Lead Lifecycle

Lead lifecycle stages are a method to monitor a potential customer's journey through your sales funnel. They enable you to pinpoint where leads are in the purchasing process and what steps are needed to advance them to the next stage.

There are many different ways to define lead lifecycle stages, but the following are some common examples:

• Marketing lead: Any contact in your system, whether they have engaged with your content or not.

• Marketing engaged lead: This is a lead that has interacted with your content in some way, such as downloading a white paper, listening to a podcast, or watching a video.

• Marketing qualified lead: These leads are highly interested and have expressed a readiness to engage with sales.

• Sales accepted lead: This is when a salesperson formally acknowledges the lead, often by scheduling a meeting.

• Sales qualified lead: This is the most critical phase in the lead lifecycle. Here, a salesperson has stepped up, had that first meeting, and has opened an opportunity because the customer is keen to keep the conversation going.

Entry Criteria

The entry criteria for each lead lifecycle stage will vary depending on your business and sales process. However, here are some general guidelines:

• Marketing lead: There are two main ways to qualify a lead as a marketing lead:

• Action-based criteria: This is when a lead takes a specific action, such as downloading a white paper or registering for a webinar.

• Scoring model: A more intricate approach that considers various factors like website activity, content engagement, and firmographics to qualify leads.

• Marketing engaged lead: These are the leads that have interacted with your content, for example, by downloading a white paper, watching a video, or attending a webinar.

• Marketing qualified lead: These leads have shown a more serious level of interest, perhaps by requesting a demo, signing up for a free trial, or directly contacting your sales team.

• Sales accepted lead: Leads that have been accepted by a salesperson and are now being actively worked.

• Sales qualified lead: These are the leads that your sales team has deemed a good fit for your product or service and are ready to move to the next stage of the sales process.

The lead lifecycle stages are a powerful resource for sales pipeline management and lead progress tracking. By grasping the nuances of each stage and their respective entry criteria, a more effective sales and marketing strategy can be developed.

Lead Stages

Stage	Description
Anonymous Visitor	Leads who have visited your website but have not provided identifiable information yet.
Lead	Any person added to your database who is not automatically identified as a non-prospect (e.g. existing customer, competitor, repeated junk, etc.).
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)	The handoff point from Marketing to Sales. It is a lead that has been automatically qualified based on ICP fit and intent-level. This is often informed by a Lead Scoring Model.
SAL (Sales Accepted Lead)	Sales has received the MQL, has not immediately disqualified it as junk, and has begun reaching out to the MQL.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)	Stage 0 opportunity. A discovery call or product demonstration has been scheduled between the prospect and a sales rep.