Glossary
Lead vs Prospect vs Customer
All three terms represent different stages of the sales funnel. Confusing them disrupts your sales team's priorities and corrupts reporting.
Try the CRM FreeQuick definitions
Lead: An unqualified prospect who has shown some signal of interest (filled a form, downloaded an ebook, attended a webinar) but hasn't been evaluated for fit. Prospect: A qualified lead — someone confirmed to match your ICP (ideal customer profile) and to have budget/authority/need. Customer: A prospect who has purchased.
The Funnel: How They Connect
1. Lead
Top of funnel. Generated by marketing (web forms, ads, content). Volume: high. Quality: mixed. Owner: marketing team.
2. MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
A lead scored as ready for sales follow-up based on engagement (page views, demo requests, ICP fit). Owner: marketing → sales handoff.
3. SQL / Prospect
Sales has talked to them and confirmed BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline). Now an Opportunity in CRM. Owner: sales.
4. Customer
Signed a contract / paid. Owner: customer success.
5. Loyal Customer / Advocate
Renews, expands, refers others. Owner: customer success + marketing.
Why the distinction matters operationally
Sales reps shouldn't waste time on unqualified leads (low conversion, low morale). Marketing shouldn't pester prospects with top-of-funnel content (annoyance, unsubscribes). CRM solves this by tracking each contact's stage and routing them to the right team with the right message. Mis-categorizing inflates pipeline reports and wastes budget.
How CRM models the difference
In Salesforce, Rapitek, and most CRMs: Lead is its own module. When a Lead is qualified, you 'convert' it — the system creates an Account, Contact, and Opportunity, and the original Lead record is archived. Some CRMs (HubSpot) merge Lead/Contact into one Contact record with a stage field. Pipedrive uses Person + Deal without a separate Lead concept.