sales01

General notes on Funnel Terminology

Universe of All Datapoints

1. No industry standard term for this. One potentially universal term for every element within the combined marketing+sales funnel could be potential deal. Other synonyms:
   • Sales pipeline items
   • CRM records
   • Customer journey touchpoints
   • Sales entities
   • Conversion funnel datapoints
   • Conversion funnel elements
2. In CRM systems, these entities are often called records or objects from a tech perspective.
3. From a reporting and analytics perspective, many orgs use umbrella terms like pipeline activity or sales funnel metrics when referring collectively to all these stages.

Union of Leads/Prospects and Opportunities = All Elements in Combined Funnel

• In general, the Marketing team is responsible for Leads/Prospects. Sales is responsible for Opportunities.
• Marketing handles leads, which are exactly synonymous with prospect. However, there is not universal agreement between companies. See this SalesOdyssey link and jeff blog post.
• If we use the most universal term potential deal to refer to every single element within the funnel—even referring to all the elements that fall out as the funnel narrows—then the Union of leads and opportunities = all potential deal elements.
• Since leads are synonymous with prospect, the Union of prospects and opportunities = all potential deal elements.

More detail on Leads/Prospects

1. Leads/Prospects: This encompasses the earlier stages of the funnel, including:
   • Raw leads
   • MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)
   • SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads)
2. Opportunities: This covers the active sales process stages and outcomes, including:
   • Discovery/Needs Analysis stages
   • Demo/Presentation stages
   • Proposal/Negotiation stages
   • Closed-Won deals
   • Closed-Lost deals
3. This fundamental division corresponds to the handoff between marketing (primarily responsible for leads) and sales (primarily responsible for opportunities), though the exact point of this handoff varies by organization.

• Above info was confirmed by this dialogue with Claude

Flowbird methodology

From this Flowbird article updated May, 2024.

1. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): A lead that the marketing team has qualified as one should be advanced in the funnel towards the sales team. MQLs typically meet specific criteria, such as demonstrating interest, engaging with marketing campaigns, or meeting predefined qualification criteria. They are considered to be in the consideration stage of the lifecycle.
2. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): A MQL is promoted to a SQL if the sales team has further qualified this lead is worth investing resources in from the sales team. SQLs have typically shown strong interest, engaged in direct communication with the sales team, and meet specific criteria set by the sales department. They are considered to be in the early/middle decision stage of the lifecycle.
3. Opportunity (OPP): An Opportunity represents a potential deal or sales opportunity. It is a lead or prospect that has progressed through the marketing and sales funnel and is being actively pursued by the sales team. Opportunities have a higher chance of converting into paying customers and are in the final stages of the decision stage.

• See also the Mosiac.tech link. Acquired by HiBob
  • Lead (Awareness Stage)
  • MQL (Interest Stage)
  • SQL (Consideration/Evaluation Stage)
  • Opportunity (Evaluation/Engagement Stage)
  • Closed Deal (Action Stage)