LeadManagement

Lead management is a set of processes used by organizations to capture, track, qualify, and manage potential customers—from initial contact to becoming paying customers. It aims to optimize the flow of leads through the sales funnel, align marketing and sales, and improve conversion rates.

A lead typically passes through stages such as capture, qualification, routing, nurturing, and conversion. Captured leads may originate from website forms, events, or third-party sources. Qualification assesses fit and interest using explicit or implicit data, often supported by lead scoring. Routing assigns leads to the appropriate sales or account teams. Nurturing involves targeted communications and content to move leads closer to a purchase decision. Conversion marks the transition to a customer or to a sales-qualified opportunity.

Key components include lead capture tools, qualification criteria and scoring models, routing rules, nurturing campaigns, data management, and analytics. Technology often includes customer relationship management (CRM) systems and marketing automation platforms, which integrate with data sources and analytics to provide a unified view of lead activity and outcomes.

Common metrics track effectiveness, such as lead conversion rate, lead velocity, cost per lead, and pipeline contribution. Service level agreements between marketing and sales define expectations for response times and handoffs. Data governance and privacy compliance (eg, GDPR, CCPA) govern consent, retention, and usage.

Best practices emphasize alignment between marketing and sales, clear lead definitions, robust data quality, scalable scoring and nurturing, and continuous measurement and optimization.