What is the difference? So many people get this wrong that it prompted to blog about it.

A lead and a prospect are too completely different elements. One could argue that a suspect and a lead or similar. I would tend to agree with that argument.

My simple definition of a Lead: A potential consumer who you are not sure is qualified to purchase your goods or services.

My simple definition of a prospect: A consumer who has is qualified to purchase your goods or services, but has yet to make a purchase.

This has nothing to do with time as some salespeople often think. If a person is not making a purchase today doesn’t mean they are not a qualified prospect. Let’s look a scenario where people often make mistakes.
Company a sells special widgets. Salesperson calls on this lead and finds out the lead just bought a special widget from a competitor and not in a position to purchase again for another 24 months. The salesperson then records this lead as “unqualified” in their CRM database. WRONG!!!!!!!! This bites so many people in the butt. This is a HIGHLY qualified prospect. Just because they didn’t buy from you doesn’t disqualify them. In fact knowing they are with a competitor makes it easier to market to them. You should already know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Now what if you sold cars? Does this mean everyone who drives a car, which is just about everyone qualified? Not always. If you sold Class A luxury vehicles and your lead’s age is 45+ and household income of under $30K/year. Chances are they can not afford to buy that new BMW 750i. Even more so, you should not sell it to them. Now on the flipside… if a person who has a household income of $300K/year or more and you sell cars $9995 and under. They are not qualified and it would make no sense to try and make them a customer.

Now… I can hear the comments brewing about the last paragraph. What if? What if? There is always a trump card. If a person walks in and says I want that car here’s the money. You sell it to them and take the money. However, we’re talking about taking someone through the sales process not just a closed sale.

What should you do with all your unqualified leads???? Most people just mark them for dead. That’s one sad and twisted way of looking at it. First thing, Treat everyone as you would your best customer. Second, turn unqualified leads into powerful community influences/referral partners. That person who makes $300K/yr might have many friends or employees in need of cars under $10K.

So I am hoping everyone reading this article (all 10 of you…lol) will help me in getting rid of the term unqualified lead and clear up the confusion between a lead and a prospect.