processing of personal data have been regulated by the GDPR since May 2018. In lead generation, data that can be linked to a natural person is, by its very nature, collected (Address information, name, email addresses, company, etc.). It is therefore important to obtain consent for the storage and use of contact information directly as part of the lead generation —this is usually done by checking a box, that must be checked before submitting the contact form.
What Is a Lead? – The Bottom Line
Now you know the answer to the question “What is a lead?”“and we also know that not every lead is of the same quality. A lead becomes increasingly valuable as it progresses through a specific process and is categorized into different stages based on its maturity.”
Learn more about how to improve your generation of qualified leads.
