Prospect means a person you don't know and, eventually, don't know you. For example, it is one of the several people inside a Target List you acquired somehow.
Lead means a person which is interested on something you sell.
In short words a Lead is the evolution of a Prospect at the Sales Life Cycle.
Inside SugarCRM Prospects module manage all people you don't know well and you want to apply some marketing strategy to figure out who would be interested on something you sell. Prospects module manage some fell information.
Leads module manage people which are pretty much interested on something you sell. Note that Leads module has some additional information which identify person itself and its company as well, additionally it also can manage some opportunity information. Also note that you can convert a Lead into a Contact, Account and also into an Opportunity.
In many CRM systems, and indeed in many selling systems, "a lead is a need". This may or may not be associated with a person. For example, in some selling systems you might have heard that acme Inc. is building a new plant. That could be a lead for someone to research; eventually the research turns up a person who is a contact and is connected to that lead.
In Sugar, however, a lead is a person.
I'm not saying Sugar's paradigm is right or wrong, but we need to understand how it works to use the leads module effectively.
In many CRM systems, and indeed in many selling systems, "a lead is a need". This may or may not be associated with a person. For example, in some selling systems you might have heard that acme Inc. is building a new plant. That could be a lead for someone to research; eventually the research turns up a person who is a contact and is connected to that lead.
In Sugar, however, a lead is a person.
I'm not saying Sugar's paradigm is right or wrong, but we need to understand how it works to use the leads module effectively.
