What is the difference? Lead VS Prospect Explanation and Examples

Determining where you are in the sales funnel or the buyer cycle requires you to determine who is a lead, a prospect, or in customer status.

While a customer is easy to identify as someone who has made a purchase, it can be confusing to figure what a lead vs a prospect is.

The single biggest difference between prospects and leads is their engagement. More specifically, leads are characterized by one-way communication, while prospects are characterized by two-way communication.

What Is A Lead?

Potential customers who have expressed interest in our company or services through a behavior such as visiting our website, subscribing to a blog, or downloading an ebook.

15 Lead Generation Examples and Techniques:

1. Direct mail
2. Referrals
3. Word-of-Mouth (WOM)
4. Telemarketing
5. Networking
6. Events
7. Google Ads
8. Brochures and Literature
9. Business Cards
10. Newsletters
11. TradeShows
12. Magazine Ads
13. Seminars
14. Website
15. Social Media posts

What Is A Prospect?

Leads become prospects if they are qualified as potential customers, meaning that they align with the persona of our target buyer; a prospect may also be classified as a potential customer who has limited or no interaction with our company, but they would NOT be considered a lead.

Examples of prospecting:

Outbound

Cold calling – Unsolicited calls

Social spamming – Random unsolicited messages

Inbound

Warm emailing – Sending emails to leads who have shown interest

Social selling – answering questions, nurturing relationships, introducing new products

Before potential customers make a purchase decision, 60% of them rely on WOM, friends, and social media, 49% on customer references, 47% on analyst reports and recommendations, and 44% on media articles.