'Leads' means something different to everyone

Having spent many moons working in technology businesses, I hear few words tossed around as frequently as "leads."

It’s a term that appears in meetings, sales reports, marketing campaigns, and boardroom presentations. But ask ten different businesses what a "lead" actually means, and you’re likely to get ten different answers.

That variability is not just a quirk of language – it’s a reflection of deeper misalignments between departments, strategies, and suppliers of services businesses hire in their quest for pipeline and growth.

And it’s a problem that can seriously undermine performance and productivity for all involved. Here’s what I mean.

For data providers a lead is “the right contact”​

​
To a data provider, a "lead" is primarily viewed as a dataset or a contact record containing key information about a potential customer or decision-maker. Their role is to supply businesses with accurate and comprehensive contact details, such as names, job titles, email addresses, phone numbers, and company information.

For data providers, the quality of a lead is measured by the accuracy, relevance, and recency of the data. In their world, a lead isn't necessarily someone who has engaged with a product or expressed interest, but rather a target profile that fits a company’s ideal customer persona.

The value they offer lies in delivering leads that are fresh, well-targeted, and ready for businesses to begin outreach or qualification efforts. No more.

The 'lead' means something different in marketing

In marketing circles, a lead can be a contact at any point of the funnel. Often, marketers refer to leads as anyone who’s expressed even the faintest glimmer of interest in their content. Someone downloads a whitepaper? Lead. Subscribes to a newsletter? Lead. Leaves their business card at a trade show booth? Lead.

But are these individuals genuinely interested in buying? Not necessarily. To marketers, a lead is simply someone who’s engaged with the brand’s messaging – regardless of their intent to purchase. The goal is to get that initial touchpoint and nurture the lead over time.

From a marketing perspective, more leads mean more opportunities for nurturing, which is why marketing teams tend to focus on volume. The challenge here is that most of these "leads" aren’t ready to talk to sales or make decisions. And this is where the disconnect begins.

To sales teams, a lead means "ready to buy"

Sales teams, on the other hand, often use the word "lead" to mean something very different. For them, a lead isn’t just a contact who downloaded a whitepaper – it’s someone who’s actively considering solutions and, most importantly, has purchasing power.

Sales doesn’t want to waste time on a list of marketing-qualified leads who might not even remember they signed up for that webinar. To them, a "real" lead has moved through the stages of qualification, expressed a business need, and is ready for a meaningful conversation about solutions.

This difference in definition leads to the classic marketing-sales misalignment. Marketing delivers leads, but sales dismisses most of them as unqualified, leading to frustration on both sides. Sales sees marketing as generating noise, while marketing feels that sales is squandering opportunities.

The executive view: Leads mean pipeline

For executives, the word "lead" often means something closer to revenue potential. When they ask about leads, they’re usually referring to the overall pipeline – the flow of potential customers moving through the funnel toward conversion. Executives want to know how leads translate into opportunities, how opportunities convert to deals, and ultimately, how much revenue can be attributed to lead generation efforts.

But without a clear, shared definition of what a lead is and what qualifies as an "opportunity," these conversations can get muddled. When marketing touts the volume of leads they’ve generated but sales reports lower conversions, executives are left wondering why the numbers don’t align.

Lead definitions vary across industries

The confusion doesn’t stop at the marketing-sales-executive triangle. Different industries also define "leads" in their own ways. In B2B tech, for example, a lead might be someone who’s demonstrated interest in a software solution by participating in a product demo. But in insurance for example, a lead might be an individual who’s requested a quote or expressed interest in a policy.

In highly transactional industries, a lead might have a shorter qualification process, while in our typically complex, high value, long-sales cycle businesses, "leads" can exist in a holding pattern for months or even years. This variance across sectors only compounds the problem when businesses try to establish benchmarks or best practices for lead management.

Why this matters – and how to fix it

Why does it matter that the word "lead" means something different to everyone? Because misalignment between departments, teams, and even external providers can result in wasted time, resources, and missed opportunities. When marketing and sales don’t agree on what a qualified lead looks like, marketing campaigns fail to deliver the expected return, and salespeople are left with contacts they can’t convert.

So how do we fix this? It starts with clarity. Businesses need to establish a shared definition of what a lead is – and isn’t. This requires collaboration across departments to ensure that everyone is aligned on the characteristics and stages of a lead’s journey.

Sales and marketing teams should agree on specific criteria for what qualifies a lead to move from one stage to the next. This is where lead scoring comes in – a well-defined lead scoring system can help ensure that only leads that meet certain engagement or intent thresholds are passed to sales.

Additionally, transparency around the hand-off between marketing and sales is crucial. Sales should be clear about what they expect from marketing, and marketing needs to deliver leads that meet those expectations. Only then can the term "lead" mean the same thing to everyone in the organisation – from marketers to salespeople to executives.

Takeaway

The word "leads" may never have a universally accepted definition, but within each business, it’s critical to establish a clear, shared understanding of what it means. Without this clarity, teams will continue to work at cross purposes, leading to inefficiencies, frustrations, and missed opportunities. The companies that thrive are the ones that know exactly what a lead is – and how to turn it into a customer.​
​
Thank you for sticking with it and letting me get that off my chest!

About The Amigos Network and Market Activation™

Lead definition is just one crucial part of the Business Readiness exercise we undertake during Market Activation. It’s a big part of the success marker we lay down in our performance guarantees which includes progression of engaged buyers through early, mid and late intent stages of our client’s individual buying cycle.​
​
If you’d like to know more, please book some time in our diary and we’ll show you how!

Frequently Asked Questions