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# Leads, prospects and opportunities

🤯 In the sales world, there's a lot of jargon that can cause confusion!

Among these terms are *leads, prospects*, and *opportunities*. In essence, they're just terms we use to refer to our buyer as they move through stages of the sales funnel:

- Leads sit at the top of the funnel
- Prospects in the middle of the funnel
- Opportunities in the bottom of the funnel
- Customers are clients that made a purchase


Once again, the exact terminology will vary depending on the company and industry. Some companies keep it as simple as these three terms, others have many more terminologies.
 
## How do I know if a potential buyer is one or the other?

Here's an easy way to remember:
::: info
- Leads – People you’ve never talked to before, names off a list, referrals, or people who’ve contacted you.
- Prospect – A lead who said yes! They’re interested in hearing more about what you have to say.
- Opportunity – A prospect is someone who meets your qualifying criteria, and is interested in considering your solution and hearing your sales pitch or demo.
- Customer - They purchased your solution
:::

From this basic differentiation, companies might choose to further break down each stage (see example in the image below).

We won't get deeper into more complex categorizations as, for now, this is all you need to know!


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