Discover folk - the CRM for people-powered businesses
Generating sales leads is the lifeblood of any growing business.
If you're a startup founder, solopreneur, or part of a lean sales team, mastering how to find, qualify, and manage leads isn’t optional—it’s survival.
This guide covers everything you need to know—from definitions to tools—to help you build a predictable, scalable pipeline.
What Are Leads in Sales?
👉 A sales lead is any individual or organization that has shown interest in your product or service. Leads typically enter your funnel through marketing campaigns, referrals, signups, or outreach.
Not all leads are created equal, and not all will convert. That’s why understanding lead types and how to manage them is crucial.
Different Types of Leads
- Cold leads: No prior contact or interest. Often sourced via list building or scraped databases. Require nurturing to convert.
- Warm leads: Some engagement, like visiting your site or downloading a resource. Show buying signals but aren’t ready yet.
- Hot leads: Ready to buy; they’ve requested a demo or spoken to sales. These are high-priority.
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): Identified by marketing as engaged and fitting the ICP, but not yet sales-ready.
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): Passed to sales after vetting. Meets key criteria for a sales conversation.
How to Generate Leads in Sales
Lead generation isn’t just about collecting emails. It’s about targeting the right people, at the right time, with the right message.
Strategies to Manage Leads in Sales
1. Lead Segmentation
Segmentation allows for better targeting and messaging. Group your leads based on:
- Firmographics: Industry, company size, location
- Behavioral data: Pages visited, resources downloaded, time on site
- Source: Cold outreach, referral, paid ad, organic search
- Lifecycle stage: New lead, MQL, SQL, customer
Why it matters: Segmentation boosts engagement and conversion rates by ensuring relevance.
2. Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing helps you stay top-of-mind until a lead is ready to buy.
Tactics include:
- Email drip campaigns tailored to lead interests
- Retargeting ads to re-engage visitors
- Live chat or chatbot follow-ups after site visits
- Personalized content: blog posts, case studies, webinars
Consistency is key. Leads often need 6–8 touchpoints before converting.
3. Lead Qualification
Lead qualification helps your sales team focus on high-value opportunities.
Use models like:
- BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)
- CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization)
- MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, etc.)
You can qualify manually through discovery calls or automatically using lead scoring tools in your CRM.
8 Best Lead Generation and Management Tools
1. folk CRM
folk is an all-in-one CRM purpose-built for modern teams. Unlike traditional CRMs, folk combines lead sourcing and contact management into one intuitive interface.
✔️ Pros
- Find leads from LinkedIn, Gmail, and more
- Smart segmentation and tagging
- Clean UI built for collaboration and outreach
- Perfect for solopreneurs and small teams
❌ Cons
- Still growing its integrations ecosystem
Pricing: Starts at $20/month with a 14-day free trial
2. Apollo
Apollo offers a robust B2B lead database with over 250 million contacts. You can build lists, qualify leads, and launch sequences—all in one platform.
✔️ Pros
- Extensive filtering for list building
- Built-in outreach automation (calls, emails)
- Enrichment features and Chrome extension
❌ Cons
- Steeper learning curve
- Interface can feel dense for beginners
Pricing: Starts at $39/month with limited free plan
3. Hunter.io
Hunter helps you find professional email addresses from domains, LinkedIn, or names. It’s ideal for verifying and enriching contact lists.
✔️ Pros
- Excellent email deliverability tools
- Bulk domain search available
- Trusted by outreach professionals
❌ Cons
- No CRM features
- Limited automation
Pricing: Freemium plan available. Paid plans from $49/month
4. Lemlist
Lemlist is built for personalized cold outreach with advanced automation. You can create dynamic email campaigns using images and videos.
✔️ Pros
- Smart personalization at scale
- Powerful analytics
- Deliverability booster features
❌ Cons
- UI not as intuitive as competitors
- Can get expensive for larger teams
Pricing: Starts at $59/month
5. Clay
Clay is a data enrichment and automation tool used to build powerful workflows. It connects with dozens of APIs to enrich and sort lead data.
✔️ Pros
- Highly customizable workflows
- Automates lead scoring and research
- Time-saver for data-heavy teams
❌ Cons
- Advanced features require setup time
- High starting price
Pricing: Starts at $149/month
6. Instantly.ai
Instantly.ai is built for sending high-volume cold emails while keeping deliverability strong. Great for agencies and SDR teams.
✔️ Pros
- Send from multiple accounts
- Smart rotation to avoid spam
- Clean analytics dashboard
❌ Cons
- Limited integrations
- No built-in database
Pricing: Starts at $37/month
7. Wiza
Wiza lets you export verified emails from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It's a fast way to turn LinkedIn browsing into actionable lead lists.
✔️ Pros
- Chrome extension works seamlessly with LinkedIn
- Fast and accurate contact info export
- Includes email verification
❌ Cons
- Limited to LinkedIn data
- No native outreach or CRM tools
Pricing: Starts at $50/month
8. Kaspr
Kaspr is a simple Chrome extension that reveals phone numbers and emails while browsing LinkedIn profiles. Useful for quick outreach.
✔️ Pros
- One-click enrichment
- Great for SDRs and recruiters
- Includes basic lead management dashboard
❌ Cons
- Browser-based only
- No deep analytics or automation
Pricing: Starts at $49/month
FAQ
What’s the difference between a lead and a prospect?
A lead is someone who has shown initial interest. A prospect is a vetted lead who matches your ideal customer profile and has a higher likelihood of converting.
How do I qualify a sales lead?
Use frameworks like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) or lead scoring to determine whether a lead is worth pursuing. Your CRM can automate part of this.
What’s the best tool for managing leads?
If you’re looking for both lead generation and CRM, Folk CRM is your best bet. It helps you find, segment, and convert leads all in one place.
Looking to turn more leads into customers? Try folk CRM and simplify your workflow. 🚀
Discover folk CRM - Like the sales assistant your team never had