What is the difference?

Leads vs Contacts

Leads

Contacts

What is it?

A Lead is an individual who has shown an interest in your product or service. Leads do not have to be qualified, meaning there is no consideration yet of need, timeline, budget, or decision-making ability. The acquisition of Leads is generally categorized as either being inbound (considered warm) or outbound (considered cold).

Contacts are individual people that your business has an identified, ongoing relationship with, typically stored in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and often associated with an account or company. In CRMs such as HubSpot and Salesforce, Contacts usually represent people who have been qualified beyond an initial expression of interest and may be associated with opportunities, customers, or former customers. Depending on your CRM configuration, Leads may exist separately or be converted into Contacts once qualification criteria are met.