{"id":21399,"date":"2020-01-28T17:41:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T17:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/prospectus"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:18:27","slug":"prospect","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/prospect","title":{"rendered":"Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-79833 size-full alignright\" style=\"margin-top: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prospecto-en.jpg\" alt=\"Prospect\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prospecto-en.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/prospecto-en-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>prospect<\/strong> is a person or organisation that fits a company&#8217;s customer profile and has a reasonable possibility of purchasing.<\/p>\n<p>The category is assigned using qualification criteria related to fit, need, capacity and purchasing timing. These criteria depend on each organisation&#8217;s commercial process and need to be based on relevant, lawfully obtained and processed information.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Scope of the term prospect<\/h2>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/lead\">lead<\/a> is generally a contact about whom some information is available or who has shown some form of interest, but whose suitability and possibility of purchasing have not yet been confirmed. <strong>A prospect has undergone an additional assessment indicating sufficient commercial fit for the relationship to continue.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The sequence is not universal. In some processes, a lead becomes a prospect after qualification. In others, a company may identify a prospect directly through prospecting, a referral or business information before any previous interaction has taken place.<\/p>\n<p>Each organisation therefore needs to document what lead and prospect mean within its process. Replying to an email or taking part in a conversation does not by itself turn a contact into a prospect.<\/p>\n<h2>Prospect qualification<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Qualification is used to determine whether continuing a commercial process and allocating resources is appropriate.<\/strong> Possible criteria include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fit:<\/strong> Correspondence between the person or organisation and the customer profile addressed by the offering.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Need:<\/strong> The existence of a problem, objective or requirement that the product or service could address.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Role in the decision:<\/strong> The contact&#8217;s ability to decide, influence or facilitate the purchasing process.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Resources:<\/strong> The financial, technical or organisational capacity to acquire and implement the solution.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Interest and timing:<\/strong> Signals of intent and the approximate period in which a decision may be made.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These criteria do not predict a sale with certainty. They should not rely on irrelevant data, information obtained without a valid basis or factors capable of producing unjustified discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Customer relationship management systems, such as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/crm\">CRM<\/a>, can record interactions, criteria and status changes. <strong>The tool organises the information, but the category depends on the rules and checks defined by the organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Prospect management<\/h2>\n<p>Contacts may originate from search, referrals, events, content, advertising, commercial prospecting or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/landing-page\">landing pages<\/a>. These channels may generate leads or identify potential prospects, but classification requires a subsequent assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Once qualified, follow-up may include specific information, demonstrations, meetings or answers to questions. <strong>Communication needs to reflect the identified need, the stage of the process and the contact&#8217;s preferences<\/strong>, without assuming that greater frequency guarantees a purchase.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome may be progression towards a sales opportunity, postponement of the relationship or disqualification when the prospect no longer meets the established criteria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Definition: A prospect is a person or organisation that fits a company&#8217;s customer profile and has a reasonable possibility of purchasing. The category is assigned using qualification criteria related to fit, need, capacity and purchasing timing. These criteria depend on each organisation&#8217;s commercial process and need to be based on relevant, lawfully obtained and processed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79835,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1317],"class_list":["post-21399","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-lead-acquisition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}