The Difference Between Leads and Revenue (Most Teams Confuse This)

For GTM leaders, clarifying the difference between leads and revenue is the first step toward operational alignment. Your business does not run on "Marketing Qualified Leads" (MQLs); it runs on revenue. The gap between a "lead" and a dollar in the bank is where most strategies die.

The Great Divide: Why Marketing and Sales Clash

The problem starts with a fundamental misalignment between marketing and sales. Marketing is often incentivized to generate volume, while Sales is incentivized to close deals. This creates a blame culture when revenue targets are missed.

A lead is not considered "qualified" until a sales rep has spoken to them and formally converted them into a stage-one opportunity in the CRM.

Why Lead Scoring Models Often Fail

Lead scoring often confuses activity with intent. Someone downloading a whitepaper might be a student, not a C-level executive with a budget. A high lead score is often just a signal of engagement, not a signal of buying intent.

A Simpler Model: Focus on Sourced Pipeline

It's time to kill the MQL. Instead, there should be only one top-of-funnel metric that both marketing and sales are measured on: Pipeline Sourced. This single change forces alignment and accountability, ensuring everyone is focused on the same commercial outcome.

The Takeaway: Shift to a Revenue Operations Mindset

This shift in metrics is the first step towards a true Revenue Operations (RevOps) mindset. In this model, marketing, sales, and customer success are a single, integrated team responsible for the entire customer lifecycle, measured by a single metric: revenue.