What is a Lead?

Suppose that you are looking for someone to speak with, in a company you are interested in, that could give you something to move forward with your business. This someone can be called as a Lead. In other words, a Lead is a contact information of a person within a business, who could help facilitate a future sale. 

Typically a lead will be a single person at a business who is looking to purchase a service or product you offer. A lead is commonly referred to as an “unqualified” sales opportunity.

Lead might be a name of a person collected via research, third-party data, referrals, or inbound marketing – or maybe they responded to one of your cold emails.

What is an Opportunity?

A sales opportunity (also referred to as a Prospect or a Deal or a Potential) is a “qualified” sales lead.  A lead has already spoken to marketing or sales team and expressed interest in continuing the conversation, and may even have agreed to look over a proposal. 

An opportunity represents a potential deal, which may indicate a high value to the business, or a high probability of closing.
