Which comes first, the prospect or the lead?

I wanted to create an article explaining the difference between a prospect & a lead, but when I started talking to clients, partners and colleagues, I realised that no one could agree which way around they came.

I searched online and found similar articles from the powerhouses such as Salesforce and HubSpot, but both viewed it differently too, so I decided to run a quick poll on LinkedIn asking my peers which of the following statements is correct: Leads become prospects OR Prospects become leads?

The votes are in, and I can confirm…

??… it was a 50/50 split on there too!

In my opinion, Leads become prospects; and lead generation is the most critical part of the sales process. Without correctly identifying the right sectors, companies and people to engage with at the very start, means that there is no 'rest of process' or a sales pipeline for you to work on.

So, what is the difference between a sales lead and a prospect?

A lead is an unqualified contact, while a prospect is a qualified contact who has been moved into the sales process. To turn a lead into a prospect, you need to walk them through the sales qualification process to assess if your company's products or services are the right solutions to their problem AND to confirm that they meet the specific criteria to be your client.?

Sales and Business Development teams can often search for and chase leads for months, working persistently to turn these leads into prospects and eventually opportunities. Do you have months available to identify and [metaphorically] chase down leads, convert them to prospects and nurture them as opportunities?

Of course, you don't! If you're a business owner, you needed new clients yesterday. If you're a sales leader, you need an abundance of high-quality leads to feed into your sales team now. And if you're a salesperson, then there is no such thing as 'enough commission', so here are four simple steps and access to some FREE training videos that will allow you to achieve your goals much faster and by doing less of the intense manual labour.

LinkedIn has been the catalyst for all of my lead generation for >14 years. It has allowed me to pitch to and secure deals with some of the worlds most well-known brands, but it is not just a case of sending a generic message to everyone (spamming). In fact, this is the worst thing to do for multiple reasons, not least being that LinkedIn will restrict your account and prevent you from reaching out to anyone.

You need to be calculated in your approach to lead generation on LinkedIn and understand how LinkedIn works and what LinkedIn wants from its users.

1. Are they the right client for you? Knowing your dream client is something that most people instinctively know, but in some cases, such as a start-up, you're still trying to feel your way around to find out exactly who this is. LinkedIn's Sales Navigator allows you to create granular searches based on seniority, location, years of service, size of the company and many other filters that will enable you to drill down to your true dream client so that you can confidently reach out to them and introduce the products or services that you know they use or need.
2. ?Bypass the gatekeeper: LinkedIn allows you to engage with the most senior decision-makers within nearly every company on the planet. By engaging with the decision-maker from day one, you can expedite the sale process, even if they delegate the conversation to the person you'll be working with on a day to day basis, as they made the initial intro.
3. ?Case studies or testimonials: In addition to your clients validating your services, this also displays the sectors you have experience in assisting and therefore strengthens your industry-specific lead generation outreach.
4. ?Do not sell to people on LinkedIn: Instead, use LinkedIn to engage in dialogue with your dream clients and subtly unearth their problems and objections before moving the conversation to a meeting.?
5. ?Don't focus on just one channel: Whilst LinkedIn is, without doubt, the best option in terms of lead gen, it should not be you're only route and email is the organic next step in continuing to educate the lead and start moving the dialogue into a sales conversation.

If you approach lead generation in this way, then you'll create a predictable flow of new high-quality leads could every month.

Once you've moved the lead to a prospect, this is where you can show your product knowledge and start winning more new business than ever before from very warm prospects.

Why not click on the image below and take a look at some of our free LinkedIn training videos that show you exactly how to build a list of your dream client??

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