[GTM glossary](/glossary.md) Prospect Sales Development & Prospecting # Prospect In short A prospect is a potential customer who matches your ideal customer profile and is a candidate for outreach. A prospect may know nothing about you yet, or may have just started engaging. Prospect is an earlier stage than lead or opportunity in many teams' definitions. A prospect becomes a qualified lead once they show interest and meet criteria for need, authority, and timing, though exact terms vary by company. ## Prospect vs. lead vs. opportunity * **Prospect:** Fits your profile and has been identified, but may not have engaged. * **Lead:** Has shown some interest or been qualified in a way your team defines. * **Opportunity:** A qualified deal with a real need, budget, and timeline in your pipeline. --- ## How to identify good prospects ### Start with your ICP Define the industries, sizes, and traits of your best customers, then build lists that match. ### Map the buying group Within each target company, find the roles that influence or decide the purchase, not just one contact. ### Check timing signals Hiring, funding, and leadership changes suggest an account may be ready to talk. --- ## How to work a prospect Research the account, choose a relevant angle, and reach out across several channels. Log each touch in your CRM and move the prospect to a lead or disqualified status once you learn enough. Say a rep owns 200 prospects; they should rank them by fit and signals so the best 30 get the most attention. The numbers are an illustration only. --- ## Common mistakes * **Treating everyone as a prospect:** Without fit criteria, outreach spreads thin. * **Stale data:** Prospects who changed jobs waste touches. * **One contact per account:** A single point of contact stalls when that person goes quiet. * **No exit rule:** Set when to stop outreach or move a prospect to nurture. --- ## Prospect FAQs **What is a prospect in sales?** A prospect in sales is a potential customer who fits your target profile and has been identified for outreach. They may not yet know your company or have shown interest, so they are an earlier stage than a qualified lead or opportunity. **What is the difference between a prospect and a lead?** A prospect is someone you have identified as a good fit. A lead has typically shown interest or met qualification criteria, such as responding or downloading content. Definitions vary between companies, so teams should document where the line sits. **How do you find prospects for B2B sales?** Define your ideal customer profile, build lists of matching companies, identify the right roles inside them, and verify contact data. Add timing signals like hiring or funding to prioritize who to contact first. **When does a prospect become a qualified lead?** When they show interest and meet your agreed criteria, such as a relevant need, authority to buy, and a plausible timeline. Many teams formalize this with a handoff rule between prospecting and sales roles. Share term --- ## More related phrases * [Lead list](/glossary/lead-list.md) * [List building](/glossary/list-building.md) * [Sales lead](/glossary/sales-lead.md) ## Similar phrases * [Prospecting](/glossary/prospecting.md) Prospecting is the work of finding and reaching out to potential customers to start sales conversations, from building lists to booking the first meeting. * [Sales prospecting](/glossary/sales-prospecting.md) Sales prospecting is the process of identifying and contacting potential buyers to start conversations that could turn into qualified sales opportunities. * [Qualified lead](/glossary/qualified-lead.md) A qualified lead is a prospect that has been assessed against set criteria and judged a good fit with real potential to buy, so sales should pursue it. * [Lead qualification](/glossary/lead-qualification.md) Lead qualification is the step where you decide whether a lead fits and is ready enough for sales to pursue, so reps focus on the right prospects. * [Ideal customer profile (ICP)](/glossary/ideal-customer-profile.md) An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from your product and brings you the most revenue.