A CRM (customer relationship management) sales software that is essentially a funnel that shows how prospects move from initial interest i.e. contacting a business via a contact form submission to a closed deal/sale/signed contract. A CRM will map each stage of the customer journey – from first point of contact through qualification and negotiation to conversion; so, businesses can track, organize, and move deals forward. For small and medium businesses (SMB’s), having customer data in a CRM is vital. CRM’s allow businesses to visualize the entire pipeline in one place, letting anyone in the business see which leads are in early vs. late stages and what marketing tactics are producing excellent quality leads.
What is your lead quality like from your marketing campaigns?
We often hear from clients at the beginning stages of an engagement that they are unhappy with the quality of the leads they are receiving from their marketing efforts and most often from Paid Search campaigns. Having the visibility of your leads by source & medium and campaign i.e. Google CPC +campaign name, Google Organic starts to make an enormous difference when developing strategies and tactics that a business is going to deploy.
How many Marketing Qualified Leads, Sales Qualified Leads, Opportunities and closed deals are your marketing campaigns generating each month?
Crucial to structured lead management is proper lead qualification. A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect deemed ready for sales engagement – typically based on engagement (web visits, downloads, emails opened, etc.). HubSpot defines an MQL as “a contact or company that your marketing team has qualified as ready for the sales team” For example, a visitor who repeatedly downloads whitepapers and requests pricing might automatically become an MQL in HubSpot. By tracking each lead’s web and email interactions, HubSpot’s marketing tools and lead scoring automatically tag which contacts become MQLs.
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is further down the funnel. It’s a lead that the sales team has vetted and decided is a potential customer. In HubSpot’s terms: an SQL is “a contact or company that your sales team has qualified as a potential customer” This often involves determining budget, authority, need, and timeline. For instance, once an MQL shows clear intent (such as requesting a demo),
By marking MQL and SQL stages in the CRM, HubSpot ensures marketing and sales stay aligned. Contacts moving from MQL to SQL stage become visible deals. Every MQL or SQL change is logged, and teams can run reports on lead conversion rates.
Opportunities (Deals) and Conversion
An Opportunity is simply a qualified lead attached to a pending deal. In HubSpot’s lifecycle model, an opportunity is “a contact or company that is associated with a deal” Once an SQL has an open negotiation (with a price and expected close date), it becomes a deal/opportunity in the pipeline. HubSpot lets you record the deal’s value, expected close date, and probability. Each opportunity moves through the same pipeline stages as other deals.
A CRM like HubSpot, turns these opportunities into predictable revenue. For example, managers can view all open deals in the dashboard, grouped by stage or rep, and see total pipeline value. Built-in sales reports (with dozens of pre-built templates) let you track deal forecasts, prospecting, and sales activities. This gives full visibility: you can filter opportunities by region, product, or owner, and watch the leads move through the funnel until thy are won or lost. The system also highlights risks: if a deal has stalled in one stage, that shows immediately on the dashboard. By centralizing deals, HubSpot ensures SMBs can reliably prioritize high-value opportunities and project future revenue.
An Opportunity is simply a qualified lead attached to a pending deal. In HubSpot’s lifecycle model, an opportunity is “a contact or company that is associated with a deal” Once an SQL has an open negotiation (with a price and expected close date), it becomes a deal/opportunity in the pipeline. HubSpot lets you record the deal’s value, expected close date, and probability. Each opportunity moves through the same pipeline stages as other deals.
A CRM like HubSpot, turns these opportunities into predictable revenue. For example, managers can view all open deals in the dashboard, grouped by stage or rep, and see total pipeline value. Built-in sales reports (with dozens of pre-built templates) let you track deal forecasts, prospecting, and sales activities. This gives full visibility: you can filter opportunities by region, product, or owner, and watch the leads move through the funnel until thy are won or lost. The system also highlights risks: if a deal has stalled in one stage, that shows immediately on the dashboard. By centralizing deals, HubSpot ensures SMBs can reliably prioritize high-value opportunities and project future revenue.
About the Author: Craig Ellis
