The Difference Between Leads and Revenue (Most Teams Confuse This)

The modern B2B marketing and sales funnel is a mess of acronyms: MQL, SQL, PQL, SAL. We’ve created complex lead scoring models and multi-stage qualification processes, all in the name of efficiency. But in doing so, we've lost sight of the only metric that actually matters: revenue. Your business does not run on "Marketing Qualified Leads." It runs on cash. And the gap between a "lead" and a dollar in the bank is where most GTM strategies die.

A visual metaphor showing the difference between a pile of leads and actual revenue.

The Great Divide: Marketing vs. Sales

The problem starts with a fundamental misalignment between marketing and sales. Marketing is incentivized to generate a high volume of MQLs. Sales is incentivized to close deals. When marketing hits their MQL target but sales misses their revenue target, the finger-pointing begins.

• Marketing says: "We delivered the leads. Sales isn't closing them."
• Sales says: "The leads are junk. They're not qualified."

Both can be right. The issue is that the definition of a "lead" is subjective and disconnected from the only objective truth: a signed contract.

Why Your Lead Scoring Model is Probably Lying to You

Lead scoring feels scientific. You assign points for a title, company size, a webinar view, a whitepaper download. But it's a house of cards built on assumptions.

• It confuses activity with intent. Someone who downloaded three of your whitepapers might be a student doing research, not a C-level executive with budget.
• It's a lagging indicator. It scores prospects based on what they have done, not what they are about to do.
• It's easily gamed. A competitor can trigger your entire lead scoring model in an afternoon, creating a flood of "hot" leads that are completely worthless.

A high lead score is not a signal of buying intent. It's a signal of engagement, and the two are not the same thing.

A Simpler, Better Model: Pipeline Sourced

It's time to kill the MQL. Instead, there should be only one top-of-funnel metric that both marketing and sales are measured on: Pipeline Sourced.

This means a lead is not considered "qualified" until a sales rep has spoken to them and formally converted them into a stage-one opportunity in the CRM, with an estimated close date and deal value. This single change forces alignment and accountability.

What This Changes:

• Marketing's Job: Marketing is no longer responsible for generating a high volume of low-quality "leads." Their new job is to generate a high volume of "first meetings" for the sales team with prospects who fit the ICP. Their success is measured by the pipeline value that originates from their campaigns.
• Sales's Job: Sales is responsible for converting those first meetings into qualified pipeline. They have the power to accept or reject a lead based on a real conversation, not an arbitrary score.

From Leads to Revenue Operations

This shift in metrics is the first step towards a true Revenue Operations (RevOps) mindset. In a RevOps model, marketing, sales, and customer success are not separate departments with separate goals. They are a single, integrated team responsible for the entire customer lifecycle, measured by a single, overarching metric: revenue.

Stop talking about leads. Start talking about pipeline sourced, average deal size, sales cycle length, and close rate. These are the numbers that dictate the health of your business. Everything else is just noise. If a marketing activity doesn't contribute to one of these core revenue metrics, you should stop doing it.