CRM terminology is a shared vocabulary for sales records. A lead is an unqualified enquiry. A contact is a person. An account is the organisation that person belongs to. An opportunity is a specific deal with that account. Activities are the calls, meetings, and tasks hanging off those records. The pipeline is the ordered set of stages an opportunity moves through.
If those words are used loosely, reports lie. “We have 200 customers” might mean 200 leads, 200 contacts, or 200 accounts.
The records, one by one
Lead. Someone has shown interest, but you do not yet know whether they are a real buying account. A web form, a walk-in, or a WhatsApp message often starts as a lead. The lead has a source, an owner, and a status such as new, working, qualified, or disqualified.
Contact. A named person with a phone number, email, and role. One account can have many contacts: the buyer, the technical approver, and the person who pays.
Account. The company or household you sell to. In B2B work this is usually the registered organisation. Branches sometimes need their own account when credit terms or delivery addresses differ. Write that rule down before import.
Opportunity. One possible sale: a product mix, an expected amount, a close date, and a stage. An account can have several open opportunities at once. Do not collapse every future conversation into a single never-ending opportunity, or win-rate reports become meaningless.
Activity. A logged call, email, meeting, or task. Activities explain what happened. They are not a substitute for the opportunity stage.
Pipeline. The path of stages from first qualified deal to won or lost. Stage design is covered in how to design sales pipeline stages.
How a lead becomes the other records
Qualification is the decision that a lead is worth pursuing as a real account. On conversion, teams usually:
- create or match an account
- create or match a contact
- open an opportunity
- keep the original lead source on the new records
Disqualified leads stay as leads, with a reason. Deleting them removes the evidence you need when the same person enquires again.
From enquiry to open deal
- Enquiry arrives and is stored as a lead
- Owner checks fit and contact details
- Qualified lead converts to account and contact
- An opportunity opens at the first pipeline stage
- Later activities attach to the opportunity
A practical example
A clinic group receives a web form from a procurement officer. That row is a lead. After a call, the team matches the clinic organisation as the account and the officer as a contact whose role is procurement. The opportunity is this year’s uniform supply, with an amount and the stage “quotation.” A site visit next Tuesday is an activity on that opportunity, not a new lead. When a finance manager joins the approval, that person is a second contact on the same account, not a second company.
Naming rules that prevent mess
- One organisation, one account, unless you have a written exception for branches.
- People are contacts, even when they are the only buyer at a sole proprietorship.
- A new product discussion is a new opportunity, not a rewrite of a closed one.
- “Customer” in conversation may mean account. In the CRM, pick the field name and keep it.
Duplicate people and companies are a separate problem. See how to identify and merge duplicate CRM records.
Key takeaways
- Lead = unqualified interest. Account = organisation. Contact = person. Opportunity = one deal.
- Convert leads; do not keep working qualified business on the lead forever.
- Activities document work. Stages describe the deal.
- Agree the words before you train the team, or every report will need a footnote.
FAQ
Is a customer an account or a contact?
In B2B CRMs, the customer organisation is the account. People at that organisation are contacts. A one-person business can still have both records so later staff do not invent a second company.
Can we skip leads and create opportunities directly?
Yes, when a known account asks for a new quote. Leads are for interest that is not yet tied to an account you trust.
What is a pipeline versus a forecast?
The pipeline is the list of open opportunities and their stages. A forecast is an interpretation of that list, often weighted by probability. Forecasting is covered separately in how CRM sales forecasting works.