Prospect

A prospect is a potential buyer who matches your ideal customer profile and has been identified as someone your sales team should pursue. The distinction between a prospect and a lead is important: a lead is anyone who has shown some interest or been captured in your database, while a prospect has been vetted and confirmed as a realistic potential customer.

Prospects typically meet specific criteria: they work at a company in your target market, hold a relevant title or role, and their organization has a plausible need for what you sell. Some teams add additional filters like company size, technology stack, or recent funding events to further qualify who counts as a prospect.

The quality of your prospect list directly determines the efficiency of your outbound efforts. An SDR spending time on poorly targeted prospects will burn through activity metrics without generating meaningful pipeline. Conversely, a well-researched prospect list with clear reasons to reach out produces dramatically better results.

Building a strong prospect list involves combining firmographic data (company size, industry, location), technographic data (what tools they use), and intent signals (recent behavior suggesting they are in-market). The best prospecting approaches layer multiple data sources rather than relying on a single list purchase.

A practical tip: maintain a clear prospect status in your CRM that distinguishes between untouched prospects, actively worked prospects, and disqualified prospects. Using data enrichment to keep prospect records current ensures reps always have accurate information when they pick up the phone.