This is the stage when an anonymous lead becomes known by registering with a name and an email address (that’s it!) They’ve now signed up to receive updates from Marketo. Most of Marketo’s website content is open and free to read without having to register. Only certain premium content and research papers require a prospect to fill out a registration form. People hesitate to register even for free content when they first find you, before they get to know you even a little bit. Even when they begin asking for someone’s information, Marketo has a neat capability of “progressive profiling”: instead of asking someone to fill out a big long form (reducing conversion rates), Marketo can ask for information bit by bit as someone registers for different pieces of content. This makes it easier for a prospect to trust the company in small steps while the company continues to learn more about the prospect. The first time a prospect registers, they might be asked to share only their name and email address. The next time the prospect downloads a new piece of content, the forms are pre-filled and can ask for additional information such as title and company. Stage 3. “Prospect” Now we’re getting into an area where language is critical. The definitions of “Prospect” vs. “Lead” are especially important to prevent confusion across sales and marketing. Marketo differentiates “prospects” (colder) from “leads” (warmer). Why: it is highly inefficient to evenly spread sales’ time across all leads. Marketo wants to prioritize where its sales team spends its time on lead follow up. They tell them apart by the “lead score,” which rates how hot or not someone is, on a scale of 1 to 100. Potential buyers with fewer than 65 points are called “prospects”; potential buyers with more than 65 points are called “leads” — the higher the number of points, the hotter the lead. To wrap up this section on “Prospects”, let’s get into the lead scoring details. How Marketo Uses Lead Scoring To Prioritize Leads