CRM glossary — I to Q

<p>An <strong>ICP</strong> is a description of the type of company that gets the most value from your product — industry, size, geography, tech stack, growth stage, and pain. Where a <a href="#buyer-persona">buyer persona</a> profiles a person, the ICP profiles the company. A tight ICP improves <a href="#conversion-rate">conversion rate</a>, <a href="#sales-velocity">sales velocity</a>, and retention; a loose one wastes sales capacity on accounts that churn six months in.</p>

<p>A <strong>lead</strong> is an unqualified prospect — someone who has expressed early interest (filled a form, downloaded an asset, attended a webinar) but hasn't been validated as a real buying opportunity yet. Leads sit upstream of <a href="#contact">contacts</a> and <a href="#deal">deals</a> in most CRM data models. The lead-to-customer journey is usually: lead → <a href="#mql">MQL</a> → <a href="#sql">SQL</a> → deal → customer.</p>

<p><strong>Lead scoring</strong> assigns a numeric score to each <a href="#lead">lead</a> based on fit (does this lead match the <a href="#icp">ICP</a>?) and engagement (have they opened emails, visited pricing, requested a demo?). Once a lead crosses a threshold — say, 75 points — it's automatically promoted to <a href="#mql">MQL</a> and routed to sales. Good scoring models combine demographic firmographics with behavioral signals and decay points over time so cold leads cool off.</p>

<p><strong>Lead source</strong> is the channel or campaign that generated a <a href="#lead">lead</a> — organic search, paid ads, webinar, partner referral, cold outbound. Tracking lead source by <a href="#conversion-rate">conversion rate</a> and <a href="#cac">CAC</a> tells you which channels actually produce revenue versus which produce volume. Most CRMs capture lead source on creation and preserve it through the lifecycle for closed-loop attribution.</p>

<p><strong>LTV</strong> (Lifetime Value, sometimes CLV or CLTV) is the total gross profit a single customer is expected to generate before they churn. For a subscription business, a common shorthand is <code>ARPU / monthly churn rate</code>. The LTV-to-<a href="#cac">CAC</a> ratio (target 3:1 or higher) is the headline efficiency metric for venture-backed SaaS.</p>

<p>An <strong>MQL</strong> is a <a href="#lead">lead</a> that marketing has scored high enough — through <a href="#lead-scoring">lead scoring</a>, behavior, or demographic fit — to be worth a sales rep's time. MQLs aren't yet validated buyers; they're hand-raisers who match the <a href="#icp">ICP</a>. Sales then qualifies the MQL through discovery; if it passes, it becomes an <a href="#sql">SQL</a>.</p>

<p>A <strong>pipeline</strong> is the ordered set of <a href="#stage">stages</a> a <a href="#deal">deal</a> moves through from first conversation to closed-won (or closed-lost). A typical B2B SaaS pipeline has 5 to 7 stages: Discovery → Demo → Proposal → Negotiation → Closed. Pipeline value (sum of all open deals) and pipeline coverage (pipeline ÷ <a href="#quota">quota</a>) are the two metrics revenue leaders track weekly.</p>

<p>A <strong>PQL</strong> is a <a href="#lead">lead</a> who has used your product (typically in a free trial or freemium tier) in a way that signals buying intent — invited teammates, hit a usage limit, integrated with their stack. PQLs are a product-led growth (PLG) concept and tend to convert at 5 to 10× the rate of <a href="#mql">MQLs</a> because the qualification signal is behavior, not just intent. Tonic Desk's free tier is built to surface PQLs naturally.</p>

<p>A <strong>quota</strong> is the revenue target assigned to a sales rep, team, or segment over a period — usually a quarter or year. Quotas drive forecasting math (pipeline coverage = open pipeline ÷ quota) and compensation (commission triggers at, above, or below quota). A common rule of thumb: a healthy rep carries pipeline coverage of 3× to 4× their quarterly quota.</p>