Leads and Prospects: What Are They? Meanings and Differences
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 5:24 am
The goal of any business is to be successful and acquire new customers. But to do this, you need to structure a strategy down to the smallest details and understand each step perfectly. Therefore, knowing how to choose the channel that best suits your needs, how the Buyer's Journey works, which are the most effective tools to use, etc. Very often, however, the terms are misunderstood and the meanings distorted.
The concepts of lead and prospect are one of these cases that are most often used as synonyms. In reality, they have different characteristics and meanings and refer to two very distinct moments of the purchasing process . Consequently, in order to work, a Lead Generation strategy must be able to distinguish them and create two different types of communications and content specific to that contact category. Knowing your buyer personas is extremely important even in performance marketing strategies. We talked about it in a guide!
Some premises on the Buyer's Journey
Before moving on to the definition of leads and prospects, let's focus for estonia whatsapp number data 5 million a moment on the different phases of the Buyer's Journey and how the role of the user changes from a simple visitor to a site to a real customer.
This will allow us to understand that these are two very distinct moments in the purchasing process and that it is good to know how to distinguish them right away. Furthermore, considering which stage our contact is in, we will be able to offer the most suitable, targeted and relevant content, thus optimizing time and setting up only effective strategies.
Considering the traditional path, in the first stage, the user understands that he has a problem but does not yet know what it is and how to solve it. In the second, he is able to define the nature of his problem and begins to look for practical solutions to solve it. In the third, finally, he evaluates among different options the company and the solution that best respond to his problem.
Once a customer has become a real customer, it is up to the company to nurture and consolidate the relationship with him , in order to encourage him to carry out new actions and to motivate/pamper him with offers and promotions.
A strategy based on the Inbound methodology starts with the attract function (attracting and capturing the user's attention), moves on to the convert function (converting the user into a qualified contact, first potentially and then actually interested), arrives at the selection function (transforming prospects into actual customers) and ends with the delight function (cultivating and nourishing the relationship with the acquired customer).
Lead vs Prospect: What Do They Mean?
As we have just seen, the lead, within the Buyer's Journey, comes immediately after the stranger and the visitor. This is a user potentially interested in your company's products or services, or a qualified contact of whom you know some basic personal information because perhaps he or she registered on your site without providing consent to be contacted for commercial offers.
In other words, it is a user registered in the database, therefore no longer a simple and generic visitor to the site, who has shown interest in something that your business offers and proposes. This interest has led him to want to know more about your reality or about a specific topic, to the point of providing his personal data in exchange for insights or materials to download such as e-books, webinars or video tutorials.
Instead, the prospect is a user who is actually interested in your products or services and therefore, in purchasing, who has given his consent to be contacted to receive information, communications and commercial promotions from your company. Compared to the lead, he represents the actual potential customer, the possible candidate to whom you can launch your offer. Considering the sales funnel, the prospect is one step after the lead.
And what are their differences?
The substantial difference in the lead-prospect binomial is their different degree of interest and interaction with a brand . On one hand, we have the lead that represents the potentially interested user and on the other, the prospect that refers to the user actually interested in a product or service.
It is therefore clear that the goal is to transform a lead into a prospect and then convert it into a real customer. Also because skipping the various steps of the purchasing process and trying to directly transform any user into a customer risks losing it completely.
But how do you understand if a contact is already a lead or a prospect? From their behavior on the brand's website : you need to observe if they perform specific operations such as filling out the form to receive more information, or if they simply visit the site out of interest or curiosity.
Only from these checks, you will be able to understand if a user is a lead or a prospect and if he is ready to move forward in the sales funnel. Furthermore, the right communication combined with effective Lead Nurturing will allow you to make your Lead Generation strategy truly perfect, targeted and designed for your specific needs.
The concepts of lead and prospect are one of these cases that are most often used as synonyms. In reality, they have different characteristics and meanings and refer to two very distinct moments of the purchasing process . Consequently, in order to work, a Lead Generation strategy must be able to distinguish them and create two different types of communications and content specific to that contact category. Knowing your buyer personas is extremely important even in performance marketing strategies. We talked about it in a guide!
Some premises on the Buyer's Journey
Before moving on to the definition of leads and prospects, let's focus for estonia whatsapp number data 5 million a moment on the different phases of the Buyer's Journey and how the role of the user changes from a simple visitor to a site to a real customer.
This will allow us to understand that these are two very distinct moments in the purchasing process and that it is good to know how to distinguish them right away. Furthermore, considering which stage our contact is in, we will be able to offer the most suitable, targeted and relevant content, thus optimizing time and setting up only effective strategies.
Considering the traditional path, in the first stage, the user understands that he has a problem but does not yet know what it is and how to solve it. In the second, he is able to define the nature of his problem and begins to look for practical solutions to solve it. In the third, finally, he evaluates among different options the company and the solution that best respond to his problem.
Once a customer has become a real customer, it is up to the company to nurture and consolidate the relationship with him , in order to encourage him to carry out new actions and to motivate/pamper him with offers and promotions.
A strategy based on the Inbound methodology starts with the attract function (attracting and capturing the user's attention), moves on to the convert function (converting the user into a qualified contact, first potentially and then actually interested), arrives at the selection function (transforming prospects into actual customers) and ends with the delight function (cultivating and nourishing the relationship with the acquired customer).
Lead vs Prospect: What Do They Mean?
As we have just seen, the lead, within the Buyer's Journey, comes immediately after the stranger and the visitor. This is a user potentially interested in your company's products or services, or a qualified contact of whom you know some basic personal information because perhaps he or she registered on your site without providing consent to be contacted for commercial offers.
In other words, it is a user registered in the database, therefore no longer a simple and generic visitor to the site, who has shown interest in something that your business offers and proposes. This interest has led him to want to know more about your reality or about a specific topic, to the point of providing his personal data in exchange for insights or materials to download such as e-books, webinars or video tutorials.
Instead, the prospect is a user who is actually interested in your products or services and therefore, in purchasing, who has given his consent to be contacted to receive information, communications and commercial promotions from your company. Compared to the lead, he represents the actual potential customer, the possible candidate to whom you can launch your offer. Considering the sales funnel, the prospect is one step after the lead.
And what are their differences?
The substantial difference in the lead-prospect binomial is their different degree of interest and interaction with a brand . On one hand, we have the lead that represents the potentially interested user and on the other, the prospect that refers to the user actually interested in a product or service.
It is therefore clear that the goal is to transform a lead into a prospect and then convert it into a real customer. Also because skipping the various steps of the purchasing process and trying to directly transform any user into a customer risks losing it completely.
But how do you understand if a contact is already a lead or a prospect? From their behavior on the brand's website : you need to observe if they perform specific operations such as filling out the form to receive more information, or if they simply visit the site out of interest or curiosity.
Only from these checks, you will be able to understand if a user is a lead or a prospect and if he is ready to move forward in the sales funnel. Furthermore, the right communication combined with effective Lead Nurturing will allow you to make your Lead Generation strategy truly perfect, targeted and designed for your specific needs.