What is the difference?
Leads
Contacts
A lead is an individual who has shown interest in your product or service. Leads do not need to be qualified, meaning there is no consideration yet of need, timeline, budget, or decision-making ability. Lead acquisition is generally categorized as 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.
A SaaS company tracks all new leads captured in Q1. During the quarter, 420 people filled out a contact form, 180 were added by sales reps from outbound prospecting, and 60 came through a referral program.
Leads = Count(Leads)
Leads = 420 + 180 + 60 = 660 leads
With 660 leads in the quarter, the team can now assess conversion rates, source quality, and pipeline coverage against their revenue targets.
Your company exhibits at an industry conference and collects 500 email addresses from attendees who express interest in learning more about your product. These individuals are initially captured as leads. After the event, 100 of those leads book a demo, request pricing, or have a qualifying conversation with your sales team. Those 100 individuals are now considered Contacts, as they have demonstrated clear intent and are actively engaged in your sales process.
Date created: Oct 12, 2022
Latest update: Jun 19, 2026
Date created: Oct 12, 2022
Latest update: Jun 4, 2026
