When does a prospect become a lead in B2B

A prospect becomes a lead when a known identity at an ICP-matched account logs a qualifying intent action, a demo request, pricing page form, or security review, with required fields complete (email, company, role, timestamp, owner). A prospect is an account you suspect could fit; a lead is when they raise their hand and you can identify them. Operationally, that means updating Salesforce Lead Status to Qualified, assigning an SDR or AE, and triggering the response-time SLA, documented, enforced, and reportable. Tools can label it, but only your SLA defines it; otherwise it's not a definition, it's a dropdown, and your forecast is theater.

Next step: Use our marketing-to-sales handoff guide to document the trigger, required fields, and SLA language so your MQL-to-SQL reporting is defensible.