Lead

CRM & Retention

Also: Prospect · Enquiry · Contact

DefinitionPerson who has shown interest but not yet bought

TypesMQL (marketing qualified) and SQL (sales qualified)

Cost to acquireCost per lead = total spend / leads generated

Quick definition

A person or organisation who has expressed interest in your product or service and whose contact details you have captured — but who has not yet made a purchase.

Where it shows up in the data

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

A lead who has engaged with your marketing at a level that suggests genuine interest — viewed pricing, downloaded a guide, attended a webinar. They have not yet been validated by sales as worth pursuing.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A lead that sales has reviewed and confirmed meets the criteria of a genuine prospect: the right role, company size, budget authority and buying timeline. SQLs enter the active sales pipeline.

Lead source

Where the lead came from: organic search, paid ads, social media, referral, direct. Understanding lead source is essential for attributing marketing spend to revenue and optimising channel mix.

Lead quality vs lead volume

More leads is not always better. A high volume of poorly-qualified leads wastes sales resources and inflates marketing metrics without producing revenue. Define what a good lead looks like before optimising for volume.

What it actually means

A lead is someone who has given you permission to follow up. They have raised their hand — by submitting a form, calling your number, downloading a resource or booking a meeting — and expressed interest in what you do. The definition of a lead varies by business: for a retailer it might be an email subscriber, for a law firm it is a person who has requested a consultation. The ambiguity around the word 'lead' is a constant source of misalignment between marketing and sales teams. Agreeing on a precise definition is one of the most valuable conversations a marketing and sales team can have.

A lead is not a lead until you have defined what a lead actually is. Until then, you are counting noise.

How it shows up

Leads appear in your CRM as new contacts with a source attribution. The critical metrics are: lead volume by source and period, lead-to-opportunity conversion rate, lead-to-close rate and cost per lead by channel. Without CRM tracking, most of this data does not exist.

The Australian context

Australian B2B lead generation is dominated by LinkedIn, Google Search and referrals. Email remains one of the highest lead quality channels despite declining open rates. Events and webinars generate high-intent leads in professional services. Facebook and Instagram generate higher volume but lower intent in most B2B categories.

Where people get this wrong

Counting all form submissions as leadsContact forms collect support requests, careers enquiries, spam and genuine sales leads. Only genuine sales enquiries are leads. Track them separately and report accordingly.

Optimising for lead volume at the expense of lead qualityBroad targeting on paid channels can dramatically increase lead volume but crater conversion rates. A sales team drowning in unqualified leads will start ignoring them — including the good ones.

Not tracking lead source at the individual levelKnowing that 'organic search drove 40 leads this month' is useful. Knowing that the specific keyword that drove 15 of those leads was 'accountant for small business Melbourne' enables budget and content decisions at a granular level.

Common questions

What is the difference between a lead and a prospect?

Usage varies by company, but generally: a lead is anyone who has expressed interest and given contact details. A prospect is a lead who has been qualified as a potential customer meeting your ideal customer criteria. Some teams use the terms interchangeably.

What is a good lead-to-sale conversion rate?

This varies enormously by industry and sales cycle. For B2B professional services, 10-20% of qualified leads converting to sales is reasonable. For lower-ticket B2C, 2-5% of leads converting is more typical. Establish your own baseline before benchmarking against industry averages.

How do I improve lead quality without reducing volume?

Tighten your targeting (geographic, company size, job title), improve your landing page messaging to attract the right audience and repel the wrong one, and add a qualifying question to your lead form (e.g. 'What is your monthly marketing budget?').

Keep exploring

About New Rebellion

New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.

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