LEXICON
PROSPECTION
Prospect
A lead is not a prospect, but a prospect is a lead: that’s the subtlety of the term. Indeed, a prospect is a lead that has been qualified and represents a real business opportunity. Unlike a lead, which is only a lead, a prospect is a potential customer of the company. To further differentiate prospects, we will talk about heat during the qualification phase.
A prospect is defined as a potential customer of the company. The prospecting action consists of contacting individuals or legal entities who are not yet customers but who have the potential to become so. In some cases, prospects are considered to be entities that have expressed an interest in the solutions proposed by the company. This is referred to as a hot prospect, cold prospect or lead in B2B. In order to know how warm a prospect is, it is obviously necessary to go through a prospect qualification phase. We sometimes distinguish between prospects and suspects.
How do you go from lead to prospect? A user arrives on the GetQuanty website and fills out the DEMO request form because he is interested in the solution. At this stage, he is a lead. After that, the sales team contacts the lead and sets up a qualification process. After the qualification phase, the lead becomes a prospect or off-target. Next step: the sales team will define if it is a hot lead, if not, they will put this lead into a lead nurturing process in order to make it mature.
Prospecting
Prospecting, historically represented by 2 main techniques, is nowadays distinguished by 2 types: commercial prospecting and marketing prospecting. Mainly based around the identification and contact of potential customers, prospecting is an indispensable practice in companies.
Historically, the two most used prospecting techniques have been telephone prospecting and direct mail marketing – through unaddressed mailings for example. The digital transformation of the 2000’s has allowed the emergence of new practices in the world of prospecting. Prospecting represents all actions aimed at identifying and contacting potential customers – prospects – and then transforming them into real customers.
Indeed, new techniques close to advertising or direct marketing have appeared such as commercial links on keywords revealing interest which allow to address hot prospects. For more information on the warmth of prospects.
Today, there are two types of prospecting: marketing prospecting and sales prospecting. Two types of prospecting that should not be confused, while marketing prospecting remains on the sidelines, sales prospecting has direct contact with prospects.