What is the difference between a lead and a prospect?
A lead is essentially a potential customer at the beginning of their journey. Lead generation is crucial to the success and growth of your organization. Generating leads is usually the first step in the sales process. But what exactly is your role as a lead?
As a lead, you go through two different stages, each with its own definition:
- Marketing qualified leads (MQL)
- Sales qualified leads (SQL)
What is a marketing qualified lead?
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a website visitor who demonstrates, through their online behaviour, an interest in potentially becoming a customer. A visitor is classified as an MQL once they have converted on your website — for instance, by filling out a form, downloading content, subscribing to a newsletter, or completing another type of conversion.
The information provided during that conversion is all you initially know about the MQL. You don’t yet know why they showed interest or whether they intend to make a purchase. Most likely, you only have their name and email address. Still, even with that limited information, you can guide this visitor further down the funnel — toward becoming an SQL.
Side note: Once a lead provides their details, you can track their future website behaviour using marketing automation.
Lead scoring
By assigning a lead score to every type of conversion or interaction, your marketing and sales teams can see exactly where the visitor is in their customer journey. Based on this information, you can tailor your content and marketing efforts to fit the lead’s current stage in the funnel.
Lead scoring means assigning points to specific actions leads take — for example, opening a follow-up email, clicking a link, or visiting a particular page on your website. Lead scoring allows you to identify which leads have the highest potential to become prospects and, eventually, customers.
This process optimises your sales cycle by helping the sales team focus only on leads that are “warm” enough to approach. The marketing team can then nurture the rest of the leads until they’re ready to buy — a process known as lead nurturing.
The journey from MQL to SQL
An MQL doesn’t automatically become an SQL. It’s your task to trigger and motivate this visitor to take the next step. Through lead nurturing, you can introduce your leads to your organisation via an automated email flow. During this process, you’ll learn more about the lead, allowing you to serve them better.
Your marketing automation platform shows exactly which emails and links the lead engages with. This data helps you make your content increasingly relevant. You continuously nurture and warm up the lead with information tailored to their specific interests until they’re ready to take the next step toward a purchase.
Once enough information has been gathered and the lead score is high enough, the lead can be handed over to the sales team. At that moment, the marketing qualified lead becomes a sales qualified lead.
An SQL is a lead who, based on their actions, stands out from others and is ready to be contacted by the sales department.
What is a prospect?
A prospect is a potential customer who has shown genuine interest in your products or services by responding to your outreach — meaning they have the potential to become a paying customer.
Now that we’ve mapped the journey of a lead, we can define when someone becomes a prospect. The key difference between a lead and a prospect is two-way communication. A lead becomes a prospect once they’ve responded to you — for example, by replying to an email or engaging with your sales team.
This type of mutual communication indicates intent to purchase. Once that intent becomes clear, the lead is officially a prospect.
Can a lead become a prospect?
Now that the definitions are clear, it’s easier to see that each type represents a different stage of the sales process. A lead is not yet at the same stage as a prospect, which means your marketing activities should be adapted to each phase.
First, ensure that a lead meets your criteria. You know best when someone is relevant enough to include in your company’s story. Do they fit your target industry? Do they hold a decision-making role that makes them worth following up with? These are key questions for determining whether a lead should stay in your funnel.
If the lead doesn’t fit your criteria, repeated outreach won’t make them more qualified. But if they are interesting enough — it’s time for the follow-up.
Every lead faces specific challenges or pain points that trigger their interest. You can respond by providing value, prompting engagement with your content. A click on a link or a reply to your sales outreach can signal growing interest.
Through consistent email follow-up, you can identify the lead’s challenges and position your product or service as the solution. Once the lead responds, they officially become a prospect, and it’s now up to the sales team to close the deal.
From prospect to customer
Once the lead actively engages with you and becomes a prospect, it’s time for the sales team to act. The person is now very close to making a purchase. Sales should establish direct, personal contact with the lead or prospect.
Keep in mind that not every lead will become a prospect — some won’t engage at all. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unqualified; they might just not be ready yet. In such cases, continue nurturing them with inspirational, value-driven content until their interest grows.
A marketing qualified lead is simply someone who has expressed initial interest. Through lead scoring in your marketing automation platform, you can determine when an MQL becomes an SQL — and eventually a prospect.
For the sales team, it’s essential to understand the needs of the prospect to make a tailored offer.
Lead generation
Now that you understand what leads and prospects are — and the journey they take — it’s time to focus on the first step: lead generation. You need to collect potential leads before you can follow up with relevant content.
Having the right lead management strategy is crucial to building your sales funnel and generating revenue. You want to follow up proactively, but balance is key. Make sure you’re contacting the right person — ideally, the decision-maker. You should also define a clear content and communication strategy: what do you want to tell your potential customer, and how will you convince them to choose you?
The foundation of good lead generation is offering value. Without valuable, relevant content, you won’t capture interest. Once you have that, define your target audience precisely. Know where they are, which channels they use, and what message will resonate with them.
Then, motivate them to engage with your company — for example, by offering something compelling enough for them to share their contact details. Those details are invaluable for continuing your lead generation efforts. From there, you can nurture leads, move them toward conversion, and ultimately turn them into satisfied customers.
Automate this process with marketing automation
This entire process can be automated with marketing automation tools. SharpSpring is the number one marketing automation platform in the Netherlands. schurq. was the first provider of SharpSpring in the country and is now an official partner.
SharpSpring guides your leads through every stage of the customer journey, ensuring that you deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. This increases conversion rates and helps turn leads into loyal customers.
With SharpSpring, you can track what your leads do on your website and what they click on. You can assign points based on their actions, allowing you to see how “warm” each lead is. SharpSpring automates your emails and offers dynamic content, making communication more personal.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you clearly understand the difference between a lead and a prospect. The most important takeaway is that each is in a different stage of the sales process, requiring a targeted approach and tailored communication.
With the right strategy — and the help of marketing automation — you’ll generate more leads and convert them into prospects faster than ever.