Terms in the model

A role for identifying, validating and qualifying new business opportunities. It works on the basis of learning and feedback, likewise without responsibility for closing or for turnover.

→ Phase 6 · Roles

The Ideal Customer Profile describes the clearly delimited group of target customers for whom a product or offer is demonstrably relevant, deliverable and commercially sensible. It is not a marketing target group and not a wish list, but a basis for decisions in product, Marketing, Sales Development and Sales.

→ Phase 1

A lead is a known contact or a company that has been identified but not yet qualified. It can come from marketing, sales or other sources. A lead says nothing yet about need or intention to buy.

→ Phase 5

An opportunity that was not closed, either through a decision against the offer or because no decision was made. These cases are not a failure but a central source of learning for phase 9.

→ Phase 7

Marketing material is not a step in its own right but a necessary artefact for making an offer visible, explainable and sellable, for example a website, pitch, one-pager, case examples or content. Without marketing material an offer is sellable in theory, but hardly scalable in practice.

→ Phase 3

An MQL is a contact or a company that, from the point of view of Marketing, fits the target group in principle and has shown demonstrable interest in the offer. An MQL is not a sales lead, not an opportunity and not an intention to buy, but marks the handover point from Marketing to Sales Development: this is where the responsibility of Marketing ends and qualification in phase 6 begins.

→ Phase 5

The offer is the product made sellable for the market. In addition to the service itself, it comprises clearly defined target customers (ICP), a value proposition, use cases, pricing model and scope, and a logic of argument and decision. A product only becomes sellable through the offer.

→ Phase 3

An opportunity is a qualified sales opportunity that Sales actively manages. It is based on an SQL or, for existing customers, on potential handed over by Customer Success that Sales has confirmed. It is in the structured process of decision and negotiation. It is not yet turnover, but a possible decision.

→ Phase 7

The product is the subject-matter solution to a customer problem (a piece of work, a method, a piece of software or a service), regardless of whether it has already been described in a way that is fit for the market. It answers the question: “Can we solve the problem?” The focus is on service, method, result and feasibility. The view is directed inwards.

→ Phase 2

Responsibility assignment sets out for each phase who is accountable for the result, who drives the work, who is consulted for their expertise and who is informed. In each phase, exactly one function is accountable for the result; it has overall responsibility. If that function is not filled separately, executive management takes on overall responsibility in its place rather than alongside it. The assignment governs responsibility in the process, not hierarchy or positions.

→ Overview, "Responsibility and expectations"

A role for the systematic qualification of leads and the preparation of sales opportunities. It carries no responsibility for closing or for turnover.

→ Phase 6 · Roles

An SQL is a lead that Sales Development has qualified and for which active involvement of the sales team makes sense in substance. It is not a guarantee of a close, but a deliberate handover decision. The SQL marks the transition from qualification to active selling: it defines where the time of the sales team begins.

→ Phase 6

Won refers to a sales opportunity for which a binding contract has been concluded and the turnover can be realised. Won marks the transition from Sales (phase 7) to Delivery and Customer Success (phase 8).

→ Phase 7