Lead Stage Defintions

Inquiry - An "Inquiry" is someone who has made themselves known to your company, typically through a response to an advertisement or promotional effort or they have filled out a form requesting some information. They have requested a white paper, information about your company, solution, etc.

Lead (Marketing Qualified) - A "Lead (marketing qualified)" has a definite interest in your solution, which might be appropriate for their company. Appropriate may have several meanings, but one example would be that they need a financial software package and you offer one that is a good fit for their business model.

Opportunity (Sales Qualified) - An "Opportunity (sales qualified)" is the decision maker, has the budget, need, authority, but maybe not the time frame. They’re going to purchase yours or a similar solution, but just haven’t finalized on the actual purchase date. It may be months or more off in terms of actually executing the purchase. Based on your own criteria, you might include prospects in this category that aren’t going to execute a purchase in the next three to six months. Anyone who is going to execute a purchase in the next three months would move to the next category, a qualified opportunity.

Qualified Opportunity - A "Qualified opportunity (sales qualified)" is the decision maker, has the budget, has the need, has the authority to make the buying decision and has a time frame in purchase that falls into your budget/sales cycle for a specified period. The specified period might be the sale has to occur in the next 3 months of this calendar year. If it falls outside of that, then it would still be an opportunity, but not a “qualified opportunity” because it is outside of your time frame. You might define a “qualified opportunity” as one that has to close in the 2nd quarter.

For more information on the lead management process, visit 6 Stages of Lead Management Process on our website.