Definition

Potential customers who've shown interest by providing contact info—basically everyone who isn't ignoring you yet.

Example Usage

We generated 1,500 leads from the webinar, but only 15% are actually qualified.

Origin

Sales terminology, fundamental to sales process

Fun Fact

Most companies generate leads but convert less than 5% into customers

Source: Sales and marketing terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

Customer Journey

A euphemism for the tortuous path a person takes from not knowing your product exists to finally buying it out of sheer exhaustion. Marketers map it out like it's the Oregon Trail, except instead of dysentery, customers die of pop-up fatigue.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Beginner

pay per click

An advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, commonly used in search engine marketing. Abbreviated PPC, it's a system where you literally pay for attention one click at a time.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Beginner

deck monkey

A junior marketer whose primary job is creating endless PowerPoint presentations for meetings that may never happen. The modern equivalent of a Victorian-era scribe.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Beginner

media

The plural of medium; the collection of channels and platforms through which brands scream into the void hoping someone—anyone—is listening. Includes TV, radio, digital, and that one influencer your nephew follows.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

Segmentation

The practice of dividing your audience into groups based on shared characteristics so you can send them slightly different versions of the same spam. It makes marketers feel like scientists even though most segments end up being "people who bought stuff" and "people who didn't."

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

Persona

A fictional character representing your ideal customer, complete with a stock photo name and backstory more detailed than most Netflix characters. Marketing teams create them to feel like they understand their audience, then ignore them completely when making actual decisions.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Translate This Term

See “Leads” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on XShare on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

sequential messaging

Delivering ads in a specific order to tell a story or build a narrative over time. Because apparently one interruption i...