Lead

Also called prospect

A lead is a person who has given you a way to contact them, and has therefore shown some level of interest.

What makes someone a lead is contactability plus a signal, however small. A follower is neither — you cannot reach them directly and they may have followed for one post. An email address given in exchange for something is both.

Leads are usually sorted by temperature or by fit. Someone who downloaded a beginner checklist and someone who asked about your highest-priced service are both leads, and treating them identically wastes the second.

Counting leads without qualifying them is the most common way a funnel looks healthy while producing nothing: the number grows, the revenue does not.

In practice

Two hundred sign-ups from a general freebie and twenty from a pricing page are both leads; the twenty are worth more attention.

Common mistake

Treating list size as pipeline. Until leads are sorted by intent, the total says nothing about likely revenue.

Lead

In practice

Common mistake

Read more on this