Lead

Lead is a person or company that has shown interest in what you offer and left a way to contact them — email, phone, form, chat — so you can follow up.

Not every visitor is a lead. Someone who only browses isn’t one yet; someone who downloads a guide, requests a quote, or fills a contact form usually is. Leads sit in the middle of the funnel: warmer than anonymous traffic, not yet a closed sale. A CRM stores them, tracks status, and helps the team avoid lost follow-ups. A focused landing page with a clear CTA is a common way to capture them.

A real-life example of a lead

A bakery visitor bookmarks the site: not a lead. The same person leaves their WhatsApp for a catering quote: that’s a lead. The next step is a conversation — not stuffing them into a spam list. Quality matters more than volume: a short list of serious inquiries often beats a thousand cold emails.